{"id":41162,"date":"2026-05-20T07:16:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T07:16:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/41162\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T07:16:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T07:16:17","slug":"farages-corrosive-project-is-already-reshaping-britain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/41162\/","title":{"rendered":"Farage\u2019s corrosive project is already reshaping Britain"},"content":{"rendered":"

In times to come, British politicians, historians and voters will try to figure out how, in the first quarter of the 21st century, Nigel Farage<\/a> became one of the most powerful operators on these isles. How did he lure and captivate so many? Why did they not question his fibs and postures?<\/p>\n

This chap was born into a wealthy family, attended a private school, was a City trader, wears fine suits, belongs to the most exclusive of London clubs, socialises with millionaires and powerful elites. But Martha, 65, a neighbour who worked for years as a shop assistant, once a Tory, now Reform, tells me: \u201cHe cares about working people. He will make this country great again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such devotion, such faith in one so unworthy. It does my head in. Farage gives off the appearance of a spiv \u2013 defined in most dictionaries as a flashy, shady dealer. He dresses ostentatiously and plays the political system. His well-practised grins and glasses of ale<\/a>, his choreographed moments of patriotic fervour and emotionally-charged nationalism, and various other manipulations have created an avatar. The real Farage is a grubby, shameless distorter of truths, a dissembler who ducks accountability.<\/p>\n

As the former Green leader Caroline Lucas recently wrote about his part in getting the Brexit vote<\/a> through: \u201cThere is a particular kind of audacity required to spend decades dismantling something, then point to the rubble and declare it someone else\u2019s fault. Nigel Farage has that audacity in spades. He has built an entire political career on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are sceptics out there who see through Farage\u2019s apparent trickeries and fakeries. With regards to the \u00a35m gift Farage received from crypto<\/a> billionaire Christopher Harborne (who hangs out in Thailand), polling by The New Statesman earlier this month showed that two-thirds of the public both believe it influenced his decision to stand as an MP, and worry that it will give the billionaire \u201cinappropriate influence\u201d over Farage\u2019s decisions and priorities as a politician. These figures include half of those who voted Reform back in 2024. But their doubt doesn\u2019t seem to make much difference.<\/p>\n

My biggest fear is that this man and his band of wreckers are deforming our political culture. He started with migrant blaming and xenophobic pronouncements, which should have led to denunciations from mainstream parties. That didn\u2019t happen. They joined in, with a lot of help from the right-wing media. Once often considered beyond the pale in political discourse, hatred of migrants, legal and illegal, settled and new incomers, became normalised and \u201cunderstandable\u201d. <\/p>\n

Racism walks in the public square without shame or fear today. Farage, recently accused by The Guardian of being a schoolboy racist (the Reform leader has denied all of the comments and actions attributed to him) should carry some of the blame for what\u2019s happening. Divide and win is his method.<\/p>\n

That is only a part of Farage\u2019s corrosive national project. He is hell-bent on disrupting a whole lot more.<\/p>\n

For all its faults, in our democratic system, honesty and a commitment to public service have, for centuries, been fundamental requirements. Farage seemingly disregards both. Spivs obey no rules. They do as they wish, with charm and audacity. Have you seen how furious he gets when even mildly questioned by journalists? Like Trump, he regards such interrogations as outrages.<\/p>\n

Now, at long last, investigations have been launched into the undeclared \u00a35m Farage received. The parliamentary commissioner for standards, Daniel Greenberg, is looking into this.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Greenberg had discovered that Farage had breached parliamentary rules by failing to register 17 payments worth roughly \u00a3384,000 within the 28 days required. No action was taken due to Greenberg\u2019s conclusion it was an \u201cinadvertent\u201d breach. A spokesman for Reform said: \u201cHe has always been clear that this was a personal, unconditional gift and no rules were broken. We look forward to this being put to bed once and for all.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u00a35m<\/a>, meanwhile, was given to Farage just weeks before he announced he would stand in the 2024 general election. He first said it was a \u201cpersonal\u201d gift he was using for security. Then claimed it was a present for getting Brexit through. He told the British public that the \u00a31.4m house he owns in Surrey was purchased with the fee he got for his appearance on I\u2019m a Celeb. The Financial Times revealed on Monday that Farage\u2019s corporate accounts appear to not support that claim. (A Reform spokesman said the house was not bought with Harborne\u2019s gift.) There will be more revelations for sure.<\/p>\n

But Farage will carry on<\/a> as he has. Reform voters will remain loyal and scorn those who try to break their faith. And governments will adjust to the new, disorderly political reality. Probity in British politics will be a lost memory. <\/p>\n

The Roman philosopher Cicero is thought to have said: \u201cNothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole electoral system.\u201d We see what he meant in our times. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In times to come, British politicians, historians and voters will try to figure out how, in the first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41163,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,6544,95,408],"class_list":["post-41162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-britain","tag-britain","tag-farage","tag-nigel-farage","tag-reform-uk"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116605680613680052","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}