The Farage effect is real but what will his legacy be?
Newly crowned Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, has put himself forward for MP of Clacton-on-Sea, but lets just say his campaign launch didn’t get off to a good start.
However, MetroTalk readers find Farage’s ability to draw fans something to behold. After all, this is the politician that offered Britons a carrot in the form of Brexit, and just over half of us bit. Years on, our readers say the country is yet to see its benefits.
Now leading Reform, readers are divided on whether the former UKIP leader will stoke division or create positive change.
Share your thoughts on these topics and more in the comments.
Nigel Farage's charisma and what did Brexit deliver?
I listen to Nigel Farage as he stands as a candidate and boy, does he make sense. Every word a paragon of common sense. How can you argue with it?
His ability to articulate the thoughts of a nation and assimilate in a sentence or two, each issue.
It’s not just the words, it’s the tonality and emotion. And then I thought of Brexit, how he weaved his rhetoric and voiced the people’s concerns and articulated the solution in one word, ‘Brexit’.
That single issue divided our friends, families and communities. Our nation! It has delivered nothing and it continues to make our lives worse off both personally and professionally. I have yet to meet anyone who really believes that Brexit was a success.
Now he’s launched his campaign, he searches for the things that drive us apart, not bring us together.
Nigel Farage’s silver tongue will do nothing but polarise our people and create the dysfunctional dystopia now seen in the US. Is that the future we want for ourselves and our children?
And, can we all go through another highly charged political drama? I can’t. Tony Howarth, London
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With his nationalist/populist appeal, Nigel Farage might be thought of as Britain’s Donald Trump.
However, he is of course a lot more articulate and sophisticated. For that reason I think he can best be compared to a string of English political ‘influencers’ stretching from Joseph Chamberlain to Enoch Powell. Although neither became prime minister, they exercised, in many ways, more influence than the men nominally senior to them.
Chamberlain was the great prophet of British imperialism. Powell, less creditably, latched on to a deep current of xenophobia still apparent today. It will be interesting to see what Farage’s long-term effect is. Andrew McLuskey, Middlesex
The return of Nigel Farage to frontline politics comes at a time when, to ensure our very existence, the UK, and indeed the rest of Europe, needs urgently to prevent further mass immigration and the push towards World War III.
When you look beyond the window dressing of their policies, Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer are two sides of the same coin.
With them comes continued mass immigration, societal breakdown, restriction of freedom of speech and more war. We need not just Reform but a political revolution in the UK and the rest of Europe. Farage can lead the way. C Porter, Manchester
Joe (MetroTalk, Tue) says I contradicted myself by ‘noting the 2.5million people of working age on benefits yet ringing alarm bells about workers getting too many rights and a proper wage’. I can’t see how.
Those 2.5million people are not working due to medical issues and the point has been made by many, including Sir Keir Starmer, that this needs to be addressed.
The Office for Budget Responsibility says getting people back to work will increase economic growth.
The gist of my letter was plain, none of the parties acknowledges the challenges the country faces and the notion that somehow a Labour government is going to sweep aside the problems is ludicrous. John Daniels, Redhill
If Jim (MetroTalk, Tue) seriously believes a ‘silent majority’ will rise up in righteous anger because of Sir Keir Starmer’s proposal to scrap VAT relief for private schools, I regret to inform him that the reason his ‘majority’ is so quiet is because it does not exist. Nick, London