“A change gon’ come
Oh yes, it will”
Oh Joy! Breakfast was better than ever when, on Good Morning Britain, we had Peter Ettedgui and a schoolfriend talking about Nigel Farage’s racist comments to other schoolboys. I was pleased, because until now, this had been kept under wraps, and, with the honourable exception of the Guardian, had largely been overlooked.
I would like to think, that in some small way, this column helped to keep the story alive.
In last weeks “Is There Any Such Thing as labor Voter Anymore?”, I quoted from an article in the Spectator which sought to dismiss the whole squalid saga as boisterous behavior which was too much for the more sensitive…..
One point they were correct on, was that this is being bought out in the open now in an attempt to stop Farage becoming PM. This country has already sunk far enough, to have such a racist in-power will simply lead us further down a very dark road, and exacerbate an already fractured nation.
There is, or at least there shouldn’t be any defense for Farage’s comments. The Guardian reports that they have spoken to eight school contemporaries who have corroborated Ettedgui’s account. They count among about two dozen witnesses who recounted Farage’s racist and antisemitic remarks while between the ages of 13 and 18
Instead of an apology, contrition, or any acceptance that to have such things would have been wrong, both he and Reform initially tried to deny the story.
In legal letters before publication of the Guardian’s investigation, Farage’s lawyers claimed that “the suggestion that Mr Farage ever engaged in, condoned, or led racist or antisemitic behavior is categorically denied”.
After that, in an interview with the BBC, Farage said: “Have I said things 50 years ago that you could interpret as being banter in a playground, you could interpret in a modern light today in some sort of way? Yes.”
He added that he had “never directly, really tried to go and hurt anybody”.
This was followed by a further statement, where Farage said: “I can tell you categorically that I did not say the things that have been published in the Guardian aged 13, nearly 50 years ago.”
As the saying goes, when a hole, stop digging!
‘to have such a racist in-power will simply lead us further down a very dark road, and exacerbate an already fractured nation’
Alas, no one told Richard Tice, the party’s deputy leader. Interviewed by Emma Barnett on the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme he was asked whether he thought that saying “Hitler was right” to a Jewish person was direct racial abuse, Tice said: “Yes I do … I can’t believe anybody would have said that”. A good start you might think only Tice decided to double-down calling it “made-up twaddle from people who don’t want Nigel to be prime minister of the country”.
Asked directly whether he believed Ettedgui was lying, Tice said: “Yes.”
“I think this is made-up twaddle by a whole bunch of people,” he added. “These people have a political axe to grind and do you know what, every week, the voters are going out in byelections and they are voting for Reform, because they’re not buying into this leftwing anti-Nigel narrative.”
There has been pathetic attempts to dismiss his words as school banter and nothing was meant by it. Reports suggest that his spanned a six-year period, from age 13-18. Without wishing to be overly harsh, if you don’t know right from wrong at that point, you likely never will. Also, the holocaust is such an emotive subject that everyone should know it isn’t a matter for harmless banter.
Antisemitism is just a specific form of racism, and racism is, perhaps, one of the key undercurrents prevalent in today’s politics. The fact that he is dismissing his comments of 50-years ago as banter today, does that imply that it’s still just banter.
As I wrote before he has more recent form of antisemitic comments; on US television he discussed supposed plots by bankers to create a global government, citing Goldman Sachs, the Bilderberg group and the financier George Soros as threats to democracy.
The latter has become a perennial hate figure to those who allege a secret Jewish plot to undermine nation states in pursuit of global government. In a 2020 article for Newsweek, Farage cited “unelected globalists shaping the public’s lives based on secret recommendations from the big banks”.
There is also an example from 2017, when, in reply to a caller on his LBC show said: “In terms of money and influence they are a very powerful lobby……there are about six million Jewish people living in America, so as a percentage it’s quite small, but in terms of influence it’s quite big”.
Farage’s schooldays aside, there are other problems currently besetting Reform, such as the party’s former leader in Wales being jailed for taking Russian bribes, and councillors suspended for posting racist messages.
