Saturday, 28 December 2024

Live Ticker?

Jeremy Corbyn is suing Nigel Farage, who looks likely to sue Kemi Badenoch. As it did with Boris Johnson, the BBC made Farage famous for a laugh, while the right-wing papers did so because they wanted to be bought by the people who appreciated the joke. With Johnson, it all got horribly out of hand. But with Farage, it is just bad business.

Farage's excitable supporters thought that he was going to be Prime Minister this year, he himself probably expected 50 or 60 seats for Reform UK, and even the exit poll said 13. Five was so humiliating that there were riots, and the television station that exists to showcase him and Reform is sacking staff or cutting their hours all over the place.

Yet people join Reform specifically to get on GB News, and not without success. But what of the rest? What if Reform really did move to a democratic structure? Imagine the policies, candidates and campaigns that would be chosen by its members. And all because upper-middle-class liberals thought that an off-colour, drunken uncle was funny.

4 comments:

  1. I'd say double defeat for Farage in the libel courts.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. But he could spin that to his advantage. He is a damn good grifter. No one could deny him that.

      Delete
  2. Peter Hitchens has the measure of Reform.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Indeed. Those who hang on his every word cannot also be Reform supporters.

      Delete