the brilliantly leaping gazelle

When I was in a medically induced coma for a month after my accident, they had to put a tube down my throat to help me breath,  but whilst essential to keeping me alive then, now it has had a a rather unfortunate consequence on my speech. Also when I woke up, it was discovered that the part of my brain responsible for movement and co-ordination had been damaged. That’s enough to be going with.

Thankfully, my powers of critical thinking, logical deduction, and consequential reasoning were pretty much the same as they were. Thats why there was no realistic prospect whatsoever for me voting for the Nigel Farrages Brexit Party, not just because he looks like Kermit the Frog, not just because he has a surname that sounds like some cheap copy of chocolates that Excellency’s spoil us with, and not because because, as I wrote in the less divisive climate of 2014;

Nigel likes to prove his man of the people credentials as often as possible, either being interviewed or photographed in a pub and is often seen drinking a pint. Is it only me that remembers that photo’s of that well regarded humanitarian Tony Blair , albeit onebeing photographed with a mug of tea, strumming a guitar, or famously, when walking with the peace loving George Bush, having both hands tucked rather too self consciously into his jeans. Only me, I suppose who thinks that any politician who wants to appear like a ‘pretty regular kind of guy’’ – as Blair claimed to be – is usually anything but.

Because, who knows, it might just be me being cynical, maybe he really is a regular man of the people, albeit one who went to Dulwich college (a public school) and upon leaving  embarked on a career as a trader in brokerage firms on the London Metal Exchange. This is the sole extent of his working history until he became an MEP (a Member of the European Parliament).. A politician who went to public school and then worked in the city before becoming a politician. Sound familiar? Or am I just being cynical?

Not only is it because, as I wrote in 2014

Only a cynic would point out that that is why his personal details are a suitably vague. Equally, if ones main hobby-horse is to bang on about a little Europe has done for this country, and how Britain would be better off divorcing ourselves from a political union with Europe, the last thing you want known is that not only do you command a large salary from being an MEP  – over £78,000 per year. (That’s not including paying your wife up to – no-ones quite sure – £20,00 a year for being your secretary) Or that your voting record is only 45.57%

No, what you wouldn’t want known by a public outraged by M.P’s expenses, was that you’d claimed over £2million in expenses since riding the gravy train first class.

Nor is it because, as Jonathan Freedland in yesterdays Guardian, asked,

Why is Nigel Farage immune to scandals that would destroy his rivals?

just before going onto list them for us. I hadn’t paid much attention to the Aaron Banks paying for his chauffeur and car before, until I realised that if it was a smear, it was one that had benefited our man of the people £450,000!

No, it is because his brand of plain, honest speaking, that you can’t trust other politicians and because I’m not one of them, you can trust me, I understand your concerns, I get it is symptomatic of a right wing populist movement that’s gaining ground all over Europe. Under the guise of articulating whatever invented threat, exaggerated fear or existential threat that poses a threat to democratic norms that succeeds in garnering popular support, they’ll fan those flames whilst complaining about the damage the fire is causing.

And recent history has shown us where this kind of populist, rabble rousing can lead. No, not to Hitlers Germany. But we should’ve learnt from that before the horrors General Ratko Miadic, Bosnia, and ‘ethnic cleansing.’visited Europe. If we don’t learn from the past, we’ll repeat it and it’s only when we’ve reached the point of no return that people realise they’re on a slippery slope

Like I said I;m brain damaged, not mad.