Farage Free

I don’t much care for Charlotte Church. She squandered her precocious talent and turned into a chavvy little gob on legs in recent years and yesterday spent an inordinate amount of time screeching hatred at those who had voted for Brexit and in particular, the man who had brought it about. I don’t have a lot of time for the ramblings of Owen Jones and his ilk, or their matriarch, Polly Toynbee, but they afford me a morbid glimpse into the dark, paranoid, tribally-obsessed worlds they appear to wish they lived in. The real world of the ‘caring’ left is a morass of moral turpitude, stirring up animus for those who don’t stick to their script; demonising those who dare to pull back the veil to show the ugly truth.

But I wouldn’t wish any of them dead because of it – unless, perhaps, they could arrange to meet their demise in a spectacular, newsworthy and hilariously entertaining fashion. I don’t hate anybody for their views, as backward and bigoted as they are, as they spit on the lowly from their lofty eyries. Having a platform and using that platform to wield influence does not make them right. Their pursuit of Nigel Farage as if he was some sort of rabid, demonic spawn of hell would be laughable if they were not so serious about it. Having whipped up their audience to demand ‘death to Farage’ they insist that the reported rise in hate crime is somehow attributable to Ukip alone and that their own hands are squeaky clean.

No matter how carefully Nigel has been to phrase what he has to say and no matter how rational much of the population finds it, the murderous lynch mobs of the various left-facing splinter groups have simply cried racist until they were blue in the face. This works because far too many people don’t know what to think until somebody tells them. The repeated falsehoods enter into the received wisdom of the unthinking masses until they imagine massed band of right wing thugs in Stella-stained vests on every street corner, wielding pickaxe handles. So insidious is this assault on hearts and minds that even former vocal supporters begin to whisper their doubts. This is the politics of the left and it is a dirty business.

But sometimes you have to wade through shit to win and Nigel Farage, through sheer tenacity and a refusal to listen to the true haters has come through to triumph. Through attack after attack, with the hide of a rhinoceros and the heart of a lion he has faced down the legion of detractors. His example, more than any other, standing his ground against the constant onslaught of vilification, is almost certainly the principle reason the majority voted to leave the EU. Had it not been for the anti-Farage barrage, turning weaker minds from the cause the result might have been far more emphatic.

Yet even in his retirement from the front line, the campaign against him has not yet let up. The mewling pro-EU media wish to ignore or overturn the will of the majority, as they so often do. Farage had to endure a graceless attack interview with Eddie Mair on PM last night. After a perfunctory summing up of his career the questions all related to whether or not he regretted the divisiveness of Ukip’s fight for a referendum. Not a word of congratulations for arguably the most successful politician of our age. Well here’s one. Thank you Nigel. And cheers!

Do unto others...

Well, here we are at ground zero. But instead of finding nothing but scorched earth and a chance to rebuild a society from scratch it turns out that very little was actually cleared away in the blast. Nobody seriously expected anything different and no sensible observer imagined the smoke clearing to reveal a smiling army of politically neutral busy bees eager to get on and start the work. All the old structures are still in place and the gaping mouths of the dependent millions gape just as wide as before. There is no selective glyphosate that can rid us of the weeds and leave the crops, no magic decontaminant that can disinfect without damaging healthy flesh.

But there is one thing we didn’t have before and one principle we now need to inculcate in future generations if they are not to grow up to despise the decision we just took. The European Union – rightly in the views of many admirers – took away from its members the very things that make human society tolerable. National identity and pride in same; self-determination and an ability to shape things how people want them, not how a small elite think they should want them. And the opportunity for the whole of the population to be included in the national conversation, not just those who represent the vocal minorities who demand so much yet contribute so little.

Nobody is going to start tearing down legal rights and roaming gangs of vigilantes are not, as some suggest, going go around targeting people they don’t agree with – at least, no more than usual. False flag racism accusations proliferate, oddly after the vote; hopefully, they’ll tire of it or be found out eventually. But nothing will be done and the pains of this confrontation will not be eased if we don’t act to quell the clamour of blame and accusations of disenfranchisement from those who imagine their birthright has been stolen. If anything it has been handed back to them; they just need to know how to use it, starting with confronting a few home truths.

Firstly, nobody owes anybody a living. The illusion of a prosperous society in which nobody except imported wage slaves need to work for their daily bread is just a flimsy lie. The notion that everybody is equal, regardless of the evidence in front of your face is no noble truth but a meaningless slogan; the doors may be opened for you but you still have to walk through them yourself. The elevation of imported cultures above that of the indigenous stewards of this land has to cease. And all of this has to start where the socialist indoctrinators started generations ago; that old principle that rights come with responsibilities needs to be reinstalled at the heart of our democracy.

This applies as much to government as it does to individuals and the new-dawnsters of this post-Brexit, post-Christian world might do well to heed the moral foundations of what went before. The sermon on the mount is a good place to start. “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” Whatever Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Uncle Tom Carswell and all think of Nigel Farage, this referendum would never have happened if it hadn’t been for his tireless mission. He has endured a relentless onslaught of personal attacks in recent years and now, when he should be exonerated they are trying to bury him.

They were more than happy to use his willingness to confront realities that the establishment refused to do and let him cut through to voters abandoned by their own parties long ago. They were happy to let him campaign on issues considered too toxic for polite conversations but which nevertheless needed confronting. But now, Boris having made his power play – and make no mistake that Boris couldn’t give a toss whether we’re in or out of the EU, the referendum was merely a convenient vehicle for his personal ambitions – he doesn’t want the small matter of discussing what the country actually needs to obstruct his road to coronation.

Never fob off the Farage!

Already he and others are rowing back on the rhetoric which brought about the Brexit result. Under Boris and Co. it looks like we may actually get the worst of both worlds. Instead of the Ukip leader’s positive vision for a free, independent and united Britain, leading the world, not yoked to the lumbering cart of a sclerotic political union, there is a danger that Project Johnson will be a moribund, business-as-usual affair. The fight for independence is not yet over and I very much doubt we have seen the last of Nigel Farage.