To ask about Nigel Farage Question Time appearance just now

[Acapulco12]

Question Time hosted interviews and an Q&A this evening with Adrian Ramsay (Green Party co-chair) and Nigel Farage.

I watched it to see what they both had to say, as I’d never heard Adrian Ramsay speak before and because I wanted to see how Nigel Farage would present himself and to see what he would say.

NF said many things I didn’t agree with and don’t think are true. However, one thing he said in particular shocked me - he said the Clacton Labour candidate has said very racist things over the last few days. NF said this with so much confidence and conviction, but I can’t find any evidence of it anywhere and no one called him out on it (not Fiona Bruce - the presenter - or anyone in the audience).

The only thing I can find about the Labour candidate is that he’s been moved to stand somewhere in the Midlands, rather than Clacton, and people are complimenting his dress sense online, but that’s it - I can’t find anything about his allegedly racist views at all.

AIBU to think this is unacceptable that NF was not challenged at all for slandering the Labour candidate?

The Labour candidate for Clacton stated that his favourite drink was “white man’s tears”.

Can you imagine the uproar if Farage had said his favourite drink was “black man’s tears”

Thanks for clarifying. I had no idea as it’s not being reported anywhere.

You arejoking, right?
The "white man's tears" remark caused such an uproar that reputedly he was removed from Clacton as it was pulling so much press attention away from Kier Starmer.

None of the news articles I’ve read have explained why he was removed from Clacton. I’ve just Googled the ‘white man’s tears’ comment now, and it’s not being reported in any of the main papers. I haven’t seen anything about the comment until Charlie2121 mentioned it in their post just now.

Here is a link to some coverage, the racist remark was a reply to a tweet in 2019 according to The Independent.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/farage-clacton-labour-candidate-election-b2562143.html

I missed that. All the reports I’ve read suggested that he was attracting a fair bit of attention and it was distracting from Starmer’s campaign, so he was bumped off elsewhere. Is anyone reporting on his comments?

I thought Farage was completely disingenuous on several points- particularly the racist comments made by numerous of his own candidates which he brushed aside very quickly. His whole modus operandi is to incite fear in his audience and then, occasionally, offer a vague sop when put on the spot about his remarks by being asked what he would actually do.
The questions were awful I thought and allowed him to wriggle, dismiss and waffle pompously. The question from the Dr was appalling as were several of the ones about racism and he was not challenged by them. He tells outright lies.

Same here - I had the same experience.

I didn’t think the questions from the audience were bad, but I agree his answers were really poor (as expected).

He had the opportunity to freely waffle and completely avoid fhe question, and just offer populist answers and solutions to the really complex issues raised by the questions.

He also kept on complaining about the current state of the country, rather than offering any clear solutions (although all of the candidates have done that).

This is the tweet
Funny how it got very little coverge

he said the Clacton Labour candidate has said very racist things over the last few days. NF said this with so much confidence

Like what? What has the Labour candidate said over the last few days?

The tears post is from 4 years ago.

Yet we have a Reform candidate on a campaign trail saying he wants to deprive ethnic minorities of medical help and shoot asylum seekers.

I agree with you. I don’t think he should have said the things he did - it’s not okay for him to say them, or for anyone to say things like that.

However, as you say, he did say them 5 years ago, which is a long time ago, and I would hope he has grown up and matured significantly since then. I am not at all saying this to defend or excuse his comments. They are not excusable and I won’t excuse them.

I do think though that we need to make it clear - as you say here - that he made these comments 5 years ago and not recently, as NF suggested in the QT episode tonight.

The fact that the Labour candidate made those comments obviously delights NF, as it takes the heat right off him and also fits his racist agenda nicely.

I’m not questioning whether he actually said them, if the tweet has been dug up. I just can’t find anything to suggest that was why he was removed.

I’m quite surprised that nobody in any of the other parties has come out to say that if we’re playing a game of ‘count the racist comments our candidates have made’, this Labour candidate wouldn’t even be top 50.

The internet is forever.

Yes, but I don’t think that’s always appropriate.

White people aren't a minority and are not oppressed so it's not the same.

Being an apologist for racism makes you a racist yourself.

I completely agree.

I don’t know really where to begin, as that is such a sweeping statement.

In theory, yes, that comment is racist.

But it’s not really. And I think that’s because, as @StaunchMomma says, white people have not only never faced the level of racism experienced by people who are not white, but also because white people have - in most cases - been responsible for the racism inflicted by people who are not white, for hundreds of years.

He wasn't moved to stand as a candidate in the West Midlands instead of Clacton: that would be literally impossible at this stage in the game. He was allegedly instructed to go to the West Midlands and campaign in target seats and keep very quiet in Clacton: but that story dates from before the "white men's tears" kerfuffle.

Clacton wasn't a target seat for Labour so their gimlet-eyed campaigners centred on more winnable seats. Also, it looks like they took a cynical view not to interfere with Reform taking lumps out of the Tories.

Personally I'm with the lefties who say that Labour should be fighting Farage on the ground in Clacton; my enemy's enemy is still my enemy if he's Nigel bloody Farage.

Not really, since it wasn’t ’in the last few days’ as Farage apparently said a cording to OP. It was in 2019 before he got into politics…plus it’s clearly a joke. It’s not a racist comment in the way that Reform candidates have made racist remarks. Plus it was covered extensively…I knew all about it.

So you think it was an appropriate comment for a Political Candidate running for office for the largely white area of Clacton to say that his favorate drink was 'white man's tear's' because he is from a marginalised group?

You think that potential voters for him as their Candidate for that area are not going to be concerned that their interests and needs are not going to be fairly represented by him and that his disrespect and personal aversion towards them is not concerning?

To me it shows that the Labour Party will focus on devisive identity politics when in office and the coalition of London metropolitan elites and greavance groups and minority groups while the white working class voters that they used to represent will seek out other parties and sectarianism will become normalised in UK politics.

This is one of the articles

https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/labour-clacton-candidate-says-running-for-every-black-brown-person-uk

Here's one from the 'unbiased BBCQT' audience last night