The March of the Far Right...

[Soph0571]

A pact with Farage is a pact with the far right...
I predicted this ages ago - Farage as Deputy PM after any election if the Tories do a pact with them.
A literal Russian agent far right wanker in number 10 - not just the wannabee one.
I truly believe if Boris goes for this our democracy is literally at risk....

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Ah, the "non-aggression pact" - a phrase with a long history

that seems quite appropriate here.



https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2019/aug/27/steve-bell-on-boris-johnson-nigel-farage-and-a-non-aggression-pact-cartoon

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Has the Brexit Party paid the proper rate for that ad, or has the Express given it to them

either for free, or reduced rates?

[Soph0571]

3. I reckon the Express did it at a very reduced rate

This is their ideal coalition...

[Denzil_DC]

5. It's a wrap.

Though the rest of the propaganda inside is probably indistinguishable anyway.

I'm sure the Brexit Party's open accounting methods will in time give you an answer to your question (I'm not sure).

In January, the Express had a reported annual circulation of 321,146 (down over previous years, like all hard-copy media), so it's low-middle-ranking, behind the Metro, Sun, Mail, Evening Standard, Mirror, Times, Telegraph and Star, though the impact of large headlines on news stands is obviously also a factor.

I'll just hide it under the Racing Post or whatever if I see it in the supermarket, as I usually do whenever I can be arsed.

[Denzil_DC]

4. From what I've heard, Cummings doesn't like Farage one bit.

But Cummings will reportedly be leaving his post on 31 October (he has some condition for which he needs an operation under general anaesthetic, and he supposedly promised his wife his time as Johnson's brain would be time-limited so he could go ahead and get it done - no waiting lists for that champion of the working class, obviously).

Whether that claim of bad blood is real or another chunk of propaganda, I've no idea (Cummings is an intellectual and political snob if nothing else, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's true), nor whether Cummings would overcome it for the prospect of electoral gain, or whether Johnson will stride out on his own path once Cummings leaves post.

Given the fuss about the Tory pact with the fringe DUP (and the earlier fuss about the possibility of the SNP shoring up a Labour government), you'd hope such an alliance would taint the Tories so much it'd be out of the question, but given the times we live in ...

It's an alliance potentially fraught with danger - both during the election, when I guarantee the calibre and histories of some of the Brexit Party candidates will grab some unfavourable headlines, and in any parliament after, when MPs of a party without a detailed manifesto and with no constituency structure or formal leadership hierarchy beyond the Great Leader himself could mean benches stacked with loose cannons - so I guess it depends on how desperate things seem.

The Tories need to make substantial gains in seats they've never won even to mark time, most if not all of the 13 Scottish Tories look like being wiped out, what Johnson is reportedly moving towards at the moment to try to resolve the Northern Ireland question would mean leaving the DUP out in the cold, and the recent defections may also make things more difficult in a number of seats, even without factoring in the role of the Lib Dems in Tory-held seats.

If Johnson goes for it, I suspect that'll be the end of the Tory Party as it's been known, and the resignations and defections we've seen so far may be eclipsed by a mass exodus.

[Denzil_DC]

6. While we're on the subject of newspaper coverage,

the Telegraph posted this on Twitter this morning:

Link to tweet

Telegraph Politics ✔
@TelePolitics

Nigel Farage is the Brexit Icarus. Here's how he can see us fly out of the EU to freedom | Hunter DuBose https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/09/11/nigel-farage-brexit-icarus-can-see-us-fly-eu-freedom/ …

One of the subs or whoever runs their social media accounts must have belatedly remembered (or looked up) what happened to Icarus, because the headline on the Telegraph website reads:

Here is how Nigel Farage can avoid being the Brexit Icarus and see us fly out of the EU to freedom
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/09/11/nigel-farage-brexit-icarus-can-see-us-fly-eu-freedom/

The text underneath it is a laboured warning to Farage about what befell Icarus. I've no idea whether a hasty rewrite was required.

It looks like the Twitter version of the headline has been picked up by a number of sites (taking the piss out of it) and aggregators. I wonder whether it made it into the print version?

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. I think I saw it on their website this morning in the sidebar as "Farage is the Brexit Icarus"

because I thought at the time "not like the Telegraph to get a classical allusion wrong" (though these days, maybe it is - they're more 'quick and cheap' than 'this is the proper old-fashioned way to write'), or to write something saying Farage will fail. I didn't bother opening the article, though, so I've no idea if it got re-written too.

