Everyone's missing the point about Nigel Farage's school days
Written by: Bill Curtis. METRO
We all made mistakes at 13; we should focus on the mistakes Farage is continuing to make.
No matter who you are, no matter how progressive your politics, you have to concede - none of us were perfect at 13. Just imagine if every stupid, cruel, edgy or brainless thing we said at that age was dragged into daylight and thrown onto the front pages for davs on end, then analysed by your enemies.
Because as a teenager most of us are desperate to impress the wrong people, terrified of being at the bottom of whatever invisible hierarchv exists, and capable of saying things that would make present day you want to crawl inside a bin and quietly roll into the sea.
If you're claiming you've never said anything you'd be ashamed of now, I'm sorry, but you're either lying or you've edited your own memory like a dodgy Wikipedia entry.
That's been in my head a lot this week as further allegations emerged that Reform UK leader Nigel Farage had engaged in racism and antisemitism while at school.
Farage, a former pupil of Dulwich College, denied some of the claims in the Guardian investiaation. but his defence was curious, and in my view, telling.
Because if he had come out this week to say, 'Look, I was a horrible little git. I said awful things. I regret it. I'm sorry,' he'd probably have got a surprising amount of sympathy from those of us who realise we weren't exactlv our best selves during those formative school years.
That is how human beings are supposed to talk about their worst moments.
We're supposed to show a bit of humility, a bit of reflection maybe even a bit of embarrassment about the person we used to be.
But that is not the defence the Reform UK leader chose Instead, he went for the slippery half denial, straight from the Trump playbook, in which nothing is ever quite admitted everything is blurred
'No, I have never directly, really tried to go and hurt anybody', he told broadcasters, responding to the Guardian accusations directly for the first time.
A sentence so carefully crafted it almost collapses under the weight of its own cowardice
Without insult or intent, he told broadcasters, seemingly trying to make racism claims sound technical rather than moral.
However, here's the real problem Niael Farage faces: this isn't about what he did when he was 13.
It's about what he did when he was 30, and 40, and 50 and now, at 61 with a straight face and a political ambition he plans from the playaround all the way to 10 Downing Street.
Because to me, this isn't some bloke who, when he was a youngster said few stupid things and grew up to learn his lessons.
In my view. he has built his entire adult life around a politics of division by leading not one but several political parties whose central operating system appeared to be suspicion of immigrants, hostility to difference, and the careful stoking of fear aimed squarely at the most convenient targets of the day. You don't lead multiple anti-immigrant parties by accident.
You don't spend decades talkinq about migrants as threats to the fabric of the country if, deep down, you're just a misunderstood thinker who might have unintentionally upset people at school.
This is a grown man making deliberate choices again and again with both eyes wide open.
Which is why the whole 'well, we all said silly stuff as kids' argument doesn't quite work with me.
It would require you to believe that the young Nigel who is accused of racist behaviour and the adult Nigel who says he didn't directly hurt people, are two completely separate characters.
But they aren't.
Copied from:
https://metro.co.uk/2025/11/25/dont-judge-nigel-farage-actions-13-judge-actions-61-24804734/
We all made mistakes at 13; we should focus on the mistakes Farage is continuing to make.
No matter who you are, no matter how progressive your politics, you have to concede - none of us were perfect at 13. Just imagine if every stupid, cruel, edgy or brainless thing we said at that age was dragged into daylight and thrown onto the front pages for davs on end, then analysed by your enemies.
Because as a teenager most of us are desperate to impress the wrong people, terrified of being at the bottom of whatever invisible hierarchv exists, and capable of saying things that would make present day you want to crawl inside a bin and quietly roll into the sea.
If you're claiming you've never said anything you'd be ashamed of now, I'm sorry, but you're either lying or you've edited your own memory like a dodgy Wikipedia entry.
That's been in my head a lot this week as further allegations emerged that Reform UK leader Nigel Farage had engaged in racism and antisemitism while at school.
Farage, a former pupil of Dulwich College, denied some of the claims in the Guardian investiaation. but his defence was curious, and in my view, telling.
Because if he had come out this week to say, 'Look, I was a horrible little git. I said awful things. I regret it. I'm sorry,' he'd probably have got a surprising amount of sympathy from those of us who realise we weren't exactlv our best selves during those formative school years.
That is how human beings are supposed to talk about their worst moments.
We're supposed to show a bit of humility, a bit of reflection maybe even a bit of embarrassment about the person we used to be.
But that is not the defence the Reform UK leader chose Instead, he went for the slippery half denial, straight from the Trump playbook, in which nothing is ever quite admitted everything is blurred
'No, I have never directly, really tried to go and hurt anybody', he told broadcasters, responding to the Guardian accusations directly for the first time.
A sentence so carefully crafted it almost collapses under the weight of its own cowardice
Without insult or intent, he told broadcasters, seemingly trying to make racism claims sound technical rather than moral.
However, here's the real problem Niael Farage faces: this isn't about what he did when he was 13.
It's about what he did when he was 30, and 40, and 50 and now, at 61 with a straight face and a political ambition he plans from the playaround all the way to 10 Downing Street.
Because to me, this isn't some bloke who, when he was a youngster said few stupid things and grew up to learn his lessons.
In my view. he has built his entire adult life around a politics of division by leading not one but several political parties whose central operating system appeared to be suspicion of immigrants, hostility to difference, and the careful stoking of fear aimed squarely at the most convenient targets of the day. You don't lead multiple anti-immigrant parties by accident.
You don't spend decades talkinq about migrants as threats to the fabric of the country if, deep down, you're just a misunderstood thinker who might have unintentionally upset people at school.
This is a grown man making deliberate choices again and again with both eyes wide open.
Which is why the whole 'well, we all said silly stuff as kids' argument doesn't quite work with me.
It would require you to believe that the young Nigel who is accused of racist behaviour and the adult Nigel who says he didn't directly hurt people, are two completely separate characters.
But they aren't.
Copied from:
https://metro.co.uk/2025/11/25/dont-judge-nigel-farage-actions-13-judge-actions-61-24804734/
