KEVIN MAGUIRE: ‘Farage’s dangerous apple defence of Reform doesn’t wash and his toxic occasion is slipping in polls’
One imagining he would be still bathing a female colleague if she was his daughter, another talking about decapitating King Charles…
And, of course, monstrous racism – concentration camps, parasites, bury pork chops to stop a mosque being built – prompts increasingly serious questions about why Reform attracts so many disturbed nasty nutters and now whether Nigel Farage’s company will survive.
Perhaps it’s no surprise this Hard Right, increasingly Far Right, unhinged group appeals to vastly disproportionate numbers of the “fruitcakes and loonies and closet racists” as David Cameron correctly identified forerunner Ukip when Tory defector Robert Jenrick glibly toyed with shooting unarmed civilians.
The racists are out of the closet after ITV’s explosive public interest undercover expose and watching and listening to the vile brigade it’s impossible not to wonder whether Reform’s unsavoury army of weirdos look down and scapegoat other people to feel better about themselves.
I too have heard Westminster talk of looming fresh scandals that may befall Reform including predatory sexual behaviour (plus drugs) in the Mayfair club heartland of a leadership enjoying a jet-set life as far as it’s possible to get from the pubs of Sunderland, Hull, West Midlands and Welsh valleys.
Moneybags Farage, tainted by an inquiry into a £5million secret personal bung from a Reform donor, is devoured by the savage beast he birthed with the poisonous party slipping in the polls – behind both Kemi Badenoch’s Conservatives as well as Andy Burnham’s leading Labour in the latest – as his Downing Street dream rapidly fades.
Echoing demented Rupert Lowe’s deportation-happy Restore as a 1970s National Front tribute band repels curious voters once prepared to give Reform the benefit of the doubt.
That’s not to be complacent. Politics is hugely unpredictable. Evil triumphs when good men and women do nothing. But the more people see of Reform, the less they are liking Reform.
Farage’s “bad apple” defence doesn’t wash, Labour free school meals girl Bridget Phillipson reminding us bad apples don’t fall far from the tree. Maybe the serial quitter will pack in politics again, resigning to spend more time with other people’s money. Farage could conceivably find a backdoor to No10 via a Tory pact but Reform is wilting under public scrutiny. The party isn’t quite over but many folk are collecting their coats and leaving early.
Cell by date is over
Privatisation and outsourcing of public services during 40 years of neoliberalism since Thatcher, Andy Burnham argues persuasively, shortchanged taxpayers to turbo-charge corporate profits. Bang on the money is the PM so why is his Labour government planning a new 1,715-place private prison rather than a public one near Chorley in Lancashire?
That contradicts not only Burnham’s analysis and vision but Labour’s “biggest wave of insourcing for a generation” election promise. Prison Officers’ Association leader Steve Gillan complained Labour’s – and this isn’t a record to be proud of – opened more private jails than the Conservatives in a blistering letter to Prisons Minister Catherine McKinnell.
Burnham talks a great game but walking the talk is the real test and he could start by decreeing no more jails for profit, beginning with Chorley.
Trump’s dirty deal
Trump’s dirty diesel deal with Putin to distract from his Iran endless war pumping high US fuel prices undermines Ukraine and proves why extracting more of what’s left in a depleting North Sea wouldn’t lower what we pay. America is the world’s largest oil producer and energy self sufficient. Yet international trading means their domestic prices, like ours, have rocketed around 40% since his Tehran attack last February.
Think-tank E3G calculates that investing in insulated warm homes and heat pumps would create 50,000 new jobs compared with 1,100 when the Rosebank oil field west of Shetland receives the official go ahead.
Speaker’s Corner
“There is no place for violence.” President Emmanuel Macron is right, but France alas went up inflames after legitimate school demos were hijacked – and to celebrate democracy’s superiority let us hope Limoges’ destroyed old city hall is fully restored as Notre Dame cathedral was to symbolise democracy over mob rule.
Green error
You couldn’t watch Zack Polanski’s hostile grilling on BBC presenter Laura Kuenssberg’s Sunday show without acknowledging he is cool under fire. Like former Greens leader Caroline Lucas, I believe the party made a grave error with its simplistic “Zionism is racism” position denying Israel’s right to exist while, again like her, condemning Benjamin Netanyahu’s genocidal regime’s mass slaughter of innocent Palestinians.
The Greens built a wall around themselves. Dismantle it or they’ll be forever isolated.
