[The Weeping Angel]

Being his usual charming self I see

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/li ... gel-farage

He claimed that Labour had become a middle-class party and abandoned the roots it was founded for, saying “our support is coming directly from people who have been, in many cases, lifelong Labour voters.

“Reform are parking their tanks on the lawns of the ‘red wall’”, he said. “Today’s the first day I’ve said that but I absolutely mean it, and we’re here, and we’re here to stay. And the evidence is that people who are switching to us, this is not a short term protest. They actually believe in us.”

Listing recent council byelection gains, the MP for Clacton, speaking in County Durham, claimed the party is giving Labour “one hell of a run for their money” and is now “the opposition to the Labour party, with the Conservatives trailing some way behind”.

He attacked the Conservatives as a spent force and wasted vote in large areas of England, saying “The sheer level of betrayal of what people who voted for Boris Johnson in 2019 got, they didn’t get the Brexit they voted for, and they got mass immigration on a scale never seen before in the history of these islands, those people are not ever going to trust the Conservative party again.”

In a lengthy speech covering regular Reform UK talking points, Farage claimed there had been a cover-up over the Southport stabbings, that it was a conspiracy theory to suggest he held favourable views of Vladimir Putin, and said Reform was against “DEI and that madness”.

At one point during the speech, made on the anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster, Farage posed with a front page of today’s the Sun newspaper which declared Britain was broken. The Reform UK leader wrote an op-ed for the paper today.

Farage appeared to try to claim credit for the government’s rescue of British Steel, telling supporters at the event “I don’t believe there would have been a Saturday sitting in parliament if Richard Tice and I had not been up to Scunthorpe and been greeted the way we were by those workers, especially in the local ‘Spoons afterwards, they actually felt there was someone speaking up for them.”

Farage said it was Reform’s policy to “re-industrialise” Britain, and claimed that investments in oil and gas would provide tens of thousands of well paid jobs. He accused Ed Miliband of wanting to “despoil” the British coastline with windfarms, and suggested that the removal of inheritance tax perks from farms was partly because Miliband wanted to replace agricultural land with “Chinese slave-labour made solar farms.”

[Boiler]

Unsurprisingly, round here the fields are a sea of turquoise posters...

[Tubby Isaacs]

What does he think was covered up about Southport? Has he told the public inquiry? It started last week. What's he submitted?

Great effort there at "Can I shock you? I like wine!" with his Putin comments there.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Great argument there that Tice and Farage were the ones who really saved Scunthorpe. Like otherwise Starmer would have said "Fuck it, I'm not working Saturday! Scunthorpe can close!"

Does he know how big the coastline actually is? Ed Miliband will have to go something to build a wind farm all the way round it. Or indeed to obliterate farmland with solar panels. Nice of Farage to think about the working conditions for once, mind.

[Abernathy]

Tice & Farage saving Scunthorpe is a bit like Wolodymir Zelensky starting the war with Russia, innit ?

[Youngian]

it was a conspiracy theory to suggest he held favourable views of Vladimir Putin

He's spent most of this century accusing NATO and the EU of 'poking the Russian bear' so they're responsible for Putin's invasions. But yeh doesn't mean he likes Putin.

Nigel's Brexit goes to a different school

The sheer level of betrayal of what people who voted for Boris Johnson in 2019 got, they didn’t get the Brexit they voted for, and they got mass immigration on a scale never seen before in the history of these islands.

[The Weeping Angel]

What does he think was covered up about Southport? Has he told the public inquiry? It started last week. What's he submitted?

Great effort there at "Can I shock you? I like wine!" with his Putin comments there.

It's a conspiracy theory on X/Twitter that Starmer represented the Southport KIller's father and therefore he is responsible for what happened.

[Rosvanian]

It's not really worth the time and effort to try and analyse anything Farage says because everything he or those of his supporters say ultimately links back to immigration. Spend anytime at all on right wing sites and literally everyone there will blame immigration for every single thing that's wrong in our country. They're consumed by it.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The policy itself will always be uncosted shite, but they're certainly making more of a rhetorical effort with Labour voters than Tory ones. Some suggestion that this isn't where their support is coming from, but it's probably a solid county council elections strategy. They don't want to be competing with the Lib Dems for dustbin voters in Buckinghamshire.

[Andy McDandy]

I suspect that what they want isn't so much power as the looming threat of it. Cut the mainstream parties majorities down and force them to align more closely in a bid to hold onto seats. Kingmakers, rather than Kings.

That way, they get their ideas carried out, but avoid the blame when they go kaput.

[Tubby Isaacs]

They'll be more comfortable with mayoralty power than council power. Potentially a good platform for Andrea Jenkyns to demand the reopening of comically unviable Beeching lines and complain about renewable energy (of which lots and lots is planned for Lincolnshire).

[Youngian]

Hope my dog walking won’t be disturbed too much by the reopening of the Wisbech to Sutton Bridge railway.

[The Weeping Angel]

Great argument there that Tice and Farage were the ones who really saved Scunthorpe. Like otherwise Starmer would have said "Fuck it, I'm not working Saturday! Scunthorpe can close!"

Does he know how big the coastline actually is? Ed Miliband will have to go something to build a wind farm all the way round it. Or indeed to obliterate farmland with solar panels. Nice of Farage to think about the working conditions for once, mind.

This is an example of Nigel moving left apparently

[Youngian]

The unfilled space in British politics has long been for a party that is both socially conservative and economically populist

No one has thought of that before, really?
Farage has always been a petit bourgeoisie populist supporting the small guy over big business.
Is Farage still promising to abolish income tax for those on £20K and under or will that money be needed to reopen coal mines now?

[davidjay]

National Socialism?

[Boiler]

Hope my dog walking won’t be disturbed too much by the reopening of the Wisbech to Sutton Bridge railway.

I vote for full reinstatement of the Wisbech and Upwell Tramway, complete with steam trams.

[Boiler]

I suspect that what they want isn't so much power as the looming threat of it. Cut the mainstream parties majorities down and force them to align more closely in a bid to hold onto seats. Kingmakers, rather than Kings.

That way, they get their ideas carried out, but avoid the blame when they go kaput.

We're back to that "harlot" quote again.

[The Weeping Angel]

The unfilled space in British politics has long been for a party that is both socially conservative and economically populist

No one has thought of that before, really?
Farage has always been a petit bourgeoisie populist supporting the small guy over big business.
Is Farage still promising to abolish income tax for those on £20K and under or will that money be needed to reopen coal mines now?

Yeah I read his piece in the sun and it was the standard right-wing guff.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Anti-corporatist Reform Party ran in 2024 on reducing Corporation Tax to 15%. I guess "corporations" (bad) become "business" (good) after about 5 seconds of a Farage speech.