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Stephen Townsley's avatar

In 1838 Dickens wrote Nicolas Nickelby. In which the literary definition of “gammon” appeared for his audience.

Dickens described an MP being of the “gammon tendency”.

“a tough, burly, thick-headed gentleman, with a loud voice, a pompous manner, a tolerable command of sentences with no meaning in them, and, in short, every requisite for a very good member indeed”.

In 2025 Dickens would have recognised Farage had he still been writing. It’s hard to believe that in a modern democracy we still have grifters like Farage.

He has no opposition. The current Labour leader sees joy in having no discernible political opinion. If the public sees their lives get better it will appear as some passive administrative act of a non-political government rather than something distinctively Labour. Farage may even claim any improvement to public sphere as a Brexit benefit.

Boris Johnson was too lazy and incompetent to be a threat. Farage’s only redeeming feature is that when he gets close to power he runs away. A perpetual rebel that fears putting his nonsense into practice. A legacy of personal enrichment while polluting the public space and damaging Britain.

A dull, cautious, timid, non-political, administrative Labour Parry with few ideas is not a meaningful challenge to Farage. Particularly now it wants to play in the Farage safe space of immigration.

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Sue Wilkinson's avatar

Regarding Farage’s claim that family is important to him, I’d be very tempted to ask his kids what they think about that.

The fascists operate a well worn playbook don’t they. Most of us can see it coming a mile off. But not everyone sadly.

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