Farage and his problematic relationship with Russia

The current leader of Reform UK is a notorious admirer of the international criminal President Putin.

Per the BBC:

Mr Farage was challenged over his judgement and past statements, including when he named Russian President Vladimir Putin as the world leader he most admired in 2014.

He later made the inexcusable claim that the EU and NATO provoked Putin into his illegal war on Ukraine.

From the same BBC article linked above:

Mr Farage said he had been arguing since the 1990s that “the ever eastward expansion” of the Nato military alliance and the EU was giving President Putin “a reason to [give to] his Russian people to say they’re coming for us again and to go to war”.

He added: “We provoked this war…”

His political colleagues from other sides of the aisle disagree. Former Conservative Defence Secretary Ben Wallace sums it up well:

Mr Wallace – who oversaw the UK’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 – said Mr Farage “is a bit like that pub bore we’ve all met at the end of the bar” and often presents “very simplistic answers” to complex problems.

He also said the Reform UK leader had been “consistently wrong” on the issue, adding: “Putin isn’t really invading Ukraine because of Nato expansion.”

Nonetheless, Farage’s incessant grifter side was happy to personally take money in order to appear on Russian Kremlin propaganda TV channel RT, formerly known as Russia Today. A claim he was paid half a million was likely incorrect, but no-one denies he made at least a few thousands pounds profit from appearing on a channel funded and controlled by the Russian state.

Reform Councillor John Allen suspended for violent, racist and homophobic social media posts

Another unhinged Reform UK councillor looks to be biting the metaphorical dust. This time it’s Councillor John Allen, of Northumberland’s County Council. He’s been suspended from the party whilst they “investigate” some of his social media comments he’s alleged to have made on Youtube, under the account name @johnallen7807.

Over the last few weeks, in a particularly febrile atmosphere when it comes to political violence, he’s been publicly posting about his deep desire to murder our Prime Minister, Keir Starmer

Here’s a few choice examples, as shared by Hope Not Hate after their investigation:

Meanwhile 5 armed police are busy at Heathrow arresting a comedy writer for “hurty words”, I cant wait to see Srarmer swinging from a lamp post!

(misspellings copied from the original)

5 armed police??? I’d shoot Starmer myself if I had the weapon and opportunity!

Predictably, it’s not just Starmer he hates. Other folk he’s scared of include those with darker skin tones.

Am I the only one who has trouble taking a dirty looking dreadlocked black man seriously? he lives here milking the system for all it’s worth because he knows we ae stupid enough to allow it.

and when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars:

Hmmm? interesting, let me see, we have two billionaire black men who are held up as role models having a fight at a world wide televised event. What were they doing? arguing over the price of drugs???

Two millionaire black men having a fight, I bet it was about the price of drugs!

Naturally we can add Muslims and LGBT+ folks to the list of people he can’t stand. Even when they are literally in the leadership of his very own party.

Regarding ex-Reform-party chairman Zia Yususf and current Reform party chairman David Bull:

I believe we have to be very careful about links to big donors. In this particular case the man is a muslim and the fundamental tenets of his religion are diametrically opposed to our Western Judeo-Christian values and, as most polls show, muslims put their religion about their country.

and

Hmmm? So we go from a muslim Chairman to a gay Chairman??? Neither of them represent my view on life!

At least those prejudiced outbursts are consistent with his views on the mainstream Conservatives a couple of years back. As you’d imagine, Prime Minister Sunak also wasn’t to the taste of this vile bigoted man, who has no business representing anyone.

20 years ago most Conservatives were Christian, no we have a Hindu PM, a muslim mayor of London and LGBT perverts get a whole month to “celebrate”! We only give those who died for our freedom 1 DAY!

Free speech hating Reform bans local newspaper from honestly reporting on the activities of at least one of their councils

The supposed party of free speech and accountability to the masses are once again showing their true colours.

