Here’s a challenging article on UKIP leader Nigel Farage from Alex Massie writing in The Spectator blog:
« Nigel Farage is a phoney. There is a simple solution to everything that ails the United Kingdom: leave the European Union and, to all intents and purposes, close our borders. Then we shall enjoy a new Golden Age.
It is an illusion wrapped in a lie inside a fraud. No such solution presents itself. In the unlikely event Mr Farage got his way almost every problem this country faces would remain intact ? and remain as impervious to simple solution. »
« Instead of smearing themselves with tar and feathers, mainstream politicians should remind populists that they do the hard work of politics: representing constituents, reconciling competing claims and taking an interest in dry corners of legislation that affect people?s lives. Most politics is necessary drudgery. Seen from this angle, the ?elite? are the people who get their hands dirty. And populists who damn the whole spectacle from cosy sidelines are the truly decadent ones. »