He is the most popular UK politician on one of the world’s most popular social media sites. Working out what that means is actually surprisingly difficult
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here’s a famous clip that still does the rounds on social media, which is weird, because it’s Russia Today, hardly regular viewing, it happened in 2017, a fairly long time ago, and it was on the show Sam Delaney’s News Thing, which was never appointment viewing. In it, Nigel Farage is ceremonially knighted by a girl of about seven, who then says: “My mummy says you hate foreigners.” Delaney cuts in, “No no no, little girl”, and Nige falls about laughing, because good old Nigel, he’s always game for a laugh.
Pause on whether or not Farage hates foreigners; the reason I can do an impression of the little girl is that every teenager I know is pitch perfect on all three parts – the girl, Delaney, Farage. Whenever people say, “Is it bad that Nigel Farage is the only politician my kids have heard of? Should I worry?”, I try in vain to think, “No, this is nothing to worry about – this is just a peculiar moment that went viral, the wind changed and it stayed like that.”
This is wearing thin, unfortunately; the Reform party leader enjoys a TikTok following of 1.3 million, miles ahead of any other UK politician. Zarah Sultana is the next nearest, with 489,000, which is testament to the fact that she understands the medium, rather than resounding proof that Your Party is shaping up the way she hoped or intended.
