Nigel Farage is the continuity chaos candidate of the UK election
The revolt Nigel Farage offers is no revolt at all. In a country that needs calm leadership, he offers to repeat every mistake the UK has made, to amplify every row, to revisit every dead end.
“Are you not entertained?” In the epic film Gladiator, Maximus Decimus Meridius, forced reluctantly to fight, vanquishes his opponents with horrific force. He slices into his challengers, chopping off a head with two swords, spraying the area with blood and finally hurling his weapon at the watching nobles. It is a shocking display of unnecessary violence and repulsive to think it could be enjoyed by anyone.
“Are you not entertained?” is Maximus’s menacing and resentful cry.
On Monday, Nigel Farage began his announcement that he would be a candidate with the assertion that the election thus far had been “boring”. This was not merely an observation that the result is predictable, it reflected his view, expressed more than once, that the main candidates for prime minister are boring. Something he regards as a bad thing, an opinion he expects us to share.
The past decade in politics has been chaotic. The Conservatives have provided five prime ministers and a constant barrage of leadership speculation; there were four chancellors of the exchequer in little more than three months; the country was brought to the very edge of financial meltdown by a Downing Street tenant who provided the shortest occupancy in history; her predecessor was forced from office for persistent lying and overseeing staff who held illegal gatherings during a pandemic, breaking laws they had themselves put in place.
Meanwhile the Labour Party elected a Marxist as its leader who referred to Hamas as “friends” and refused to resign when he lost the confidence of the vast majority of his MPs. Most of his front bench, however, did resign. And eventually his views were regarded as so outre that he lost the whip and was not allowed even to stand as a Labour candidate.
Although at least, unlike the leadership of the SNP, he didn’t get involved in a scandal involving his spouse and a caravan. Or bring his own coalition down by sacking the people providing his majority.
Are you not entertained?
If Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer are boring, then I am ready for boring. And among the biggest questions over the Conservative Party is whether it will be able to stay boring for long enough. Nigel Farage presents himself as a revolt against the system, a break with the past. And his claim to this status as a maverick is generally accepted. But in truth, what he offers is more of the same. Bread and circuses, without any bread.
In this election, in which the parties debate the best way to move on from chaos, Farage is the status quo candidate. A last hurrah is what he offers, for politics as a game show.
Have we all had enough of party splits and personal feuds and leadership contests and preposterous lapses of dignity and seriousness? Farage has more of each of these things to offer. He has fallen out with almost every ally he has ever had, broken up almost every political alliance he has ever formed, presided over more ludicrous political spats than anyone still in public life.
It was amusing to see Farage return to Clacton, where he once stumped with Ukip’s first MP, Douglas Carswell. The two men were all smiles then, before their relationship fell apart. Rows about whether Carswell would claim public funds he didn’t need in order to help finance Ukip (Carswell refused); a dispute about whether Carswell would support a knighthood for Farage (he wouldn’t); some wrangling about access to the Ukip database. They ended up barely on speaking terms and Carswell left the party.
And this breach is quite typical. People locking each other out of party headquarters, punching each other and ending up in hospital, sending in lawyers and chasing missing funds – this is the story of the Ukip Farage presided over. If you want more of this, then Farage is your man.
Have we all had enough of glib promises that sound good, that entertain, without having a chance of working or even pretending to add up? Aren’t we yearning for policies that acknowledge reality and deal with complexity? Isn’t the real question in this election how we can achieve that best?
Farage perfectly clearly doesn’t think so. He promises more of the same. Every populist promise of Jeremy Corbyn, every questionable scheme of Rishi Sunak, every evasion of Keir Starmer, every political confusion of Boris Johnson, every bankrupt idea of Liz Truss, Nigel Farage promises to match. The only revolt he is leading is the revolt against reality.
The Reform Party program is a laughable concoction, as the leadership airily wave their hands over the budget and promise billions can be found by ending wasteful programs that aren’t named. This is accompanied by vast promises to cut taxes while simultaneously increasing public spending.
Its approach to immigration is to insist that clearly illegal procedures (simply sending asylum seekers back to France) are not illegal. And there is much vague talk of a real Brexit which hasn’t yet been tried, in the same way that student left wingers talk of real socialism.
And haven’t we had enough of identity politics and labelling people and sweeping attacks on whole groups? Nigel Farage doesn’t think so. He famously described the Brexit result as a “victory for real people”, as if everyone who voted to remain in the European Union was not a real person. And he typically describes entire ethnic and religious groups as not sharing proper British values.
He is a man who some find very charming, although the closer people get to him the more quickly this first impression dissipates. He is undeniably a fantastic communicator. He is box office. And he has a brilliant instinct for a simple message. But politics isn’t simple and solutions aren’t easy and real life isn’t the movies.
Nigel Farage is the continuity candidate in a change election. The revolt he offers is no revolt at all. It is merely a pose, his words just slogans. This is a country that needs calm leadership and policies that last and promises that can be, and are, delivered. Farage offers to repeat every mistake we have already made, to amplify every row we have already had, to revisit every dead end.
I have so many criticisms to make of both Sunak and Starmer, and views will differ sharply about what they each have to offer. But I revel in their relative seriousness. I will never attack either of them for being boring.
We have had years of turbulence, and politics as entertainment. It’s time to return to seriousness. This is a country that desperately needs something boring to happen. Let’s make sure that it does.
COPYRIGHT – THE TIMES, LONDON
***ALL MATERIAL IN THIS SERVICE IS EMBARGOED UNTIL 00:01 BST WEDNESDAY JUNE 5, 2024. CLIENTS ARE REMINDED THAT THEY ARE EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN TO TAKE AND PUBLISH ITEMS FROM OUR WEBSITE THAT ARE NOT INCLUDED IN THIS SERVICE***
***NOTE: CLIENTS WHO HAVE PERMISSION TO PUBLISH ON DIGITAL PLATFORMS MUST ADD A CANONICAL LINK TO EACH STORY USING THE TIMES URL SUPPLIED BELOW***
Canonical Link: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/nigel-farage-is-the-chaos-continuity-candidate-v6cfx5fhc
More Coverage
Yoga, wellness and death: check into The White Lotus
The super-rich have moved on to Thailand for the third series of Mike White’s hit thriller. Its stars talk about their trip of a lifetime.
UK’s island deal to avoid ‘missile crisis’
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s deal to cede the Chagos Islands to Mauritius is necessary to avoid setting off ‘a serious confrontation’ in the Indian Ocean, a Foreign Office minister says.