It’s a shame Nigel Farage ducked the announcement of his victory in the Clacton byelection, which confirmed his return as MP for the seat he had needlessly resigned from just a few weeks earlier. You’d have thought he would have loved it. It was the culmination of a stunt, an exercise in politics as performance.
It was a display animated by – and seeking to inflame – grievance, a million miles away from the hard, grinding work of tackling the problems that underlie those grievances. It was an attempt to deflect scrutiny, distract attention and evade responsibility. It was, in other words, everything nationalist populists like him excel at.
Reform UK said Farage stayed away because Essex police had warned of a “credible threat” to his security, a claim swiftly denied by Essex police. (Add a flexible approach to the truth to that list of nationalist populists’ talents.) Still, it was a slightly odd claim to make. Recall Farage’s favoured explanation – there are others – for the undeclared £5m gift he received from the Thailand-based crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne, which prompted the very parliamentary investigation that so riled the Reform leader he felt compelled to quit his seat and seek a preemptive not guilty verdict from the people of Clacton: namely, that he needed the money to pay for private, enhanced security. It seems £5m was not quite enough to ensure the lucky recipient would be safe standing next to a man dressed as a bin.
Unless, maybe, security was not the whole story. Farage also said he skipped the count because he didn’t want to be “demeaned and humiliated by nobodies”. If Nigel Farage is to be demeaned and humiliated, it should be by people of standing.
As it happens, he may get his wish. Now that he’s an MP again, the probe into the multiple financial questions that surround him, including over the undeclared support he received from the convicted fraudster George Cottrell, has resumed. A finding against him could necessitate yet another byelection, except this time the major parties will not repeat their boycott and he will have to do battle with opponents even more formidable than an aristocratic trash can.
Naturally, Farage regards the likes of Count Binface and Baron von Thunderclap as beneath him, perhaps because it would be painful to admit the crucial thing they all have in common. To understand what that is, look no further than the man who is both Farage’s hero and the exemplar of nationalist populism. Ten years ago, less than five months after the Brexit referendum that represents Farage’s greatest triumph, Donald Trump rode a similar wave of US discontent with the status quo and did it in a similar way – by railing against an ill-defined establishment that had ruined everything.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