Councillor Mick Barton, leader of Reform’s Nottinghamshire County Council, has told local media outlet Nottinghamshire Live that neither he or his fellow councillors will ever deign to speak to or answer questions from their journalists again. Or any of those from the essential Local Democracy Reporting Service which means national institutions like the BBC will be similarly hampered.

Nottinghamshire Live has been put on notice that Reform UK’s Nottinghamshire county councillors will refuse to speak to any of our journalists from here on in. The ban, which will only be lifted for emergency scenarios like flooding or incidents at council-run schools, applies both to our journalists and to the team of reporters we now manage under the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

He’s told his officers to stop sending them press releases, that neither he or his 41 Reform colleagues will take interviews, and that they will not be invited to any county council events.

The ban also applying to LDRS reporters means it will affect other outlets too:

The fact that the policy also applies to our LDR reporters means this policy will not just affect coverage for Nottinghamshire Live readers. The BBC-funded scheme is an essential service which sees all local media outlets in an area being able to run reports from the LDR journalists covering council meetings and council business.

Why? Seemingly simply because they published an article with what seems like a relatively minor criticism which Councillor Barton didn’t like – even though Reform couldn’t be bothered take up the chance to respond to the claims made that they were offered in advance:

It was my recent article on the ongoing discussions about local government reorganisation (LGR). The article included a claim that two Reform UK councillors said at a public surgery that they could be suspended from their county council group if they did not vote for Councillor Barton’s preference of a bigger Nottingham council covering Broxtowe and Gedling.

The article repeatedly referred to the fact that this was merely a claim and noted who that claim had come from. We also went to both Councillor Barton and the two Reform UK councillors concerned ahead of publication and explicitly told them about the claim.

Councillor Barton did not wish to comment on the claim directly, whilst the two Reform councillors who allegedly made it both sent identical messages which did not explicitly deny the claim.

Reform MP Lee Anderson also has previous form in running down Nottinghamshire Live on the basis he thinks it runs pieces that are too “negative” about Reform.

Said Anderson at the time, as conspiracy minded and dishonest as ever:

We will take our country back and these lefty out of touch low level so called journalists will have to go and get a proper job.

Quite an incredible statement from a supposed public servant. It’s very clear that Anderson and his ilk would happily see any news institution that isn’t entirely in thrall with his political party – i.e. any news institution that is actually doing its job – closed down. This is a typical tactic of a wannabe autocratic regime.

They’re rightly scared that every time their incompetence and cruelty is revealed there is a risk that their popularity will decrease. The truth hurts them. And so enforced fealty and censorship is the order of the day.

Nottinghamshire Live give a full run-down of what went on regarding this and several other incidents they’ve experienced that would suggest Reform are rather more anti-press, anti-accountability and pro-censorship that one would expect of any political party, let alone one that pretends to value freedom, transparency and accountability.

As the journalist Oliver Pridmore noted in the first article I read about this:

It is truly baffling that Reform UK, the party that supposedly champions free speech, is allowing one of its new council leaders to block access to one of the biggest news outlets in his area over a fair and balanced piece of local journalism.

…

There is something fundamentally unhealthy about elected, taxpayer-funded politicians deciding to take that path though. Nottinghamshire County Council is an authority with a budget of over £1 billion, covering a population of 800,000 people by delivering vital services ranging from schools to social care.

The idea that a historic and regulated news outlet will no longer be able to scrutinise the essential work above is incredibly chilling. I have written an incalculable number of pieces in this job that council leaders did not like.

Sometimes they have complained to me personally, sometimes they have decided to challenge our coverage publicly, but I have never experienced a council leader refusing to speak to us unless there is some sort of disaster. It is a ridiculous situation that rendered me speechless when I first heard of it.

The Society of Editors is equally as shocked – at the end of the days, politicians need to be held to account.

Reform UK’s decision to shut out Nottinghamshire Live and its Local Democracy reporters is profoundly wrong. Political parties must welcome scrutiny, not silence it. When councillors refuse to answer questions or provide information, they’re not just shutting out the press — they’re shutting out the public they serve.

