Farage Boats doesn\u2019t sound like the type of company you\u2019d want to take a break on the Norfolk Broads with \u2013 they would be unreliable, full of hot air and liable to drift off in any direction with a simple flight of fancy.<\/p>\n
But unlike Farage Gin, this isn\u2019t yet another money-grabbing side hustle for Reform\u2019s leader. Farage Boats is the name Keir Starmer has suggested for the small craft arriving daily on the Kent coastline; the first inkling that the PM is finally looking to make Nigel own the shitshow he was largely responsible for sailing the UK into.<\/p>\n
For a man who made extricating Britain from the European Union his life\u2019s work, Farage has been left bafflingly unaccountable for the economic, political and social disaster it led to. Not least, indeed, by himself \u2013 once the deed was done, Farage appeared to lose all interest in the project, moving straight on to the next passing bandwagon without a pause for breath. The thrill of the chase was always the thing for the twice-divorced trader.<\/p>\n
Not, of course, by the right wing media, who continue to give a free pass to the man all polls suggest will be the next inhabitant of No. 10. Witness the contrast between the pearl-grabbing over Angela Rayner\u2019s tax arrangements and the complete lack of curiosity about how his one-time waitress girlfriend afforded to buy a home for them in his constituency with cash. If Starmer found a cure for cancer, the\u00a0Mail\u00a0would splash on the implications for Macmillan nurses; Farage remains singularly unaccountable.<\/p>\n
And not, until now, by Labour, who have continued to treat Farage and his complicity for Brexit with kid gloves through some weird combination of fear, not wanting to relitigate the referendum and a complete lack of tactical acumen. Starmer has been prepared to flag up Farage\u2019s fondness for Putin \u2013 true but, rightly or wrongly, not going to swing a single vote in Scotland or Wales next year \u2013 but not to point firmly at the man responsible for your wait in the passport queue this summer.<\/p>\n
But perhaps this is changing. With \u2018Farage boats\u2019 \u2013 \u2018Reform rafts\u2019 scans better but lacks the personal touch \u2013 Starmer is, belatedly, making a strong point: this would not be happening had we not been wrenched out of the EU.<\/p>\n
When Britain was in the bloc, we were part of something called the Dublin agreement. This meant that an asylum seeker\u2019s claim had to be dealt with by the first European country they arrived in, and any member state could send an asylum seeker back to that country if they subsequently crossed into their territory. Farage can complain about the French authorities all he wants, but the facts are there \u2013 they don\u2019t have to take asylum seekers back as a matter of course. Because of him.<\/p>\n
In 2019, shortly before the UK formally left the EU, only 1,843 people were recorded as having entered the UK via small boats, compared to more than 49,000 in this year to June. Because of him.<\/p>\n
If the UK were still a member of the EU, then it is likely that several thousand, if not more of these people would have been successfully deported under the Dublin agreement, as happened previously. It would also have acted as a deterrent to many others making the extremely dangerous journey. But we\u2019re not, so they aren\u2019t \u2013 because of him.<\/p>\n
Farage and his media outriders have sought to rubbish this argument, but with the usual bluster rather than anything like a counter-argument \u2013 because these are the facts. \u2018Because of him\u2019 when it comes to Farage and the many, many disastrous effects of Brexit, is perhaps the strongest argument there is about the calamity that would surely befall a Reform government \u2013 so thank goodness Labour is finally making it, even if they might be several years too late.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Farage Boats doesn\u2019t sound like the type of company you\u2019d want to take a break on the Norfolk…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469659,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,807,384,386,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-469658","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-keir-starmer","16":"tag-nigel-farage","17":"tag-reform-uk","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115307202700790277","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}