To be worried about the dark political direction of this country

[Krenonges]

Has anyone else seen the video doing the rounds of Farage being properly grilled in Congress? Honestly, it was the first time I’ve ever seen him held to account, unlike here, where the UK media give him endless airtime and barely challenge him.

They raised his 17 appearances on Russian state TV and his open admiration for Putin. Shocking, but not exactly surprising. Apparently he’s over in the US slagging off the UK, trying to cosy up to Trump, and giving speeches at far-right, anti-abortion events. Is this genuinely what he’s about now?

What I can’t wrap my head around is how he continues to poll so highly. Time and again he seems to act in ways that are completely at odds with the UK’s best interests, yet his supporters see him as some kind of saviour who’ll “stop the boats”. The irony being, of course, that the small boat crisis is a direct consequence of Brexit – the very thing he spent years pushing.

I know politics is never squeaky clean, but this feels different. It feels like there are darker, more insidious forces backing him, with the aim of undermining and dismantling the country bit by bit. It’s frightening to think how many people are still buying into the image he’s carefully crafted for himself, when the reality seems so much murkier.

All I ever hear from Reform voters when I challenge them is 'Yes, but Labour are crap' or 'You're just a leftie'. I'm not that left wing or even a Labour supporter, and i know Labour arent doing a good job right now. I just can't understand why people think Reform is the best alternative when Farage is clearly going to pimp the country out to his rich backers. The 'stop the boats' immigration debate is just the red herring, dog whistle policy that will get him votes.

I was shocked to read that Germany has designated parts of Syria “safe” zones for refugees and border control are turning away anyone who isn’t pregnant or an unaccompanied minor

OP, can you add links to any of the footage you’ve mentioned, please? I’d love to show it to quite a few people I know.

I share their concerns, but I don’t brlieve Farage or Reform have the answers.

There must be a way of ensuring a country isn't overwhelmed by migrants though. What if 100 million people just turned up on our doorstep. The country would collapse and it'd be carnage. I'd hazard a guess that they're not all genuine asylum seekers either.

Mn are more out of step on this too, the support base has recently polled as more mainstream.

There is no winning for ordinary people here. We have a global, capitalist economy. The elite want cheap labour at any cost, whether that is immigrants or you.

As for Farage, fool me once shame on you but fool me twice?

That's a wild generalisation.
Millions of pet owners are supporters of the RSPCA, RSPB, Wildlife Trust, National Trust, WWF and other wildlife charities.

If you support Farage you support bloodsports.

A lot of the county do. MN, like any social media site, are not really representative of anything 🤷‍♀️.

About 30% according to polls. Which is far from a majority.

Where do you live OP to think that "immigration is a red herring"? Since the Boriswave and Operation Scatter there's hardly a corner of the country that hasn't, at minimum, been impacted or, at worst, completely transformed by immigration.

Are you on the Outer Hebrides?

Farage, a man you can trust, straight as a pretzel.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/sep/06/nigel-farage-admits-he-was-wrong-to-say-he-had-bought-house-in-clacton

Well I live in London and I reckon probably about 70% of us are immigrants or children of. Not necessarily from outside the UK (although that too) but also from other parts of the country. It's great, other than the housing situation. But honestly the even the housing problem isnt just "foreigners" causing that. It's people from other regions, people living longer, and more smaller households.

This isn't true.

There are huge areas of the country where immigration has barely made a dent. Have you been to Dorset lately? Only 6% of population are immigrants. East Sussex 8%, Cornwall 4%, Northumberland 2%, Norfolk 8%, The North East 7% , Wales 7% and Northern Ireland 9%.