Other local politicians are similarly as appalled about Reform’s outrageous decision:

MP Kevin Hollinrake, Conservative Party chairman, said it was a “disgrace for Reform to deliberately cut off local journalism”.

He added: “They are completely denying communities the right to scrutinise those in power.

“If Reform can’t even face questions from the Nottingham Post, what hope is there that they could ever face the serious responsibilities of government?”

The leader of the opposition on Nottinghamshire County Council, Conservative Sam Smith, called the ban an “extremely dangerous step”.

He added: “It’s not just the press Reform are shutting out in Nottinghamshire. It’s the voice and views of residents.”

Labour MP for Mansfield Steve Yemm added: “Shutting the door on local journalists doesn’t just block criticism, it cuts off residents from the facts. Whether you agree with every headline or not, local media keeps the public informed and those in power honest.”

Over 40,000 members of the public, at the time of writing, have signed a petition demanding the ban be reversed.

Nigel Farage says he welcomes freedom of speech, even if people find it offensive. Surely that should apply to freedom of the press too? So why have Reform’s Nottinghamshire councillors – who control the county council – been banned from talking to the Nottingham Post & Nottinghamshire Live, just because we wrote an article they didn’t like?

…

When councillors pick and choose which journalists get to talk to them, they can control the story and hide the truth.

Nonetheless, this kind of ban might already be spreading beyond Nottinghamshire’s Reform.

The New Statesman reports that:

In Croydon, south London, the head of the local Reform branch announced he would no longer engage with Inside Croydon journalists after they revealed the party was running a dead candidate for mayor.

Which is a hilarious sentence, but a very worrying policy choice.

The party also banned several journalists from attending its annual Conference:

The Observer’s Carole Cadwalladr and Josiah Mortimer of Byline Times were barred from the populist Reform party’s conference…Adam Barnett and Simon Childs of Novara Media were blocked by both the Conservatives and Reform

And Nation.Cymru, a news outlet in Wales, is now concerned that they have been quietly subjected to the same kind of ban as Nottinghamshire Live was.

As the news editor of Nation.Cymru, I was blocked completely from speaking with Reform Wales’ former spokesperson and now Caerphilly candidate Llŷr Powell.

Powell had taken umbrage with my attempts to report on his controversial previous employment with Scouts Cymru.

…

During Powell’s time as Wales’ head of communications, we did not receive press releases or invites to some of the party’s key Welsh announcements such as Laura Anne Jones’ defection to Reform from the Conservatives.

…

One senior Reform figure told me he would “never” speak to a prominent BBC Wales reporter again following an entirely legitimate story the public service broadcaster had run about him.

The same Reform figure sent me a message saying he was “happy” to work with me – but only if I didn’t ever report on the same story.

The party’s supposed strong support for free speech appears to only apply if a journalist doesn’t report on something they would rather the public didn’t know.

Labour point out the obvious hypocrisy:

Farage is happy to fly thousands of miles to lecture others on free speech, yet doesn’t appear to care about his Reform foot soldiers refusing to speak to local journalists. Free speech when it suits is no free speech at all. He’s a total hypocrite.
…
Farage’s councillors are clearly unable to defend their record. If they want to hold public office, they must accept the responsibility that comes with it – including answering to the people they serve.

Not surprising Farage wants to denigrate Britain further by cutting us out of the international laws that guarantee a free press, such as the European Convention of Human Rights. About article 10 of the ECHR:

Everyone has the right to freedom of expression and to receive and impart information. This right also covers the freedom of the press. Freedom of expression is one of the essential foundations of a democratic society. The media require particular protection because they play a key role in defending freedom of expression. Article 10 protects, among others, the right to criticise, to make assumptions or value judgments and the right to have opinions.

It’s one of many human rights he wants to throw away in order to strip us citizens of our rights, all in the name of making him and his billionaire funders richer and more powerful.