[Denzil_DC]

8. The author, Hunter DuBose, is billed on the website as "Producer of Brexit: the Movie"

and is listed on Google as Managing Partner at Spitfire Capital Advisors, among other things, so I'm not sure how schooled he is in the Classics.

I'm also not sure the Telegraph should be giving space to the ravings of someone who partnered with a convicted criminal and was stupid enough to part with nearly half a million quid in a blatant scam:

Activist behind pro-Brexit movie faces prison after admitting fraud

A Conservative party activist who produced Brexit: The Movie is facing a possible jail sentence after he admitted lying to secure a £519,000 investment in his fledgling hedge fund.

David Shipley, 36, was a leading voice in the campaign for Britain to pull out of the EU, and was one of the people behind the pro-Leave film, which featured Nigel Farage and David Davis and came out a month before the 2016 referendum.

He will be sentenced next month after he admitted lying about his earnings to secure the investment in his company, Spitfire Capital Advisors, in 2014.
...
He said Shipley’s business partner Hunter DuBose, also a producer on the film, was then convinced to plough £450,000 into the firm. “The company wouldn’t have existed but for the lies Mr Shipley told,” said Mr Munday.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/activist-behind-probrexit-movie-faces-prison-after-admitting-to-fraud-a4087981.html

But then he's stupid enough to still have his association with the disgraced Spitfire Capital Advisors freely available online, including on the Financial Conduct Authority's website, and let the Telegraph associate him with a daft film co-produced with a convicted criminal and designed to appeal to wingnuts, so I'm not inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Here's DuBose, in case his shiny chinlessness helps to form an opinion (far less flattering pics are easy to find online):



Anyway, the media have picked up on it, including the Independent:

People can't stop laughing at this David Lammy joke about Nigel Farage

The Daily Telegraph ran an opinion piece by documentarian Hunter DuBose on Wednesday describing Nigel Farage as the "Brexit Icarus".

The piece was trailed on social media with the tag line: "Here's how he can see us fly out of the EU to freedom".

But there was a problem with this conceit and Labour MP David Lammy, historian Sarah Churchwell and writer Mark Gatiss were only among the most prominent to spot it.

https://www.indy100.com/article/brexit-icarus-nigel-farage-telegraph-tweet-david-lammy-sarah-churchwell-9101096

Link to tweet

David Lammy ✔
@DavidLammy

You are not going to be happy when you find out how the story of Icarus ends.

Link to tweet

Telegraph Politics ✔ @TelePolitics

Nigel Farage is the Brexit Icarus. Here's how he can see us fly out of the EU to freedom | Hunter DuBose https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/09/11/nigel-farage-brexit-icarus-can-see-us-fly-eu-freedom/

Link to tweet

Mark Gatiss ✔
@Markgatiss

You do...um...know the story of Icarus?

Link to tweet

Telegraph Politics ✔ @TelePolitics

Nigel Farage is the Brexit Icarus. Here's how he can see us fly out of the EU to freedom | Hunter DuBose https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/09/11/nigel-farage-brexit-icarus-can-see-us-fly-eu-freedom/

If the article did hit print in un-rewritten form, I guess someone will ferret it out so we can all point and laugh some more. Otherwise, I suppose it's just another sub-editor cock-up.

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. Nigel Farage won't be allowed anywhere near government, say Tories

The Brexit party’s leader, Nigel Farage, has been heavily criticised by Boris Johnson’s team as “not fit and proper” in an outright rejection of his offer of a pre-election, no-deal Brexit pact.

Farage offered to help the embattled prime minister secure a majority at a snap general election, on the proviso he dropped plans to renegotiate the Brexit withdrawal agreement and the backstop arrangement on the Northern Irish border.
...
A spokesperson said: “The PM will not be doing a deal with Nigel Farage.”

A senior Tory source added: “Neither Nigel Farage nor Arron Banks are fit and proper persons and they should never be allowed anywhere near government.”

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/sep/11/nigel-farage-wont-be-allowed-anywhere-near-government-say-tories

Pot and kettle, of course. But I wouldn't rule out "the PM will not be doing a deal with Nigel Farage" being circumvented with the Tory party chairman doing the deal, and Farage not getting 'in government', but doing a confidence and supply agreement. The Tories are, after all, boasting about their ability to do what they want by creative interpretation of language.

[Soph0571]

10. They are liars

Maybe they don’t want too, maybe they do....who the hell knows?

[Denzil_DC]

11. The next day's Express front page: