For those whose trade is in falsehood and misinformation, there is usually a reckoning, a painful denouement, somewhere down the line. For former UKIP Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage and his use of a slot on LBC to peddle his brand of alternate reality, that moment of truth came yesterday when he found himself seriously out of pocket after his campaign against Hope Not Hate turned out not necessarily to his advantage.
Squeaky £100K climbdown finger up the bum time
Farage had, with his customary sensitivity, gone on the attack against Brendan Cox, whose late wife, Labour MP Jo Cox, was so brutally murdered outside a constituency surgery last year. “Well, of course, he would know more about extremists than me, Mr Cox, he backs organisations like Hope Not Hate, who masquerade as being lovely and peaceful but actually pursue violent and very undemocratic means” he claimed.
Hope Not Hate do no such thing, but the group does make a habit of calling out the kind of hateful bigotry in which Nige trades so willingly. Their problem was that they, like all the other little people, did not have the means to take Mr Thirsty to the cleaners in order to cause him to retract his lies. So they crowdfunded their legal case. More than 16,000 people chipped in. Now they have had their day in court and Farage has lost.
Hope Not Hate’s CEO Nick Lowles put it directly: “For too long right-wing politicians have got away with smearing and abusing their opponents. We drew a line in the sand and 'no more’”. Dead right they have. But for Farage, the idea of admitting that he not only fouled up, but lost, could not be allowed to enter. So he resorted to lying once more.
“I am very surprised at @hopenothate’s announcement today that they have won their legal case against me. Some victory! Their statement today is thoroughly disingenuous” he blustered. But, as the Guardian has reported, Hope Not Hate won, and Mr Thirsty lost: “The case had been due to be heard later this week, but after a meeting on Friday between lawyers from the two sides, Farage agreed to back down over the claim … Hope Not Hate said Farage had promised not to repeat the claim or let anyone else do so on his behalf”. He lost. Nick Lowles felt duty bound to point this out to The Great Man.
“Let's look at the evidence. You have acknowledged that we are not violent or undemocratic and you have promised not to repeat it. Sounds like a victory to me”. Moreover, Farage will have to pay his own legal fees, which have been estimated to be around £100,000. After so many years sponging off the EU, he can easily afford it.
And while he claimed Hope Not Hate “demanded an undertaking to the court which they did not get”, as the Guardian had to point out, “A spokesman for Farage declined to say what undertaking had been sought which he did not give”. In other words, Mr Thirsty is once again shooting from the hip and has been caught out lying.
As Lowles concluded, “He’s picking at straws and trying to find any crumb of comfort; this is not a victory for him, it’s a humiliation”. Worse for the former head Kipper, Hope Not Hate’s example is now likely to be followed by others Farage casually defames.
And that’s before his involvement in the Trump-Russia comes back to bite him. The phoney politician that is Nigel Farage was for a time, but not for all time.
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