Farage has won this one

I could have said, ‘Tommy Robinson has won this one’, but that might have been too much for those who a) accidentally stumble on my right-so-far pearls of wisdom and are gibbering wrecks for the rest of the day or b) are compelled by their inner demons to keep revisiting my blogspot, akin to a junkie taking another shot of heroin. Here, I could have said, ‘akin to Thunberg sailing back to Israel for another bout of starvation, torture and humiliation’.

Yeah, right. No one with an ounce of intelligence believes that. As the joke doing the rounds on social media says: “Thunberg is the first hostage victim in history whose kidnappers’ only demand is that she leave.” Did you read that the flotilla was carrying, in its own words, only “symbolic amounts” of aid? It was never about helping Gaza; it was just a cynical, self-serving, antisemitic publicity stunt for Thunberg and her fellow misfits that include at least one IRA sympathiser, a comedian, a guy in a pink puffer jacket, and an obscure, impotent MEP.

What has this to do with Farage (or Robinson)? Read on, and let’s first look back to the (once) fashionable woke-branding of the Cross of St George and the Union Jack as symbols of racism and colonialism. At best, these flags, our flags, played second fiddle to those of the EU, 'Pride' and, most recently, Palestine. 

Then in July 2024, Reform UK entered the House of Commons with their first five elected MPs. They talked repeatedly and vociferously about uncontrolled immigration being bad for Blighty. They highlighted the impact on the economy, the miraculous availability of accommodation that hadn’t been found for our homeless veterans, the disproportionate levels of crime, and the fact that those directly impacted – Brits living in the worst affected communities – were not allowed to voice their concerns in case they were branded racist, sacked or jailed. Almost overnight, everyone of all political persuasions was talking about uncontrolled immigration. Farage had permanently opened the Overton Window that little bit wider.

Shortly afterwards in May 2025, Reform outdid themselves at the local elections and hoisted our national and county flags in the communities they now controlled. Coincidentally in July, the Saint George's Cross was even more widely flown throughout the nation as a show of support for the England women's football team in the Euros. We did of course retain the title, which extended the habitual temporary outpouring of national pride.

The temporal correlation between Reform UK preferencing British flags, England winning the Euros, and then ‘Operation Raise the Colours’ cannot be ignored. Did Raise the Colours, the brainchild of (reportedly) an ally of Tommy Robinson, jump on an opportunistic bandwagon, or was it months in the planning? Whichever it was, flags flew, road markings were adapted, and Jack and George were the toast of silent-for-too-long communities.

Between them, Farage, football and Robinson’s mate got the flags flying again. At first, the flag-flyers were belittled by the usual anti-British cartel: flag-flyers are racist; St George wasn’t English; the flags are divisive and intimidate some communities: the usual AI-fertilised Twitter-twaddle. That began to change when successive polls showed Reform surging even further ahead, on course to form the next Government. There's more: Robinson’s Unite The Kingdom rally in September drew millions (I did a quick reccy of the aerial photos) of flag-flying, flag-adorned, flag-worshipping men, women and children from diverse backgrounds. Arrest-stats are enlightening: eight UTK supporters plus 17 from the miniscule, dubiously funded 'Hate-not-Hope' counter-protest.

At this stage, the anti-flaggers realised they’d lost the argument (someone ought to tell Gary Neville that), and Labour panicked that they were also losing voters. They had to do something to regain control of the agenda. What did they do? Pretended to be patriots and wrapped themselves in our nations’ flags, trying to out-Farage Farage. In other words, Farage, aided by God-sent coincidences, has made our nations’ flags not only acceptable, but desirable. Farage has won this one. As Charlie Kirk might have invited, ‘disprove my logic’.

If Farage, with a little help from coincidence, can make dissing British flags unacceptable, could he now facilitate, or be the catalyst for, the demise of rampant antisemitism in Britain? Last Sunday’s rally in London after the Manchester synagogue attack was awash with the Star of David and a fair few Union Jacks. Could we see David cosy up to Jack and St George in Reform-controlled communities? Could such a move become so popular that Starmer orders his Stasi-Stormtroopers, and Davey his doltheads, to say nice things about Jews and about Israel? That might actually prompt resignations from Lammy, Mahmood, Rayner and Kahn, et al. Score! More profoundly, could Starmer be panicked into reversing his recognition of ‘Palestine’, and the MoD into readmitting Israeli participants into its most prestigious defence college?

There remains, of course, the little problem of supporters of Palestine Action. What to do about them? What’s the best way to demonstrate their irrelevance, show them to be the tiny nasty minority that they are, and effectively silence their voice? In theory, that’s easy. Demonstrate that they’re having no impact on political decision-making, the UK Government being a steadfast ally to Israel (because if we don’t, Israel will stop being our ally, and they have the upper (Mossad) hand). Cut off the head of the snake: imprison the PA organisers, freeze bank accounts, block communication channels. Name and shame the nodding-dog antisemites – make them unemployable, business outcasts, social pariahs.

This sort of action will take political courage and a multi-establishment approach. Farage, for all his flag-success to date, can only do so much and could, like Robinson, become counterproductive. Assuming (hoping, praying, dreaming) that Starmer takes the knee to Judaism, other influential figures must speak out. Faith leaders, especially the new Archbishop of Canterbury, have to take a consistent and persistent stand. King Charles III, who to date appears to be an apologist for multiculturalism at any cost, and his naval-gazing son, have to step up and show their mettle and their promotion of British values and Christian teachings. They all must find a way of supporting and protecting British Jews without annoying the decent, pro-British Muslim factions in this country. I’m sure Queen Lilibet would have found a way.

Jews and other patriots are watching and waiting. In the meantime, #IStandWithIsrael.