He wants a censored press that expresses only abject sycophancy, worshiping the one-man-band that is Reform. Whereas the actual obligation of the press is to report honest and accurate news – including on the injustice, corruption and incompetence of his political party on the many occasions when it occurs.

Reform councillor thinks RE lessons ‘brainwash’ children if they’re not 100% about Christianity

Reform councillor David Fitzgerald is a member of his local authority’s standing advisory council on religious education (SACRE).

He raised the subject of religious education apparently apropos of nothing, in a debate that was supposed to be about DBS safeguarding checks.

He’s much more concerned about Religious Education than background checks on people who want to work with children apparently. With the exception of if the RE lesson is exclusively about Christianity, in which case, all good.

On any “religious education that is not Christian“:

I am totally against it. We are a Christian country and have been for centuries, and we must remain so.

My concern is these children could be brainwashed into other things. I’m concerned about the education in religion for my grandchildren in this Northumberland county of ours.

Aside from the fact that far from every 11-year old in Britain is a devoted Christian in the first place, it seems he’s another one of these curiously scared, unpatriotic, freedom-hating men that believes that British culture and/or the religion of Christianity is so weak and feeble that if a child merely hears about the existence of other religions in other places they will be rendered “unchristian” or otherwise brainwashed – contrary to all available evidence.

In the mean time it seems possible that Mr Fitzgerald may join the long list of Reform resignations or sackings. Four MPs in the surrounding area have written to the council asking that he be removed from SACRE due to some posts he made on social media.

I do not know the nature of the posts, although perhaps one can get a clue from a statement from David Smith, one of the MPs concerned who said that:

Sharing statements like this on social media is taking us away from decent conversations about rebuilding solidarity in our communities and stirring up a kind of knee-jerk hatred that causes real harm.

Reform councillor Sam Journet arrested for stalking, harassment and public order offences

Yet another Reform councillor has been placed under arrest.

Earlier this week, police officers entered Basildon Council’s offices in order to arrest Councillor Sam Journet.

A photo of Reform councillor Sam Journet getting arrested

Why? For stalking, harassment and public order offences according to the police. The council adds public disorder and trespass to the allegations.

This follows the previous arrests of Reform councillor Amanda Clare for assault and criminal damage, and Daniel Taylor for various crimes including threatening to kill his wife.

So much for Reform being the “tough on crime” party.

Reform UK conference speaker makes the dangerous and unfounded claim that the Covid vaccine gave our royals cancer

Last weekend we saw the tragi-comedy of the Reform UK Conference.

One of the most dangerous parts of it, aside from the singing, was their platforming of Dr Aseem Malhotra.

In his talk to the faithful, he claimed that it’s very likely that our royals- presumably King Charles and Princess Catherine – got cancer because they had had the Covid vaccines.

To quote:

“He thinks it’s highly likely that the Covid vaccines have been a factor, a significant factor in the cancer of members of the royal family,” said Malhotra, who had previously said: “This isn’t just his opinion many other doctors feel the same way.”

FullFact, of course, could debunk this evidence-free claim very quickly:

Cancer Research UK told the Guardian: “There is no good evidence of a link between the Covid-19 vaccine and cancer risk. The vaccine is a safe and effective way to protect against the infection and prevent serious symptoms.”

Speaking to the Science Media Centre, Brian Ferguson, professor of viral immunology at the University of Cambridge, said: “Evidence that mRNA vaccines cause cancer is simply untrue…. There is no credible evidence that these vaccines disrupt tumour suppressors or drive any kind of process (biochemical or otherwise) that results in cancer. It is particularly crass to try to link this pseudoscience to the unfortunate incidents of cancer in the Royal Family.”

Professor Anne Mills, director of the Medical Research Council Toxicology Unit at the University of Cambridge, said: “There are no credible data for the cancer claims.”

Later in the speech Malhotra appeared to refer to the Covid vaccine as being “unsafe and defective”.

FullFact once again produces something other than wild assertion Malhotra was presenting in response.

