Farage backtracks on claim he was advised not to hold constituency surgeries

Well, I’d never vote for Farage or the right, but, let’s be fair, some of the new members of this shiny new Labour government have already stuck their snouts in the financial troughs. 🤷‍♀️

Awful article about the thinking of the far right:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/16/revealed-international-race-science-network-secretly-funded-by-us-tech-boss?CMP=ShareiOSAppp_Other

I wasn't excusing them - I was highlighting a different outcome to the examples in your post.

That doesn't excuse Reform

But don't worry, they have refunded the money now.

Former Green MP Caroline Lucas did something similar;

The commissioner said Ms Lucas's apology and pledge not to repeat the breach was an "appropriate outcome," adding: "The matter is now closed."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-51964434

Lol, and he's probably still more contactable than my Labour MP!

Sanctions should be brought in for MPs who don't do their constituency work. I'd be in favour of them being banned from standing for reelection. But then I think that every UK citizen has the right to stand for election and it should be made easier and cheaper, maybe even be fully funded by parliament - but once you've lost an election that's it, you've had your chance in a free and fair democracy and you don't get to stand again. Which would take care of the likes of Farage (who's failed in about 8 elections is it?) as well as any other party's constituency-hopping chosen ones. Tighten up the rules about living in the constituency too, make it a certain number of years and demonstrate local connections.

Reform are also breaking Commons rules by offering £300 tours of Parliament

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/reform-breaks-commons-rules-by-offering-300-tours-of-parliament-d35hxmmmc

It's behind paywall but there are strict rules around how MPs can use their access to parliament for financial gain.

MPs have previously been censured for offering paid tours of parliament, with punishments including suspension and having the whip removed.

He posted a video of himself foraging for mushrooms. Clearly staged and he hasn’t a clue as he said you can tell a mushroom by smell and easy peeling.

If he really did forage for mushrooms, he would have poisoned himself ages ago.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/travel/news/nigel-farage-as-youve-never-seen-him-before-enjoying-a-countryside-hobby/ar-AA1sbWtY

Anyone else tired of him cosplaying as a rural Englishman?

I’m not sure that’s accurate. The people who vote anti immigration always have complaints. About immigration for a start! What effects it has on them. Or so they say. They aren’t self sufficient I suspect.

The Farage voters of Clacton likely couldn't give a shit. They're unlikely ever to have gone near an MP's surgery (and probably never knew such a thing existed) and are just thrilled they're the 'chosen ones', regardless of the fact that he'd wouldn't piss on them if they were on fire in the middle of the road. In Lord of the Rings speak they have 'the precious'. It doesn't matter that he's a massive twat flicking them the V signs at every opportunity.

Surgeries are usually looking at personal issues and aren’t really representation in a wider sense. He got 46% of the vote and obviously doesn’t represent the views of everyone. Turnout was low at 58%. So he definitely doesn’t represent the full constituency. However what did anyone expect? The UKs biggest attention grabber behind Boris Johnson. It’s all about him and always will be. Constituents can write to. Ministers, form pressure groups, etc but Farage was not interested in the constituency. As in most constituencies, a minority decide for the majority. The 40% not voting could have altered the outcome.

I think the law should change to allow for MPs to be removed if they don't make themselves available to those they are paid to represent.

Oh that was so funny he really tried to spin that.
Do people still think he's an honest man of the people?

Oh yes. I doubt Donald thinks he needs Farage. It’ll be like the shooting when he rushed over to support his friend and didn’t even get to see him.

I think he thinks Donald needs him, I think he's wrong.
His fans in Clacton probably think he's discussing them with Donald, I think they are wrong too.

It’s less than a month until the US election. His mate Donald probably needs him. The people of Clacton can’t be expected to take precedence over that.

Well, he wouldn't have had time to turn up to his constituency. He'll have been practising for last evening's party political broadcast. He was on for more than a minute after a strange American voice had twittered on for a bit. No, I can't remember the substance of what either of them said.

Rant over.🙏

For the TL:DR folks:
Teenage me in the 1980s was braver, more hard working and better served the UK than grown man, Nigel Farage MP is in 2024.

My first job was at Dorothy Perkins. 8hrs a week while doing my A-levels.

In my first week I ended up locked in a heavily bombed building where the first I knew of it was a man blown across the shopping centre by one of those bombs. The police rescued me and my colleague from the building. I turned up for my next shift. And every shift after that.

I left school and became a civil servant. Bombings and bomb scares were a "normal" thing. Something I expected because I worked for the government, and I got on with it because it was my job and I was glad to have it.

I lived in times when it was dangerous to be at work, at the pub, even at the bus stop. I still went in. I still went out. So did my school mates, my family, my, neighbours, my colleagues.

None of us on Farage's salary. None of us with the resources available to the sitting MP for Clacton.

I'm fucking raging at Nigel Farage. He's a stirring, workshy wee cunt who hides his laziness behind cowardice, inventing "victimhood" to get out of doing his job.

What a Scumbag!
Shame on him.

Does anyone know how the people of Clacton feel now? Particularly the ones who voted for him?

I don't think many people who voted for Reform have a strong grasp of how the constitution works. Vox pops during and immediately after the election suggested they thought once he was in Parliament he would be able to get a lot of things changed. As he leads a party with five MPs out of 650 and Labour has 411, that was never going to be the case.

I would assume that they voted for him on the "stop the boats" card and expected him to be working on this at a higher level.

I imagine they'll be disappointed on that front as well then.