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Man Of The People, Salt Of The Earth
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Our Nige, what a trouper. No merely representing his constituency for him, not enough hours in the day, etc.
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that eejit Salmond graduated the same day as I did - a 2-2 in economics. Ultimately it was Thatch who drove him into the arms of the SNP - he had been an Intl-Soicialist for a good chunk of his Uni time. The SRC voted 9-1 for coming out of Europe and when the students were polled it was 7-1 for staying in. Thatch as Minister of Education came up, nobbled the future Lord Forsyth, then Pres. of Con students, and told him to do something about the SRC. In short, they were out on their ear with a far more centrist SRC created and, following this, a group of us took the Union out of the NUS, ending up with cheaper and better services and quickly wiping out the Union's not-inconsiderable overdraft.....
I have come to the conclusion that the rise of the likes of Farage and Trump is due to the stupidity/ignorance of the general population.
Back in April, I met a mad MAGA woman in New York; in discussing Trump with her, she believed everything Trump said was true - anything I said pointing out his lies, to her was ‘fake news’. She even reeled off a number of Trump’s lies of his achievements.
[Mark Twain once said ‘if you don’t read a newspaper then you’re uninformed, if you do read a newspaper you’re misinformed.]
I recently saw a poll result on CNN, which claimed that 75%* of daily newspaper readers in the USA would vote Democrat in the election, versus only 25%* Republican – and they have a mad Murdoch press over there too. Whereas the overall vote split is about 50:50.
This to me is strong evidence that people are believing any old nonsense they see on-line and taking it as gospel. If people got their facts from the press, there might be more critical analysis/thinking of what is really going on.
* These are the values to the best of my recollection.
“I have come to the conclusion that the rise of the likes of Farage and Trump is due to the stupidity/ignorance of the general population.”
And I’ve come to the conclusion that you’ve decided that anyone who does not share your views is stupid. It’s been a constant theme throughout your posts, whether it’s Brexit, the Tories, Farage or Trump. Your arrogance in deciding who is intelligent and who is stupid is breathtaking.
I supported Brexit, I support proper Tory policies, and I share many of Mr Farage’s views. I’ve no views on Mr Trump one way or the other because what I know about US politics you could write on a postage stamp. But around half the US electorate support him and I refuse to accept your contention that they are all stupid.
But let’s concentrate on Mr Farage, the subject of this thread and examine your statement about him:
"Qualifications are also no guarantee of intelligence (not that Farage has any to speak of)..."
Mr Farage was educated quite well. Whilst I agree this is not necessarily a measure of intelligence, it is a guide. As far as I know he did not gain a degree but instead went to work asa a commodity broker on the London Metal Exchange. He subsequently held well paid positions in large commodity broking companies, not usually renowned for paying people of low intelligence.
Politically he was a member of the Conservative Party until 1992 when, like me, he was appalled at Mr Major putting his name to the Maastricht Treaty on our behalf. Unlike me, he did something about it.
In 1993 he was a founding member of UKIP, a political party whose sole aim was to see the UK withdraw from the EU. In 1999 he was elected as an MEP, where he remained, having been re-elected three times before the UK finally left the EU. Throughout his time as an MEP he was fiercely critical of the EU and campaigned for the UK’s withdrawal. Such was the pressure exerted by UKIP on the Cameron administration that a referendum was promised as part as the 2015 Tory Manifesto. The rest, as they say, is history.
You may not agree with Mr Farage but there is no doubt that he and his party did more to alter the course of the UK’s future than all the politicians since Mrs Thatcher left office. And he did so without being a member of the Westminster Parliament and he did so when virtually the entire political machine of every persuasion was against the idea.
These are not the achievements of a person of low intelligence or who is stupid. I am not stupid (and as an aside I resent your implication that I am, but your opinion of me is not particularly important). But I would have no idea how to form a viable political party. Let alone one which radically altered the direction of this country.
It may seem unbelievable to you, but not everybody concurs with your views. 17m people voted for Brexit; 4m people voted for Mr Farage’s Reform Party (half a million more than voted for the LibDems and twice as many as voted for the Green Party). Half of the US electorate voted for Mr Trump four years ago. All of these people cannot be stupid and/or ignorant. What is ignorant is your refusal to accept that intelligent people can have views contrary to yours.
As far as lies go, as I’ve said countless times, all politicians tell lies and Messrs Trump and Farage are no different. Anybody who believes them only has themselves to blame for their disappointment. Anybody continually harping on about the lies politicians tell needs to get out more.
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