What is it that attracts racists, Islamaphobes, homophobes and general bigots to Nigel Farage?

Iam64

The Irish history is so reminiscent of the heroism and loyalty shown by groups from what were called ‘the colonies’.
I remain stunned that the awful Lawrence Fox suggested the film 1918 was being woke and historically inaccurate by showing one - yes just one - Sikh soldier

That says a lot about him not understanding our history. The Gurkhas have been fighting as part of the British army for over 200 years, and are formidable soldiers.

He’s a racist misogynist.

I live - as the crow flies a couple of miles - away from the Chattri Monument where Sikhs and Hindus were cremated after they died serving the U.K. in the First World War.

It is a peaceful place.

Many of the injured soldiers were cared for in the Royal Pavilion as it was felt that they would feel at home within the palace. Kind thoughts but misguided😊

The Chattri

Nicenanny3

youtu.be/HQHn_RivO2Q?si=s9oEer4OCve0ah4O

Perhaps listen to his speech before making judgements.

There you go again. Assuming that I hadn’t already seen it. I have listened to Yusuf's speech and read and studied it.

Yusuf (38) is only inspiring to those who don’t bother to scratch the surface of what he said or do any research about him. His speech was riddled with nonsense, inconsistencies, seriously insensitive inaccuracies and downright lies. He must have though that nobody would know anything about the history of slavery and British colonisation, or the history of America, Canada and Australia or fact check about his company.

Yusuf has made himself a very rich man through the sale of his hugely loss-making, jointly-owned company Velocity Mobile to Capital One. The bank is a massive supporter of the gun industry, the NRA and supplies loans to Israeli weapons-maker Elbit Systems. This company has been the subject of international condemnation and divestment due to its complicity with Israel’s severe violations of international law and human rights conventions. Hardly an ethical choice. This condemnation pre-dates the current war and the sale of Velocity. Capital One’s involvement with Elbit must have come to light during due diligence but Yusuf and his business partners went ahead with the sale anyway.

He claims that a British value is equality under the law. Please explain how this squares with Farage saying that Reform will leave the ECHR and how it squares with taking money from a bank which supports an Israeli weapons-maker condemned for violations of international law and human rights conventions.

He had a damn cheek too talking about housing shortages when the very rich people he was pandering to with his concierge app may well have been the very same people that acquire buy-to-leave properties in London. I remember when Kensington Council were struggling to find accommodation for the 300 people who survived the Grenfell Tower fire in which 72 people had died. Meantime 1 in every 8 properties in the borough stood empty.

whoownsengland.org/2017/06/18/where-are-the-empty-homes-in-kensington/

At the time of the Grenfell tragedy, there were 1,399 vacant dwellings in the borough.

There are currently over 700,000 properties that are unfurnished and standing empty in England alone. (ActionOnEmptyHomes)

But it’s so much easier to blame immigrants than the rich for the housing crisis.

Merion hear, hear!

I've just listened in full to the speech and largely agree with Merion. The bits about how wonderful our empire was to those countries and how we exported our values to them, given how we treated colonial subjects, just made me feel sick. We killed, enslaved, exploited, and exported our criminals or rich ne'er do wells.
Gave them "equality?".

LizzieDrip

Merion hear, hear!

Agreed.

Thanks for the well researched post, Merion

Do you have a link to a transcript of Yusuf's speech?

Foxie48 The remarks at the end of your post further up the thread are so very true. I am the child of a well off Czech mother and an Italian father I was born in the UK, into a middle class household and have never been regarded as anything but British. On the other hand the daughter of one of my friends who has a West Indian father but also born in the UK has met with racist remarks at school and at university, I wonder why. Farage and his ilk are very dangerous in my opinion.

I can't find a written transcript of it.

Wyllow3

I can't find a written transcript of it.

Merion said s/he'd read it.

Yes, so I googled every which way but unsuccessfully. I'd prefer it too - to be able to expose some of the refs to Empire etc.

Farage and his ilk are very dangerous. They legitimise racism, make it acceptable and give people a common enemy. That's why he is likened to Hitler. He's no friend of the common man although he says he represents them, he's just using their disatisfaction for his own purposes. Great analysis of Z Y's speech tbh I couldn't be bothered to read anything put out by a supporter of Farage even though I know I should! I should think the history dept at his old school is shuddering with embarrassment or perhaps that's what they teach in private schools!

Very well said Merion! It's good to have someone such as you posting after having done actual research and thus being able to scratch below the surface of Reform.

Is there any bank which doesn’t have links with the arms industry?
Yusaf sold a concierge company aimed at high value customers. A million miles away from the arms industry.

I think regardless of content of any political speech, Yusaf makes connections with an audience. Sunak and Starmer simply don’t have the same speaking ability.

It’s also interesting that Labour is repeating social class politics and Reform is not. I don’t know if politicians from migrant families have different experiences and outlooks to fully home bred working class candidates? Hence Labour and mixed attitudes to private schools and revisiting social class.

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Nicenanny3

Vintagewhine

Farage and his ilk are very dangerous. They legitimise racism, make it acceptable and give people a common enemy. That's why he is likened to Hitler. He's no friend of the common man although he says he represents them, he's just using their disatisfaction for his own purposes. Great analysis of Z Y's speech tbh I couldn't be bothered to read anything put out by a supporter of Farage even though I know I should! I should think the history dept at his old school is shuddering with embarrassment or perhaps that's what they teach in private schools!

What a load of tosh, speaks of desperation mentioning Hitler. Why not listen to his speech and make your own mind up, if you have one.

Maybe you should do read up on some of the history surrounding Hitler's rise to power. It's not tosh when there are so many parallels.

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I think regardless of content of any political speech, Yusaf makes connections with an audience Regardless of content? Are you saying that you can be mesmerised into believing anything if the speaker is charismatic? That's dangerous.

ronib

Is there any bank which doesn’t have links with the arms industry?
Yusaf sold a concierge company aimed at high value customers. A million miles away from the arms industry.

I think regardless of content of any political speech, Yusaf makes connections with an audience. Sunak and Starmer simply don’t have the same speaking ability.

It’s also interesting that Labour is repeating social class politics and Reform is not. I don’t know if politicians from migrant families have different experiences and outlooks to fully home bred working class candidates? Hence Labour and mixed attitudes to private schools and revisiting social class.

Zia Yusuf went to the independent Hampton School, so presumably comes from a wealthy family. I don't know why people think that people don't look down on others, just because they have dark skin.

Goodness, Nicenanny, I would look for more courtesy than accusing people of lying and telling them to " make your own mind up , if you have one".

My mind, ( and I do have one) tells me Merion knows what she (?) is talking about.

Wyllow3

I can't find a written transcript of it.

YouTube has a written transcript of it (Click "show transcript") It's done by AI, so not particularly accurate.

If anyone cares to, youtube itself has the speech and will show both subtitles on-screen, and also a transcript to read.