The NHS says all Covid vaccines in use in the UK have met “strict standards” of effectiveness, as well as safety, while the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that clinical trials have shown Covid vaccines are “safe and effective, especially against severe illness, hospitalization, and death”. This is well supported by many pieces of research.

No-one of course should deny that there have been serious side effects of the vaccine seen in a few cases. There have. Very rarely. And FullFact don’t deny as such. But it’s hard to argue with the cost-benefit analysis when:

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) data shows that, in England, 63 deaths involving Covid vaccines were registered up to July 2023. But analysis from the UK Health Security Agency found that the vaccines prevented 127,500 deaths in England up to 24 September 2021.

At another point Malhotra claimed that:

we knew that the Covid vaccine wasn’t stopping infection or transmission

This was of course not true. We weren’t taking it for fun. Unless he meant wasn’t stopping every single case of it. But that’s not what he said.

A UK Health Security Agency vaccine surveillance report, published in September 2021, cited estimates that the Pfizer vaccine was 80% effective against infection with the Delta variant. It also said: “Uninfected individuals cannot transmit; therefore, the vaccines are also effective at preventing transmission.”

He also claimed that the chairman of the British Medical Association praised Malhotra’s analysis of the evidence and said that his own colleagues just got their information from the BBC.

The chair of the BMA at the time claims that that is a total lie and that he definitely said no such thing.

Dr Nagpaul told us in a statement through the BMA that the comments attributed to him were “inaccurate”, adding: “I definitely did not say that my senior medical colleagues were getting information about the Covid vaccine from the BBC.”

On the contrary, I specifically recall advising Dr Malhotra that the BMA and the senior medical profession was guided by and relied on data and information from Public Health England, the World Health Organisation, and the JCVI. The BMA also has a public health committee which has experts who were providing additional expertise regarding Covid and the vaccine to the Association.

Madcap vaccine denial is another Reform UK import from the US of course. Dr Malhotra is himself a senior advisor to the US health secretary / vaccine sceptic Robert F Kennedy over in the US – a country the Reform party leader, Farage, seems to much prefer over his own.

Over there vaccines “hesitancy” is causing suffering and death already – perhaps most famously in the cases of the poor unvaccinated children unnecessarily dying of measles.

Protect our children. We must not let these dangerous fools come anywhere near to a place where they can be involved in setting British health policy.

At least 25 Reform UK councillors quit, tried to defect, were expelled or subjected to criminal investigations within just 4 months of being elected

This blog has documented a few of the resignations, defenestrations and criminal investigations related to Reform UK’s oftentimes motley bunch of elected council candidates. These are of course the ones that have passed the vetting that is somehow apparently already too stringent in their view.

But there’s of course plenty more. The Byline Times kindly published a list of at least 15 councillors that “have been suspended, expelled, or have quit” since May. And they acknowledge that there may well be more that simply haven’t caught their attention yet. One not on their list for instance is Tony Hewitt.

Some quit within days of being elected, whilst others were caught sharing Hitler memes, spouting racist conspiracy theories, or are now the subject of police probes or prosecutions.

They divided the up into a few categories, represented below. See the original article for some details as to why these folk had to go.

Full resignations:

  • Desmond Clarke (Nottinghamshire County Council)
  • Andrew Kilburn (Durham County Council)
  • Wayne Titley (Staffordshire County Council)
  • John Bailey (Durham County Council)
  • Sam Booth (Doncaster Council)
  • David Maclean (Isle of Wight Council)
  • Robert Bloom (North Northamptonshire)

(Attempted) defections:

  • Owen Clatworthy (Bridgend County Borough Council)
  • Donna Edmunds (Shropshire County Council)
  • Luke Shingler (Warwickshire County Council)
  • Michael Ramage (Durham County Council)

Sackings:

  • Rob Howard (Warwickshire County Council)
  • Bill Barrett (Kent County Council)
  • Charlotte Gates (Derbyshire County Council)
  • David Taylor (Worcestershire County Council)
  • Barry O’Brien (North Northamptonshire Council)
  • Joseph Boam (Leicestershire County Council)

