Populists are good at putting their fingers on problems, but they rarely have the right solution. So it is with Nigel Farage’s tirade about the lack of honesty, trust and integrity in our political system. What’s more, he’s partly responsible.
Now it would be wrong to pin all the blame on Farage – or even Brexit. Politicians have been telling lies and making false promises for decades. The prime minister herself hasn’t been straight with the people about the dismal choices we face.
But the dishonesty went stratospheric during the referendum. And it was Farage who popularised the two worst lies: that Turkey was due to join the EU in 2020; and that we send £350 million a week to the EU (no, we don’t). These were later picked up by the official Vote Leave campaign.
The Leave campaign didn’t just lie in the referendum. It cheated. Leave.EU, the campaign Farage backed and his buddy Arron Banks funded, has been referred to the National Crime Agency, our equivalent of the FBI, for “multiple criminal offences” by the Electoral Commission. And yet Farage has the nerve to talk about integrity in politics.
The Brexit Party leader said he wanted to talk about trust in his interview today with the BBC’s Andrew Marr. And yet he refused again and again to defend his past views: for example, that the NHS should be replaced by an insurance-based system; that worrying about global warming is the stupidest thing in human history; that he feels uncomfortable with foreign languages being spoken on trains; and that people with HIV shouldn’t be allowed into the country.
Farage said probing these things was “ludicrous” and “ridiculous” – and in the same breath said he wanted to talk about democracy and trust. But how can you talk about trust in politics if you refuse to defend your own record?
The Brexit Party leader has also said a new referendum would be the “ultimate betrayal”. But, as Marr pointed out, Farage said last year that maybe “we should have a second referendum”. How can voters trust politicians if they slam as an “ultimate betrayal” something they themselves have advocated?
Farage says a new referendum would be a betrayal “because we haven’t implemented the first one… That’s how the democratic process works”.
But if a democracy cannot change its mind, it ceases to be a democracy. There is mounting evidence that the people no longer want Brexit. What’s more, this is partly because the reality of Brexit bears little resemblance to the fantasy Farage and others promised three years ago.
So yes, we do have a problem of lack of integrity in our politics. But the Brexit Party leader isn’t the man to fix it. He has helped pollute our political system. Anybody who cares about our democracy must get out and vote against him in the European elections on May 23.