Nigel Farage slams Australia as ‘wokest place in the world’ in US speech

UK Brexit leader Nigel Farage has slammed Australia in a fiery speech to conservatives in the US.

Nigel Farage, former Brexit Party leader, speaks during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort Hotel And Convention Center on March 3 in Maryland.

UK Brexit leader Nigel Farage has slammed Australia as the “wokest place on Earth” in a fiery speech in the US that blamed big tech for spreading “poison” through English speaking nations.

Mr Farage stole the show on the second day of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, which included speeches – drawing significantly less applause – from former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley.

Former president Donald Trump will give the final address to the CPAC conference, for years a bastion of Mr Trump’s political support, on Saturday (Sunday AEDT).

“Governments, state governments in America, took away from us liberties and freedoms that had been fought for generations and centuries, we gave unlimited power to people to lock us inside our houses, tell us we couldn’t visit elderly relatives, in our case [the UK] couldn’t even play golf or go fishing,” Mr Farage said.

“This is what tyranny looks like,” he added, admitting he had broken numerous lockdown rules in the UK, including illegally visiting his parents and friends.

“Go to Australia, which has now become one of the wokest places on earth,” he bemoaned, dwelling on what he said was a rare “bit of good news” in the Antipodes: the resignation of Jacinda Ardern.

The GB news host and political campaigner, who shot to fame ahead of the UK’s 2016 vote to leave the European Union, contrasted the decline of conservative movements in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, with their rise in Europe.

“In Europe, conservatives are making real progress, in France, in Spain, and huge progress in Italy – I’m not ashamed to say that Georgia Meloni is my new pin up,” he said, referring to the new Prime Minister of Italy.

“When laws become enemies of men, men become enemies of laws … if any government ever tries to take away my liberties again like that I’ll be rebel from day 1 and I suggest you join me,” he added.

Mr Farage blamed the relative failure of conservatism in the English speaking world on “the west coast” of the US and “Big tech” in particular, which had spread “poison through our political systems”.

“I hope Elon Musk’s taking over Twitter starts to redress some of this balance, but these are depressing times”.

Ms Haley, former South Carolina governor, Mr Trump’s former Ambassador to the United Nations and the second Republican so far after Mr Trump to formally declare a 2024 presidential bid, hewed to a similar theme of the conference, decrying the “woke self-loathing that has swept” the US.

“It‘s in the classroom, the board room and in the back rooms of government; we’re taught our country is flawed and full of hate … wokeness is a virus more dangerous than any pandemic hands down,” she said.

In his remarks Mr Pompeo, who is considered a long shot at the White House, took a swipe at the Trump administration in his bid to win over the predominantly Trump-supporting audience.

“Every recent administration, Republican and Democrat alike has added trillions of dollars to our debt. That is deeply unconservative, Trump administration, this administration I serve at an $8 trillion in new debt,” he said, describing the trend as “indecent”.

He also made a veiled criticism of Mr Trump’s influence on last year’s midterm elections, where Republicans, especially those endorsed strongly by Mr Trump, did worse than expected, failing to win control of the senate.

“We lost race after winnable race, because voters didn‘t trust us to do any better than the tax and spend liberals”.

Turnout at the high profile Republican political jamboree has been less than expected, according to attendees, and failed to attract other high profile Republicans stars such as Florida governor Ron DeSantis and Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin, both expected to make their own bids for the White House.