Suspensions and expulsions:

  • Ed Hill (Devon County Council)
  • James Regan (Epping Town Council)
  • Mark Broadhurst (Doncaster City Council)
  • Paul Bean (Durham County Council)
  • Adam Smith (West Northants Council)

Under Criminal Investigation:

  • Andy Osborn (Cambridgeshire County Council)
  • Daniel Taylor (Kent County Council)
  • Amanda (Mandy) Clare (Chester Council)
  • Joseph Boam (Leicestershire County Council) – this the same Joseph that appeared on the sackings list above.

Unpatriotic Nigel Farage avoids the taxes that most of us pay

Nigel Farage is certainly a millionaire, but, despite his bluster, he’s far from being a Patriotic Millionaire.

As we know, he holds at least 9 jobs in addition to the one you’d think he should be focusing on full time – being the elected representative of the people of Clacton.

This makes this ‘man of the people’ very rich. But rather than pay the income tax that would otherwise due on his more-than-£2000-an-hour job spreading lies, hatred and division on broadcaster GB News, he opts to have his salary paid to a company – the extremely cringey named ‘Thorn In The Side Ltd’ company.

Why? Because it means he doesn’t have to pay anything as like as much as tax as if you and I would if our standard jobs paid anything like as well as his does.

Nigel Farage is using a private company to reduce his tax bill on his GB News media appearances and other outside employment in a television star-style arrangement that has in recent years become frowned on by major broadcasters.

The Reform UK leader diverts money from his prime-time TV show into his company, which means that he paid only 25% corporation tax on profits, instead of 40% income tax, and could offset some expenses.

Of course he is as hypocritical as ever on the subject.

The Clacton MP, who is also paid a £94,000-a-year MP’s salary, has in the past criticised people who try to avoid tax as the “common enemy” and has previously come under fire for setting up a trust fund in an offshore tax haven.

To be clear, what he is doing is somehow legal – but for someone who claims to love his country, going out of his way to deprive the state of the funding it so desperately needs isn’t a great look.

The use of personal service companies is not illegal, but it has been criticised across the political spectrum as a way to reduce tax bills. Farage has declined to publish his tax returns for 2023/24.

Several broadcasters including the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 have cracked down on the practice in recent years. HMRC has repeatedly tightened the rules around off-payroll working (IR35) to stop this kind of tax avoidance.

This is far from the only time he’s been accused of dodging the tax due of course.

Famously, the person who spends so much time jetting across the globe badmouthing Britain that his constituents never see him, claimed that he in fact spent so much time in Clacton that he bought a house. Owning property is not the same thing as doing your job. Nonetheless:

The Reform UK leader said he had “exchanged contracts” to buy the house in Essex last November, saying it should deal with criticism that he does not spend enough time in the constituency.

But did he? No. Not according the records.

…the detached property in an upmarket part of Clacton-on-Sea was actually solely bought by Laure Ferrari, his partner of some years

Assuming he wasn’t simply lying about the whole thing and did in fact at the end of the day buy that house, why would it be recorded only under his partner’s name?

It’s another tax dodge.

The stamp duty due to be paid to exchequer is substantially higher if it’s not the only house you own. And Farage already has a house. In fact several houses.

Farage already has a property worth about £1m in the village of Downe in Kent, as well as two houses in Lydd-on Sea in the same county, which are owned through his company, Thorn in the Side. He also has property in Tandridge in Surrey.

So by pretending the house was bought by his partner as her only house, he managed to avoid yet another bundle of tax that the rest of us would be expected to pay to the state.

Farage claimed last year to have “bought a house” in his constituency, but the property is actually owned in the name of his partner, meaning he legally avoided higher-rate stamp duty on the purchase of an additional home – given that he already owns other properties.

Unpatriotic Nigel Farage skips the start of his parliamentary duties so he can go and badmouth Britain to a US conference

Nigel Farage skipped the end of his Parliamentary duties last term in order to go sun himself in has supposedly loathed France.