In my opinion it’s so easy to see why people are turning to the likes of Farage and the far right. Brexit, Covid, shit governments who did not care in the slightest about normal people, energy prices, inflation…..to name but a few of the reasons that the country has turned to utter shit. People with little to no prospects, with sky high bills living in shit holes with local amenities closing all around them and a lack of NHS availability become disenfranchised, prime candidates for turning to the far right but rather than acknowledge and fix the generally crap conditions that people are living through despite their ever increasing tax and NI payments the government (in terms of media agenda at least - I am not anti immigration before anyone starts) seem to prioritise people arriving illegally. Instead of engaging with people who question this they are instantly branded as racist and therefore their opinion instantly means nothing so yet again they feel they have no voice, no way of changing the status quo. Then someone like Farage comes along, he doesn’t have their best interests at heart one bit but he says stuff that they agree with, he blames their problems on the EU, immigration, ‘wokeness’ and creates a bad guy for everyone to get up in arms against.

If people had decent jobs, nice places to live, proper healthcare and community facilities they would be far less likely to fall for all this shit but no one is interested in fixing the root problems, those chasing power will just say whatever they need to in order to win and the thought of someone like Farage winning is terrifying.

I think he's way out of his depth. He's been seduced by being able to play with the big boys (Putin, Trump) who won't think twice about shafting him when the time comes.

In my opinion the man is an idiot, a bully and a pathetic little coward.

Beautifully written

Bejaypers..

RFK Jr has nothing on some of the posters here.

You live in a world where private corporations can tailor the ads and other material you see on your electronic devices and can pinpoint your exact location at all times, and you're all in a tizzy about ID?

You've painted a picture of a beleaguered group of farsighted truth tellers mocked by the complacent majority who have their fingers in their ears and refuse to see the patently obvious.

Just like any other gullible group that has allowed itself to be possessed by the revolutionary zeal peddled by well financed people who are smarter than them, in other words.

I'm in Trump's America and it is frightening. The gestapo-like ICE raids combined with the government ignoring the Bill of Rights scares me do death. Now there are employment ads on television recruiting current police officers to apply at ICE where they can do their jobs without interference. Yeah, interference like due process. Presumption of innocence. No warrantless arrests. The current fascism is undeniable. We will find out this term if SCOTUS has any balls.

Terrifying.

Unfortunately the UK seems hellbent on following rightwing suit.

What’s more scary is that we’ve traditionally been an extremely tolerant, multicultural nation. The turn of events is frightening for many of us.

Personally I understand why people are angry. Cost of living is rising faster than ever before and so is poverty. We are the sixth largest economy in the world yet each passing year more and more people are slipping over the line into poverty. They are angry and rightly so. A third of us are living in poverty. It’s insane.

Yet if anyone thinks that Farage is coming to save them they are DELUSIONAL. He’s proved with Brexit he is a liar and a con artist.

I'm not sure Labour have much choice. It doesn't matter what they do, the right wing media will always spin it negatively. The deck was stacked against them from the start.

@Itstheshowgirlfair points. But why does no one question HOW this happened?

Much goes back to Thatcher selling the family silver so to speak. I blame most of our problems to the Tories. Seriously, what did they do that was great? Other than making people selfish. Didn’t she say ‘there is no such thing as society’? Well we need society, and we have NOTHING of our own. So are at the mercy of global markets.

And Farage loves all that. His followers may be crying for change but they’re chasing the wrong solution.

Tailoring adverts? That’s really not an issue. Digital ID - depends what it entails and the what’s attributed to it.

Scapegoating is critical to fascism. Find a definable group, Jews for Hitler, immigrants for Trump. Demonize the group and watch your followers allow you to do anything against that group. The difference now is that anyone who believes this nonsense has no excuse. We are not (neither the UK or USA) are in dire financial straights as was Germany in 1933. We are relatively economically heathy. That won't last, however, because Trump is insane and he will bring the country down. That is how he operates. Six bankruptcies in companies he ran. On the edge of insolvency when he got elected.

Absolutely agree but instead of looking at how we got here and what we do to fix it we have people just saying ‘they are just racist there is no excuse’ which just writes people off and sends them straight into the arms of the far right.

Failing to address root causes just makes the problem worse but it’s far easier to just ignore all that and then scratch our heads in wonder at why far right politicians are gaining huge followings.