Ashcroft, Michael, The Farage Factor, Reform UK and the Remaking of British Politics; Biteback Publishing, London: 2026.
Crick, Michael, One Party After Another, The disruptive life of Nigel Farage; Simon and Schuster, London: 2022.
These two biographies tell the same story of Farage’s early years, and his entry into employment in the City of London, at the London Metals Exchange. They then follow his career as the leading figure of the various political parties he has taken part in; what is found here about the years since around 2014, is known by anyone who has been moderately alert to politics in Britain since that time. Some of the behind the scenes things, to do with Farage’s social interactions might be explained in more depth, but even these are known generally. We learn how small parties work, and how Farage’s parties came to prominence, and then disappeared.
It has become acceptable to say, that witout Farage, those parties would not have succeeded as they did. And perhaps this is true, too.
The origin of the story is where we find the fascination and magic, which is greater than Farage, and, if we were looking for a way to clone or reduplicate him, then here is where it would be. Farage took to politics around 1994, and as a direct result of the Maastricht Treaty. The European Union cannot usually find the right amount of votes among national populations, when it demands a vote for increased federal cohesion, and so it resorts to treaties, which are the same thing as laws, but with the appearance of being temporary.
The Maastricht Treaty was concerned with bringing about financial, governmental, and even military union to the continent. One could have foreseen, that in later years, the organisation would create a President, suitable for a federation which aimed to become a new massive nation. Farage decided to find or form a political party in Britain, which would lead the country away from the eventual fate which awaited Great Britain, clearly indicated by the treaty. To lead Britain away from a future in which it would be merely a regional part of a European state, was his objective.
It remains an objective, since, for reasons I want briefly to discuss, those people who were encouraging the dissolution of Britain in this way, are still at work; or, more properly, the reasons why individuals would want to dissolve Britain, still appeal to a great many people, and those people do tend to run Britain today. Which is to say, the gradual erosion of Britain is taking place in part because that has been what almost all senior British statesmen, politicians and diplomats, have aimed at, since the last war. And, therefore, if that event is to be avoided, then a different type of statesman, diplomat, politician is needed even or especially now.
Farage sometimes makes trips to France and Belgium, to visit the old battlefields and cemeteries of the Great War. That war is what, in my view, the dispute over Europe is really all about. The men of Britain who died in the armed forces in the Great War, did so for one of two mutually exclusive reasons. First, they did so to ensure the independence of their country, and, their death for that purpose, must ensure that their wishes are held to be sacred. Or, second, one may view the case like this: the major nations of Europe must never fight again, and the only sure way of ensuring this, is to join them together until they cease to have any difference of any kind. And this is also viewed as a means of remembering and honouring the dead; since, they were needlessly sacrificed for the old and silly idea, of nationhood; so the justification for European integration goes.
It would be possible to think, that after the Great War, the League of Nations was formed, which did not work to prevent war; so, after the Second War, the European Union was formed, which, with considerable United States oversight, has worked. But this is only to pursue the argument, that the Great War was fought for no reason. As I said, it was fought for a reason, namely British independence or supremacy over Europe, not membership of a mega-state.
There have been terrifically bad events in Britain, since 1997; largely to do with open borders and increases of population due to immigration. Many of the effects of this disaster, have been felt, but covered up. Crime and worse, has proliferated. The economic impact has been considerably negative for British people. There have been other things to cause concern, such as a careless foreign policy respecting various foreign powers, such as Iraq, or Russia, which were pursued without regard to British interests.
And, the cause of these mistakes has been, that the class of politician who now governs Britain, in all major parties, has believed that Britain must be dissolved, slowly, cautiously, into Europe. It is for this reason, that Farage has come to prominence. For, there are few if any, men who will object to the policy of dissolving Britain and its parliament. On the other hand, as the Brexit referendum proved, and this ought never to have been in doubt, there is a majority of people in the country, which does not want political economic and military union with France, Germany, and the other European nations.
The Reform party was founded around 2021, and Farage only became its leader in 2024. When the first of these biographies was written, in 2022, the author claimed that Farage had left politics. This serves to prove how little we know about the future of our politics as a nation. Since that time, the Reform Party has appeared to be capable of running the country.
If a government were formed from Nigel Farage’s party, it would need to continue the struggle against Europe. In the first instance, obviously, the European Union now stands as a foreign state, with which Britain must deal. But the deeper task, is to remove or re-educate the governing class, so that they feel the same commitment to British independence, which those people feel, who, speaking poetically, believe the dead of the Great War, demand an independent country.
It is the permanent class of government which still perceives its job as, to dissolve the nation, that is now the great problem. A greater problem than the European Union or the EEU was. And, it must be done, for it is no coincidence, that this class has been trying for years to dissolve Britain; and, to also notice the fact, that Britain is Broken. The only recourse, it seems to me, is to now set about fixing Britain, regardless of the opposition, the inertia, of perhaps 80, but certainly 30 years, of going the other way.
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