And now it’s time for Parliament to recommence he is once again betraying his constituents and his country by leaving again. He’ll be once again failing to do his British political job, skipping work for at least another 2 days.

Showing once again that this unpatriotic chancer is more interested in Making America Great Again and costing up to Trump than anything in his own country, he’s off to speak at the National Conservatism conference in the US.

‘Patriot’ Nigel Farage has been accused of skipping the return of Parliament this week to badmouth Britain in the US and help Donald Trump White House meddle in our politics.

A spokesperson from Hope Not Hate, Georgie Laming, explains what this conference is about:

“The National Conservatism Conference is a hotbed for far-right and populist conspiracy theories with speakers like convicted fraudster Steve Bannon in attendance”

“Yet Nigel Farage has chosen cosying up to the far-right over representing his Clacton constituents once again.”

His parliamentary colleagues are understandably unimpressed by his continued prioritisation of US politics over our own. Max Wilkinson of the Liberal Democrats sums it up:

Farage playing truant on the first days of the autumn term so he can go on another MAGA jet-set tells you everything you need to know about the man.

He’s such a big Trump cheerleader these days that he might as well don a Stars and Stripes lycra jumpsuit and MAGA pompoms.

He should put his constituents first and do his job in Parliament, rather than flying to America to help his mates Trump and Vance meddle in British politics.

Reform’s crime strategy: as unoriginal, expensive and unbelievable as their economic and health policies

Last month Nigel Farage unveiled Reform’s wannabe crime “strategy”. It is of course as unrealistic and ridiculous as, for instance, their economic and health policies.

Once again, few people who actually know about the subject really seems to believe it can work – but that doesn’t stop Farage repeating his endless misinformed and/or dishonest soundbites.

Firstly, he starts with his usual fear-mongering. “Project Fear”, some might call it. He claims that “over the past 20 years, crime has become commonplace across Britain” to the extent that Britain, in an astonishingly unpatriotic claim, is “facing societal collapse”, and that crime is 50% higher than it was in the 1990s.

Exposing his lies, the Office of National Statistics disagrees

Crime against individuals and households has generally decreased over the last 10 years with some notable exceptions, such as sexual assault.

How does Farage explain this away? With his usual conspiracy-addled claims – this time that the survey the ONS uses is “based on completely false data”. He wants us to use some subset of police-recorded crime that may or may not better suit his narrative.

But:

In fact, the Office for National Statistics regards the crime survey for England and Wales as the more accurate metric of long-term crime trends, because it includes incidents that haven’t been reported to the police and is unaffected by changes in how crime is recorded. It is unclear what Farage’s claim that it is based on “completely false data” is founded on.

The Economist also reports that despite some types of crime increasing, crime is “overall it is still down by 75% since 1995”

How has this massive yet non-existent rise in crime been allowed to happen? Because all the other parties are too forgetful or scared to mention crime apparently.

Farage is:

“astonished there’s been so little debate in Westminster amongst all the political classes on this issue”

Reality check:

Labour and the Conservatives put pledges on crime at the centre of their manifestos in the run-up to the July 2024 election, and both parties are spending a considerable amount of time debating and legislating in this area.

One of the government’s five driving “missions” is to halve serious violent crime and raise confidence in the police and criminal justice system to its highest level.

In practice, it is apparently his own party, Reform, that is standing in the way of enacting real anti-crime legislation.

Ellie Reeves from the Labour party reminds us that:

Nigel Farage repeatedly tried to block tough measures to make our streets safer. Reform is more interested in headline-chasing than serious policy-making in the interests of the British people. Farage’s Reform MPs voted against the Labour Government’s landmark Crime and Policing Bill which tackles antisocial behaviour, shoplifting, violence against women and girls, knife crime, and child abuse.

Anyway, Farage’s crime policies include constructing 5 “Nightingale” prisons, deporting 10,000 foreign criminals, recruiting 30,000 more police officers and so on.

