Thursday, April 30, 2020
Farage searches for relevance
Poor Nigel Farage. He no longer has a seat in the European Parliament and none of the news outlets want to talk to him because COVID-19 is dominating the agenda. Brexit has been pushed to the backs of people's minds as we struggle with social distancing, a struggling economy, job insecurity and self-isolation. What is a failed politician to do?
What Farage did do, was to travel more than 100 miles, in defiance of lockdown regulations, to film a video rant about migrants. A claim by his spokesperson, reported in the Mirror, that he was acting as a broadcaster who enjoy key worker status as long as they are providing public service information, is just laughable.
As the paper reports, the former MEP chose to travel from his Kent home to a Pett Level, a south coast beach, while ordinary Brits are being told to stay at home. He later travelled further down the coast to Hastings where he interviewed members of the public. The video was later emailed out to supporters under the title "the media aren't reporting this."
Perhaps they are not reporting it because it is not news. Lockdown rules say members of the public are only allowed to leave home for four reasons - shopping for food and medicine, exercise once a day, medical trips or caring for others and essential work. If Farage was acting as a journalist then he would have to be involved in public service broadcasting to justify this trip. That does not appear to be the case.
Perhaps the police could perform a public service and fine him for breaking the rules.
What Farage did do, was to travel more than 100 miles, in defiance of lockdown regulations, to film a video rant about migrants. A claim by his spokesperson, reported in the Mirror, that he was acting as a broadcaster who enjoy key worker status as long as they are providing public service information, is just laughable.
As the paper reports, the former MEP chose to travel from his Kent home to a Pett Level, a south coast beach, while ordinary Brits are being told to stay at home. He later travelled further down the coast to Hastings where he interviewed members of the public. The video was later emailed out to supporters under the title "the media aren't reporting this."
Perhaps they are not reporting it because it is not news. Lockdown rules say members of the public are only allowed to leave home for four reasons - shopping for food and medicine, exercise once a day, medical trips or caring for others and essential work. If Farage was acting as a journalist then he would have to be involved in public service broadcasting to justify this trip. That does not appear to be the case.
Perhaps the police could perform a public service and fine him for breaking the rules.
