Every country has politicians who, while damaging national interests and dividing society, claim they are nationalists and patriots. Unfortunately, people fall for their divisive rhetoric time and time again. I have observed this several times in my twenty-five-year journalism career, and when I see the same patterns repeated over and over again, I’m compelled to raise my voice.
For example, in the UK, where I live, Nigel Farage, who, as a young man, sang Hitler’s racist songs, now masquerades as a ‘patriot.’ Such was his behaviour that his teacher called him a ‘fascist’ and a ‘racist.’ Ergo, it’s hardly surprising that Reform UK attracts Nazi supporters who think Britain would be better off if Hitler had won the war.
Farage has damaged our country in many ways. He echoes Putin’s rhetoric on the Ukraine war, which supports the conspiracy theory that the ‘West,’ primarily the expansion of the EU and NATO, provoked Russia. The fact that Kremlin posts in support of Farage and his Reform Party is a cause for concern for Britain’s national interest. The irony is that he parrots Putin and claims to be a British patriot. History has echoes of such people. In the 1940s, for instance, ‘Lord Haw Haw,’ whose voice was very similar to that of Farage, broadcast in support of Hitler.
Brexit, Farage’s pet project, damaged the British economy, caused the sterling to plummet, disrupted social harmony, and diminished our place in the world. At the time, the consensus among main political parties favoured membership in the EU to reap the benefits of being in the single market.
Recently, members of Farage’s party called Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister of the UK, a ‘Fucking Paki.’ Though Farage has tried to distance himself, statements from his party members are a direct outcome of him othering Sunak, the UK’s first Hindu Prime Minister, by accusing him of not caring about ‘our history, our culture.’ Is calling the Prime Minister of the UK a ‘Fucking Paki’ an act of patriotism? Or is it plain and simple racism? Any sane voice would not need any further explanation.
I believe the real patriots, the real nationalists, are people who work diligently to support people in need, not people who whip up hate and damage or divide society for electoral gains. Think of the Samaritans and Childline volunteers at the end of a phone 24 hours a day, volunteers at food banks, refugee and homeless charities and the countless people working to support and bring communities together. Unfortunately, their work, labelled ‘doing good,’ is considered ‘boring.’
In contrast, Farage’s dangerous invective against immigrants and his support for misogynists like Andrew Tate get the oxygen of publicity. And it is not the first time that such self-seeking chauvinists masquerade as nationalists who work in the interest of the people.
At a young age, I witnessed the damage done by politicians who peddle political hate, especially targeting minorities, for electoral gain. In 1963/4, a local headmaster in Smethwick, West Midlands, called Peter Griffiths, who contested as a Conservative, ran a campaign which came to be regarded as the ‘most racist election in British history.’
Griffiths believed he could beat the sitting Labour Member of Parliament, Patrick Gordon Walker, if he campaigned on one issue: race and immigration. He formed an unholy alliance with the local paper, Smethwick Telephone. Every week, its headlines promoted fear of immigrants. One couldn’t live or work in the borough without hearing the slogan, ‘If you want a nigger for a neighbour, vote Labour.’
His most ardent supporter, Councillor Don Finney, set up an ‘All White Association’ and concocted lies to justify the persecution of ethnic minorities. For example, Finley claimed that ‘an 84-year-old widow, living alone in a house [in Marshall Street], was literally worried to death by Indians.’
Disturbed by such accusations, a retired GP, Dr Dhani Prem, asked for evidence. However, Finney didn’t reply. So, the doctor visited Marshall Street to talk to residents. The people he met were distressed that Finney used the woman’s natural death to promote his views. Her relatives were embarrassed. Dr Prem then went to the police to see if there had been any reported incidents. The police replied:
We have no record on our files of any complaint by or about this old lady. I am rather surprised, in view of what is alleged, that no one reported these goings on to us.
But the damage was done. People bought into the lies, and Peter Griffiths won the election.
Fortunately, racism can be beaten. Two years later, Andrew Faulds, a Shakespearean actor, defeated Griffith. He stood up for racial equality and was not mealy-mouthed and apologetic. Harold Wilson, who had become the Prime Minister, delivered the fatal blow to Griffiths by calling him a ‘Parliamentary Leper.’
However, the next phoenix of fascistic politics rose on 20 April 1968 when Enoch Powell, the Member of Parliament for Wolverhampton, used scare stories to demonise minorities. Powell delivered a speech which hit the headlines and became known as ‘the Rivers of Blood speech,’ which polluted the political psyche. It read:
For these dangerous and divisive elements [immigrants, in particular the Sikhs], the legislation proposed in the Race Relations Bill is the very pabulum they need to flourish. Here is the means of showing that the immigrant communities can organise to consolidate their members, to agitate and campaign against their fellow citizens, and to overawe and dominate the rest with the legal weapons which the ignorant and the ill-informed have provided. As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding; like the Roman, I seem to see “the River Tiber foaming with much blood.
Within two days, it had its effect. I saw that black and white children, who had previously played together, were now playing as separate groups. I walked into the playground to see the white children at one end and the black at the other.
As a young man, Farage was inspired by Powell. He still openly admires him. He calls him his ‘political hero’ and believes that the central thrust of Powell’s arguments about immigration holds true.
We should fight hate mongers like Griffiths, Powell and Farage from reinventing pernicious versions of nationalism and stop them from dividing society. Such self-serving politicians are anti-British. The narrow, parochial perspectives he espouses do not represent British values.
Thanks to the likes of Edward Heath and Harold Wilson, Britain is now the most integrated country in Europe. We have Rishi Sunak, our first Hindu Prime Minister; Sadiq Khan, a Muslim, re-elected as Mayor of London; James Cleverley, of Afro-Caribbean ancestry, is Britain’s Foreign Secretary. There is no turning back.
British citizens representing us in sport, music, and art are of all colours and origins and are proud to be British. Surely, if you are a true patriot, you want the best for all our citizens, regardless of colour, religion, or gender.
Farage, who calls himself a ‘nationalist,’ is indeed working against British interests. He has shown himself to be against the wellbeing of our country—be it Brexit or threatening the defence of our country by cosying up to Putin or by othering the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Don’t let politicians persuade you that fellow human beings are the ‘other’. Each of us is unique, and we should celebrate our inclusive culture. For, people, regardless of their religion, race or gender, have more in common than what divisive figures like Farage want us to believe.
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