Building more prisons and and recruiting more police officers are policies that successive governments have already espoused. There’s nothing new here. In fact, after successive recruitment drives, some say that hiring more police officers might be reaching its limit in terms of likelihood of cutting crime

Labour will hire another 13,000 officers by 2029. Police chiefs are hardly calling for more beyond that. “It would have diminishing returns and wouldn’t cut crime much at all,” reckons Graham Farrell of Leeds University.

Never one to come up with an original policy that hasn’t already been blessed by his idol, Donald Trump, he adds sending people to El Salvador & other countries to the mix. Apparently without thinking to mention his plan to El Salvador first.

He believes that this will halve crime within 5 years.

Channelling Robocop, he exclaims that:

If you’re a criminal, I am putting you on notice today that from 2029 or whenever that may be, either you obey the law or you will face very serious justice.

Apparently unaware, once again, that it is already a crime to break the law, and so many people are jailed for doing so that our prisons are bursting at the seams.

Totally misunderstanding their place in society, Farage would like it if the public were “fearful” of police.

If one is to take Reform MP Sarah Pochin at her word, part of this would involve reducing the number of female police officers out on the beat. Only the (male) Incredible Hulk need apply apparently.

“I never feel comfortable actually seeing two female police officers together
…
I think they look vulnerable.
I think that we do need to be aware of our police being able to protect us that’s what they’re there for.”

Because we’re no longer living in the 19th century, many organisations have pushed back against this diminution of the value that women bring the to police.

Gavin Stephens, the chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, hit back at the claims by saying that female officers were “critical” to tackling crime.
…
“There are no roles in policing which women cannot do, and the same exacting standards to qualify are met by all men and women who undertake some of the most challenging tasks of any profession.”

And

One chief constable told the Guardian that not just chiefs were annoyed, but rank-and-file officers also: “It takes us back 30 years, and it has annoyed my work force as well. To suggest women officers are not equal because they are not of a certain size and shape, is a disservice.”

Quite possibly Reform simply didn’t bother to look into what the job of the police actually is. In reality. believe it or not, it’s not all burly blokes punching foreign looking people in the face.

The chief said physical confrontation was nowadays a “minuscule” part of the job and women were also more likely to make an arrest without the need for force.

Reform estimates the cost of their policies as being £17.4 billion.

How could the country possibly afford to do this? Of course it’s back to the usual “scrap net zero” soundbites. Even if this money did exist and scrapping these policies wouldn’t be entirely economically self-defeating, I can’t count how many times he has re-spent this same imaginary money.

In any case, is numbers are apparently as fictional as the rest of the scheme. Mel Stride of the Conservatives highlights one example: that the real cost of providing a prison place is at least 60% higher than Reform are claiming.

“This isn’t a manifesto – it’s a fantasy, written on the back of a fag packet. Farage’s numbers are billions out. You don’t halve crime with wishful thinking. You do it with a real plan, real costs, and real leadership. Britain needs serious leadership, not amateur hour.”

He also appears to have “misunderstood” how much cost is involved in building prisons:

Mr Farage’s costs seem to be based on an outdated quote for “rapid deployment cells”, prefabricated units which have been craned into existing prisons in small batches. Five new sites would cost much more and take longer.

And the last time our government (regrettably) looked into irresponsibly offloading British criminals into foreign lands – yes, this too is famously not a new idea – it cost rather more than what Farage is telling us.

Based on Mr Farage’s back-of-a-fag-packet sums, it could be done for £25,000 per prisoner per year. Under the last government, discussions with Estonia ended because the costs were roughly ten times that.

As the Economist notes, even aside from the unworkability and incompetence of his plans:

…these policies add yet more dubious numbers to tax and spending plans that already look primed to cause a Liz Truss-style panic in the markets

Perhaps this comes as no surprise. Farage, of course, is famous for being a tremendous fan of Liz Truss’ disastrous economic plan that ended up finishing her career and weakened our country so.