Farage, Farage everywhere; not a drop of doubt from pollsters, pundits or political insiders. His time, they say, is coming. Thanks to our genuflecting media and billionaire fanboys, this celeb demagogue is now billed as our inevitable future. Pause here for those feeling bilious at the very thought. It could well happen. This July, Reform UK got 4 million votes. the party came second to Labour in 98 constituencies.
Over the years, Farage has donned fine garb made by bespoke gentlemen’s outfitters, kept company with elite crowds and fox hunted with toffs. He has turned commoners against the EU, migrants and cosmopolitan liberals – all with a ciggie in one hand and a beer in the other. It’s quite an act. He basks in the adoration and now believes himself to be an invincible and supreme being.
A bit like the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a consummate Indian “guru”, who, back in the 60s and 70s, captured the minds, hearts and resources of the high and low, promising trouble-free, ecstatic lives, everlasting bliss, nirvana. They believed everything he said, trusted him absolutely. They even thought they would defy gravity through “yogic flying” because He had said so.
The Beatles became his devotees, as did actress Mia Farrow, Clint Eastwood (briefly), burnt-out executives, bored, rich white ladies and masses of ordinary men and women drawn to the Maharishi’s easy personality and answers to life’s crises. Laughter was his most common remedy and he became known as the “Giggling Guru”. The movement grew massively, he moved to LA, money rolled in. John Lennon, first, then the other Beatles saw through the fakery. But most others did not.
Farage smiles and laughs a lot. Millions believe everything he says. Money is rolling into Reform UK, which damns the other main parties but rarely states its policies. What is Guru Farage’s solution to the poor, desperate people taking their chances on small boats? Under the insanely anti-migrant Tories the numbers went up. Will He put sharks into the waters? Or have shooting sessions for his pheasant-hunting pals?
I am not being flippant. The rise and rise of Reform UK is deadly serious. Journalists need to do their job, which is to expose lies and report truths. Why does the BBC give Reform leaders so much space and time? Why does Ofcom not stop Farage’s naked politicking on GB News? The excuses I am increasingly hearing is that critical assessments would upset his millions of supporters, as if our function is to back and never unsettle mass movements.
The veteran journalist Michael Crick did investigate the Reform leader in One Party After Another: The Disruptive Life of Nigel Farage. From James Robin’s review of the book in the online publication The New Voice, we learn that mendacity and ruthlessness “took him to the electrifying precipice of power… Put simply, he fought harder and fought dirtier than anyone else. He had charm and the skill to use it, and an unappreciated instinct for the openings and opportunities that history sometimes allows… like the best politicians Farage is obedient and pliant for fat-pocketed donors, ignorant of policy, distrustful of the truth”. Oh, also that Farage is Enoch Powell’s “greatest inheritor, admirer, and emulator”. (I pay tribute to those small, smart media outlets and individuals fearlessly covering Reform and Farage stories.)
Tories are now incapacitated by the upstart right-wing party. That and the malleability of the Labour government imperils our diverse nation state. Populism first targets “outsiders”, then insiders, then the entire system.
John Harris, the Guardian columnist, asks a vital question: If the Reform party, founded by “privately educated opportunists can successfully present itself as the voice of ordinary people, when might we find a senior Labour politician with the confidence and wit to expose that for the scam that it is?”.
Soon after Labour’s victory, Starmer said the result showed “a rejection, in this complicated and volatile world, of those who can only offer the easy answer – the snake-oil charm of populism… [which] does nothing to fix our foundations”. He called upon progressives to fight the malevolence infecting various democracies. He certainly won’t be repeating that call, after Trump’s takeover of the US. And the far-right AfD rising in Germany.
Now, I reckon, he will soothe those snake oil charmers. Already, as the LBC podcaster Lewis Goodall revealed in this newspaper, the front bench is being disturbingly sanguine about Musk possibly donating $100m (£80m) to Reform.
Farage, with his “mystical” powers will promise he will fly voters high up to the stars. When they fall down to earth, will Reform put out safety nets? Like hell it will. But like Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s acolytes, they will still flock to Farage, our very own laughing guru.
