Apologies - an addendum to my trilogy with an apposite example.
I said only the day before yesterday that Farage regularly used the demagogue's technique of plausible denial propaganda. Well, he only went and did it again yesterday, serving up his trademark mix of insinuation and innuendo with all the subtlety of a pub bore who’s had one too many pints.
His latest contribution to public discourse is to opine about the Southport killings and whether they were terror-related – without evidence, naturally – "I just wonder whether the truth is being withheld from us. I don’t know the answer to that. I think it is a fair and legitimate question. What I do know is something is going horribly wrong in our once beautiful country."
He doesn’t know, of course, but that doesn’t stop him from planting the idea, like a dog leaving its calling card on the village green.
It’s a classic far-right tactic, isn’t it? Ask a leading question, sow doubt, and let the rabble fill in the blanks with their own prejudices. It doesn’t matter that a judge has already ruled this wasn’t terrorism – Farage is here to stoke division, not deal in facts. And as ever, he rounds it off with a misty-eyed lament about "our once beautiful country," as though he hasn’t spent his career pouring petrol on the flames of intolerance.
What exactly is the "truth" he’s hinting at, but too cowardly to state outright? He doesn’t know, he says. But he knows something’s going "horribly wrong." Yes, Nigel, something is going wrong, and it’s the relentless drip-feed of fear and loathing from your ilk, poisoning the well of public debate. If you’re so concerned about the state of the nation, perhaps start by looking in the mirror – though I wouldn’t blame the mirror for cracking under the strain.
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