How the Telegraph reported Farage’s Taliban idea…

What unlikely connection exists between the Taliban and the journalists of Nottinghamshire Live? Well, Reform UK suggested doing a deal with the former but won’t talk to the latter.

To set this in context, Nigel Farage flourished his latest mass deportation plan at a press conference in Oxford on Tuesday, pledging to send back “absolutely everyone” arriving in the UK on small boats, including women and children. By yesterday he’d already stepped back from that after being accused of ugly and destructive rhetoric (to be fair, the only sort he knows).

Paying the Taliban to accept migrants was one of his suggestions – a gruesome scheme that could have seen people who’d fled the Taliban being returned to Afghanistan to face extreme danger, or worse. And the British taxpayer would have to pay the Taliban. Unsurprisingly, the Taliban said they could work with this, while everyone just else put their head in their hands.

When a reporter at the first conference asked Farage if he was bothered about women and children being sent back to Afghanistan, the spluttering little man said he was more concerned about the social unrest on our streets, and the safety of women at the hands of migrants.

Ah, yes – the social unrest Farage has exaggerated wildly and also conjured up with his endless divisiveness, his confected, opportunistic outrage. His – oh, God, his horrible bloody everything. The hatred, the grievance, the sucking up to Trump; yes, the lot, every squalid shred.

And he’d like to deport your rights, too.

Farage wishes to abolish the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), brushing aside assorted securities so that if elected (heaven forbid) he could do whatever he wished without legal restraint.

Oh, and he and his American billionaire petrol-powered chums and right-wing backers would also then, according to entirely believable concerns, like to abolish the state pension and the minimum wage, along with paid holiday and sick leave, start fracking everywhere, loosen our gun laws, and eviscerate what’s left of the NHS, leaving us with an unaffordable US-style insurance system instead.

Oh, you lot are always saying mean things like that about our Nigel, the Reform UK followers will complain, while struggling to squeeze into their new Reform UK football tops (honestly, I’ve not made that last bit up) before shinning up a lamppost with a St George’s flag.

Well, yes, we are – and so we should.

Farage needs to be exposed to full scrutiny, rather than the easy ride he so often receives, where the screens and the pages are emptied so that he can spew out his latest racist bilge. He has never run anything aside from assorted political parties made in his own image; and he has never worked in government; mostly just on making himself very rich.

One retort for Labour would be to remind everyone about Brexit, that cause of so many of the country’s ills – including the so-called small boat crisis, brought about in large part by Brexit, as owned by Mr N Farage.

Slogans aren’t everything, but a cutting one would help, something distilled from: ‘Don’t buy anything from this man – remember what happened last time he knocked on your door.’

I only hope Farage has peaked too soon. And just wish the media would say, oh, do pipe down Nigel and come back in four years when there’s actually an election.

Apologies to those journalists from Nottingham, who’ve been left hanging around since the first paragraph. What’s happened is that Reform UK’s councillors in the area are refusing to speak to the local media and will not invite the journalists to cover county council events.

Reform UK, locally and nationally, do hate being held to account. As the website writes: “Nottinghamshire Live and its historic Nottingham Post newspaper, which has been delivering news to the city and county since 1878, has essentially been told it is no longer allowed to scrutinise those running one of the biggest authorities in our area.”

Of course, if you’re weary of seeing Farage everywhere, I suggest a visit his constituency in Clacton on Sea. He’s never to be found there.

Although an admirer of the BBC, I have made my first complaint to the corporation. You will not be surprised to learn it’s about Nigel Farage, whose every squeak is amplified by the BBC into an uncritical chorus.

Here is the wording of my complaint, under the heading: Endless pushing of Nigel Farage:

“As a longtime fan of the BBC I am mortified by the endless slavish and unquestioning coverage you give to Nigel Farage. His every utterance is promoted, including his remarks today about a ‘scourge’ of immigration. You appear to be pushing Reform UK without offering balancing views. Not good enough.”

Stronger words are available, but those were mine.

Footnote:

Since this blog post was published, the BBC has replied as below:

Dear Audience Member
Thank you for getting in touch with us about our recent news coverage of Reform UK.

BBC News is committed to providing our audiences with fair and impartial coverage of all relevant political parties. Whenever we invite representatives of any political party to take part in our coverage, we are careful to ensure that views are appropriately challenged and analysed, over an appropriate period of time. Our Editorial Guidelines make it clear that: “Evidence of past electoral support and current electoral support should be taken into account in making judgements about appropriate levels of coverage and prominence.”

Traditional voting patterns across Britain have been shifting, providing a challenge to established political parties, especially Labour and the Conservatives. At the 2017 general election, those two parties combined won more than 80% of the vote – at last year’s general election, that figure was well below 60%. Current opinion polls put their combined support at nearer 40% across Great Britain.

During the last year or so, Reform UK (formerly the Brexit Party) appear to have been the main beneficiary of this shift. Our assessments of “past electoral support” include both representation (ie how many MPs are elected) and also vote-share (ie how many people actually vote for a party overall). Although they have four MPs currently, Reform UK won more than four million votes in the 2024 general election, making them the third largest party in terms of vote share (more than 14%), behind Labour and the Conservatives, but ahead of the Liberal Democrats, who nevertheless returned more than 70 MPs.

In the 2025 English local elections in May, Reform UK won a majority of ten councils plus two Mayoral contests, securing more votes across England than any other party (an estimated national share of above 30%). On the same day, Reform UK won a parliamentary by-election in Runcorn and Helsby, with nearly 39% of the vote in that constituency.

Assessing “current electoral support” includes an obligation to take into account legitimate opinion polls, especially where there are robust and consistent trends (as measured by voting intention polls conducted by members of the British Polling Council). All such surveys fully conducted since the May elections (a total of more than 90 consecutive polls) indicate that Reform UK are ahead of all other parties across Britain; during August, the party’s polling average across 17 opinion polls, from a range of companies, increased to 30%, ahead of Labour (21%), the Conservatives (18%), the Liberal Democrats (14%) and the Green Party (9%).

Recently, Reform UK announced its immigration strategy and we considered many people who had voted for the party (or say they intend voting for it) would be interested in seeing the proposals. However, BBC News hasn’t simply reported on the strategy, we have also provided political analysis, scrutinised its spokespeople and heard from many individuals and parties across the political spectrum, including the government, providing a wide range of views on the issue.

With regards to Nigel Farage, he is an elected MP and leader of a political party with clear evidence of significant electoral support. Many political analysts across the media, with different political perspectives, report that Reform UK are “making the political weather” – in other words, the reactions and policies of the other political parties can only be properly understood in the context of knowing what is happening with Reform UK and its increased level of support.

We give careful consideration to ensuring any story concerning Mr Farage and Reform UK are given proportionate and appropriate coverage on our networks and online. We thank you for taking the time to get in touch, and your comments have been passed along to senior news editors.