These issues are started to become reflected in the polls;
- YouGov shows Reform polling at their lowest polling level in more than six months, at 25%
- Survation show Reform down by five percentage points
- BMG found Reform’s support falling five points
There is, however, a bigger issue than just Farage, namely his overarching pernicious influence of UK politics and politicians
labors current home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has reinvented herself as anti-immigration. Previously, as an MP, she had voted against stricter immigration laws, and supported a general amnesty for undocumented workers who have been living in the UK for 10 years. In 2020, she called on the Tory government to halt a deportation flight.
Now, seizing the opportunity, she vows to fight “vexatious last-minute claims” that “frustrate” removals.
Clearly feeling the need to justify her cultural conversion, Mahmood has told her own immigration story; “I am the child of immigrants”. Then, in some sort of sliding doors moment, she tells of how immigration is tearing this country apart, and proposes policies that mean UK-born children, who have known no life anywhere else, will be deported.
Her proposals will leave refugees homeless and without support, tear families apart, punish those legally in the country for claiming any benefits and make settlement and security a long and arduous process.
So empowered is Mahmood, that she tells us: “this is a moral mission for me”.
Immoral might be more accurate. This is cynical manipulation and denial of the first order.
At best, it might be described as opportunistic, seeking to make political capital out of immigration, and ride-on the coat tails of Reform in the hope of fooling the electorate that a decaf fascist can do the job.
‘seeking to make political capital out of immigration, and ride-on the coat tails of Reform in the hope of fooling the electorate that a decaf fascist can do the job’
Of course she isn’t alone in being a racist immigrant home secretary, in fact we have done rather well in finding so many. There was Priti Patel, but she was a mere amateur when compared to her replacement, Suella Braverman, who dedicated her maiden speech in parliament to her immigrant parents, and then told us: “I would love to be having a front page of the Telegraph with a plane taking off to Rwanda. That’s my dream, it’s an obsession”.
If we put cynical opportunism to one-side, I have two conclusions. Firstly, all three are part of a caste system that regard these new immigrants as different, lower classes than them; legal v illegal; working and housed v needing benefits; assimilated v ghettoised. Or, secondly, they are just trying to deny others the opportunities they had.
I have a warning for all three. If real racists come to power, someone might notice that they are brown, the children of immigrants, and that might become their own victims.
Mahmood is a very poor example of a second-rate politician, and an ever worse human being. She can’t even be true to herself. Her “sorry, we’re closing!” attitude to immigration, is naked ambition.
Unfortunately, her ambition will be her undoing. There is little chance of a right-turn improving labor’s electoral chances. Firstly, because Reform do it better, and secondly the more they try to be Reform the more they alienate progressive voters. Fairly soon she will find herself on the political scrapheap, perhaps doing a Liz Truss, trying to convince herself that she’s still relevant.
She might be better served considering how she levels the country-up, it won Johnson an election, it might save labor!
‘a very poor example of a second-rate politician, and an ever worse human being’
We finish by considering what racism and anti-immigration might look like in 2025 and beyond.
Unfortunately, we have an example to consider with the activities of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
I would normally pause here and include some background on ICE, but in searching for it, I discovered something far more revealing. Like many I use Google, which, whenever I search for something, provides results beginning with their own “AI overview”. This time, however, that was conspicuous by its absence….more tech bros with their heads-up Trump’s ***.
One of Trump’s first anti-immigration moves was to reverse the convention that ICE would snatch nobody by a school, church or hospital. As result, teachers have reported classrooms being as much as a third empty, with parents too scared to send their children – volunteers walk them there and back.
In a response to ICE’s snatch squads, neighborhoods are coming together to combat them. Last month, it was reported that 50 people rushed to a church, where the congregation was trapped, having got word that there were ICE agents waiting outside. Maybe their most evocative tactic is whistles – coded blasts for when a convoy is suspected to be ICE agents, a different code when it’s confirmed.
‘parents too scared to send their children – volunteers walk them there and back’
They has been numerous accounts of vehicles standing empty, one door open, not robbed, merely relieved of their drivers; landscape gardeners arrested off ladders.
