Politics: getting nasty

By Richard North - June 28, 2024

Even I can feel some sympathy for Farage as he is doorstepped by that precious little madam from Channel 4, confronting him about the “homophobic, racist xenophobic” comments made by people who have “senior roles” in his campaign.

I have no idea who the woman is in the video clip linked. Even before I gave up my TV license, I never watched Channel 4, and this type of aggressive, sanctimonious coverage was one of the reasons why.

In a sense, though, Farage has done well. Anyone making a political impact and registering hits against the Holy Narrative, guarded by the BBC, Channel 4 and the other custodians of righteousness, can normally expect to be accused of one or other of the misdemeanours levied by the Channel 4 harridan, but to be accused of all three in one go is quite an achievement.

On reflection, I’m surprised that she didn’t throw in “climate denial” as well but since the story seems to be fronted by Darshani Soni, the channel’s “communities editor”, I suppose that is slightly outside her bailiwick.

Channel 4 and the egregious Darshani must have been in their seventh heaven when they went undercover to find out what it’s “really like at the grass roots” in the Reform campaign in Clacton.

Fortune was smiling on them as they managed to dredge up George Jones, who must be one of the very few veterans of Ukip, who survived the transition to the Brexit Party and is still on board with the renamed iteration, “now running events for Mr Farage’s campaign”.

It is Jones who fills little Darshani’s day with joy, contributing his “homophobic comments” and thus completing the trio of sins. These are made as a police car rather conveniently passes by, displaying a Pride flag, whence Jones declares: “You see that f****** degenerate flag on the front bonnet? What are the old bill doing promoting that crap? They should be out catching nonces not promoting the f******”.

In a sane world, Jones would be applauded for his sense of civic responsibility, in condemning this offensive waste of money and display of degenerate partisanship, but this is not a sane world. It is one dominated by “communities editors” out on the hunt for breaches of the Holy Narrative.

Darshani’s cup must have runneth over, though, when she found Reform canvasser Andrew Parker, who said he knew Farage. It is Parker who offers the juiciest quotes, describes Sunak as a “f****** p***”. “I’ve always been a Tory voter”, he says, “but what annoys me is that f****** p*** we’ve got in. What good is he? You tell me, you know. He’s just wet. F****** useless”.

Parker – who describes himself elsewhere as a “funny, intelligent and larger than life character credited actor” – is certainly banged to rights here, giving Channel 4 exactly what it wanted. His comment is indeed appalling.

How this “funny, intelligent and larger than life character credited actor” could not know that Sunak is of Indian descent is something of a mystery. But it is this “stick” which the Channel 4 harridan uses to challenge Farage, apparently in a Clacton car park, asking him to apologise for the “appalling racist way” that one of his campaigners spoke about the prime minister.

Nothing is said of the “f****** useless” comment, which is actually fair enough. It is the “wacism” stick which is the tool to use and, on balance, Farage parries it quite well. Turning the tables on his tormentor, he asks whether Channel 4 has covered the racism in the Labour Party.

Normally, one would reject attempts at “whataboutery” to “deflect” – as the harridan calls it – but after Farage calls the actor’s comments “horrible”, there is not much more he can add by way of an apology.

And the point he makes is perfectly fair. Farage, as the candidate in Clacton, is not accused of racist comments, but the Labour candidate, Javon Owusu-Nepau, turns out to be a nasty piece of work, having posted on Twitter that “white man tears” are his favourite drink, and latterly that he is running in Clacton “for every black and brown person” in the UK.

Coincidentally, Owusu-Nepau was very much in the news yesterday, with the Guardian running a piece headed: “Labour ‘not putting up a fight’ against Farage in Clacton”, the sub-heading telling us that Labour officials are said to be upset that Owusu-Nepaul was gaining traction for viral social media posts.

What political correspondent Aletha Adu (a name of Nigerian origin) doesn’t reveal is the reason why Owusu-Nepaul’s posts have gained so much traction, to the extent that they have been getting more retweets than Starmer, thereby attracting the ire of party officials. Most of the traffic comes from people appalled at Owusu-Nepaul’s racism.

Before one accuses Aletha Adu of deliberately omitting unhelpful material about a fellow Black, though, one should note that the “horribly white” Daniel Martin covers the same story for the Telegraph and also omits this detail.

Thus, no really convincing reason is given for Owusu-Nepaul being banished to the West Midlands, while the local campaign in Clacton says it has been banned from printing leaflets, blocked from using campaigning software and has had access to the campaign’s social media overridden, with posts deleted on Twitter.

Nevertheless, the Farage team has been making good use of Owusu-Nepaul indiscretions, using them – according to the Independent – not only against Channel 4 but also the Starmer creature, demanding that he takes action against Owusu-Nepaul’s “anti-white” comment.

Despite this, the media seems to have declared “open season” on Reform. The BBC – not usually too keen on airing rival broadcaster’s work – has prominently featured the Channel 4 story on its news website, leaving out little of the detail.

The Times, however, goes one step further, featuring the story as its front page lead on its print edition, under the heading “Shoot illegal migrants, said Reform campaigner”, with the story replicated online.

Earlier, this paper had run another story about Galloway’s Workers Party “still backing candidates accused of antisemitism”. That story, though, seems to have disappeared. Clearly, Reform campaigners wanting to shoot migrants trumps Galloway’s Muslims making vile comments about the Jews.

Predictably, the Guardian is on the case, headlining: “Reform UK activist filmed making racist comments about Rishi Sunak”, while telling us that “Andrew Parker, who is canvassing in Clacton, also described Islam as ‘a cult’ and suggested asylum seekers should be shot”.

This paper, though, offers a “double-tap”, with a front page story which has Reform dropping a candidate revealed to have been BNP member.

This is an “exclusive”, for the paper, which has discovered that Raymond Saint, who is standing in Basingstoke, was recorded as BNP member on list published in 2009. Reform moved to withdraw its support for him after the connection was brought to its attention by the paper.

Even the Mail does the Channel 4 story, though, except that this paper prefers the lines that Farage’s election campaign is calling for “mosques to be turned into Wetherspoons”, brands the PM a ‘f****** p***’, demands Army recruits use migrants as “target practice”, and vows Reform will “bring back the noose”.

Continuing the turkey-shoot is the Telegraph which leads its front-page print edition with Sunak getting his revenge in early, claiming that Farage is a Putin appeaser. The soon-to-be ex-prime minister also tells voters that only the Tories can prevent potentially “decades” of Labour rule.

Generally, Channel 4 probably feels very pleased with itself, picking off Reform in a piece of cheap and easy hackery. But if it thinks it has done the party any damage, it may be disappointed. Policies such as turning mosques into Wetherspoons may actually considerably enhance its popularity.

But what we are seeing is a very real expression of alarm from the Left at Reform’s apparent success. And, as someone never said, when the going gets tough, the not-so-tough turn nasty.