Whilst this sounds like something out of Nazi Germany, or Stalin’s Russia, it is everyday life in America. But, it isn’t just happening there; similar stories come out about Kenmore Street, Glasgow, or Peckham, in London, where neighbors surrounded Home Office vans until they were forced to release their cargo and leave.
Trump’s actions are effectively breaching laws, but then he continually puts himself above the law, as a result he is becoming the law.
To support these action, there is a requirement for coordinated group action, the commitment of people prepared to do anything, personally or professionally, to stay with the majority. Furthermore, it requires people to turn a blind eye to what can be deemed unacceptable, or simply trying to argue that wrong is right because it suits everyone to fall into line.
This, albeit on currently a smaller scale, describes the action of labor’s new home secretary; she has either had a total conversion in her fundamental beliefs, or, sees it as politically expedient to follow Reform in the hope of furthering her career.
That’s the first mistake, you are now on the slippery slope to totalitarianism and outright racism
In Nazi Germany, their justice minister, Franz Gürtner, used the term “Gleichschaltung”, roughly translatable as “coordination” or “synchronisation”, to describe how all political, social, cultural and civic institutions had to fall in line with the totalitarian state.
In many ways the Democrats inaction leaves them complicit with Trump’s actions.
They are happy to produce data that supports the fact that many of those snatched off the streets are not criminals, but they have not condemned the authoritarian activity that has led to 65,000 people being detained. Perhaps, they sympathise with the policy, although not the actions? When Trump took office in January, there was already C. 40,000 migrants in detention.
This acceptance can, perhaps, be explained by peoples herd instinct, sticking together, safety in numbers.
Today, the reaction of the majority to Farage’s school behavior might, at best, be described as indifferent. What that signifies is a tacit acceptance, an acknowledgement that its ok to say those things. After all, it was long while ago, and couldn’t happen here.
That’s the first mistake, you are now on the slippery slope to totalitarianism and outright racism. Now, lets add in a home secretary who tells that immigration is tearing this country apart, and how it is her moral mission for to stop it.
After that, it really is down hill all the way to……
“In Paterson that’s just the way things go
If you’re black you might as well not show up on the street
’Less you wanna draw the heat”
‘This is possibly the most powerful and controversial piece the column has produced.
Farage’s schoolboy antisemitism saga, which has by and large been ignored by the majority of the media, was featured on breakfast TV, with Peter Ettedgui, one of the victims interviewed.
Polls suggest that Reform/Farage have been impacted by it, but not to any great extent.
As a result, we are now at an inflection point; this is not black and white, this isn’t a nuanced argument, it’s1 black and white. Support for Farage is condoning racism, including antisemitism, and sees the holocaust reduced to “banter”. It makes a mockery of poppy day, remembering soldiers who died fighting fascism, when we are condoning and embracing it.
The two main parties have enthusiastically embraced this race to the bottom.
Whilst Shabana Mahmood isn’t the first immigrant home secretary she has taken to anti-immigration like a duck to water. Apparently, It’s her “moral duty”.
Personally, I find this morally repugnant, little more than opportunism. As the saying goes, don’t forget where you come from…
My fear is that we will sink into the same abyss as the US, perhaps with ICE-type enforcement.
The big lesson for everyone is the time to stand-up and object is now, if not yesterday; next week is too late. This isn’t a time for complacent running with the herd.
As you might expect, the lyrics reflect this anti-racism article. We start with A Change Is Gonna Come” by Sam Cooke, and end with a personal favourite, “Hurricane” by Bob Dylan. The greatest protest song of them all!
Lets all enjoy Farage’s downfall!
@coldwarsteve
Philip Gilbert is a city-based corporate financier, and former investment banker.
Philip is a great believer in meritocracy, and in the belief that if you want something enough you can make it happen. These beliefs were formed in his formative years, of the late 1970s and 80s
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The post I’m So Bored With the USA: Things Will Only Get Worse Part II – RACISM! appeared first on USNewsRank.
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