Farage Loses His Temper at Murdoch Editor

Hi, my name's Phil.I like talking about politics.

So Nigel Farage, who has depended upon the mainstream media, giving him amplified coverage all his career, wouldn't have a career without them, is now blowing a major gasket now that they're not entirely playing by his rules.He's picked, by all accounts, a very personal fight with the editor of The Times.And yes, The Times and The Sunday Times are not his most natural allies amongst the right wing press.But you do wonder if, given that they clearly have some stuff on Reform UK's operations, it's really wise to make an enemy of them?That Nigel Farage is a thin -skinned narcissist will come as no surprise, but he has generally spent his political career to date being reasonably canny where his relationship with the media goes.Without it, we wouldn't even know he is, let alone would be concerned about the possibility of him becoming prime minister, a possibility which seems to be vanishing as he visibly cracks under the pressure.

And we're still up to three years away from the next general election.The pressure is going to get way worse for him.The Guardian are reporting that even those close to Faraj are surprised that he's creating such a huge confrontation with Times editor Tony Gallagher.We know that Faraj positively snarled at a Sky News journalist earlier this month, blaming them for hassling his family.His anger at the Times concerns their reporting on his many houses.Faraj claims this puts his family in danger.

Now, I mean, I can't rule out the possibility that Faraj genuinely feels protective towards his children.Some deeply uncaring people often do have a strong instinct to protect their own progeny.Take Jacob Rees -Mogg, for example.Really difficult to find any examples of him showing compassion towards his common man.Yet, he is genuinely caring towards his children.However, whether Faraj is really motivated by paternal instinct or not, the fact of the matter is,

when he is mired in accusations of taking money from people in return for carrying out their wishes against the national interest, his assets become a matter of public interest.That includes his houses.By installing his children into those houses, did he somehow think that would mean the properties would be off -limits for reporting purposes?Was he using his children as a sort of human shield?No, he's chosen to deceive the public and the authorities over his income and his wealth, so a free press speaking truth to power actually has a duty to inform the public and authorities of that which Farage will not.But whatever is going on here, I think it might be safe to conclude that Nigel Farage is acting Emotionally, not strategically.

He seemed genuinely angry at Sky News.He seems to be genuinely angry at the Times.I mean, the reports say he swore at Gallagher.We're not talking about a disagreement.We're talking about sort yourself out.Whose side are you supposed to be on?

No, no.We're talking about a threatening verbal attack.But why has he lost his rag with Sky and The Times?These are not the media outlets who have reported on the most damaging revelations.The Sunday Times, which has a different editor than The Times, published damaging stories about his association with George Cottrell.The Guardian blew the lid on not only the £5m which kick -started this entire scandal, but also the allegation that he was demanding £5m in return for standing in 2024.

as well as the criminal probes into his finances.The Daily Mail even wrote a piece accusing Farage of being a threat to national security.And although Farage has hit back at all of these articles, he has reserved his threats and swearing, his real venom, for Sky News and Now The Times, where their reporting has actually been relatively tame by comparison.So I'm absolutely ready to believe he's genuinely enraged about the potential consequenceshis children to get caught in the crossfire, but it means he's not going to act logically.I'll be honest, that is interesting.

Just to be clear, by the way, none of these outlets have actually targeted his children.We're not seeing articles written about them.It was Faraj himself who brought his children into the story.Yet another unwise move if he really wanted to protect them.Another sign that Faraj, under pressure, is going to make mistakes.

It means that he is going to act instinctively, not strategically.He's already under massive pressure.He's cracking under that pressure.

He could find himself in really very serious trouble if any of the criminal investigations find a smoking gun on his dodgy finances.I mean, you know how when a kid goes missing?and the police suspect a family member.So they get them to take part in the press conference, you know, to appeal for information or the return of the missing child.

But what they're really doing is seeing how they react under pressure to find cracks in their story.The same could happen with Faraj.He said a couple of weeks ago that Nigel Faraj made this scandal way worse by reacting as he did.

That politicians all my life and beyond have known that the best way to make awkward questions go away is to say that, well, you can't say anything.I'm sorry, I can't comment while the investigation is ongoing.Every politician knows that line.How many times have you heard that?

And whether they are innocent or guilty, they will use it, because innocent or guilty, reports on an investigation are never good for you, even if you are eventually acquitted.Farage seemed to have missed the politics class where this line was taught.Instead, he actually offered up more information.It didn't work, so he tried something else, then something else.He didn't have to do any of that.He could have just said it was a gift for his past Brexit work and left it at that.

Instead, he made the scandal so interesting, with so many angles to report on, that it basically invited other media outlets to get in on the act.I don't know how many times I've heard that.I've said it, but Nigel Farage built his career on knowing how to get the media to report on him.He provided them with statements and stunts which he knew would get clicks.The media, desperate to get those clicks in an increasingly competitive environment, lapped it up.They treated him with respect because they wanted interviews with him, because what got the clicks was access to Nigel Farage.

Basically, Farage was adept at giving the media what they wanted.Spicy stories.Well, he's done the same here.Only this spicy story is not in his interest to report.But it's his own fault.

Make the stories you want reporting on exciting, and the stories you want buried boring.Basic rule of politics.

He's in a hole, and if he wants to get out of it, he actually needs to be careful and above all quiet.So what does he do?He decides to hold an election against a guy with a bin on his head during the summer recess, when political journalists are desperate for source material, because there's not a lot going on, and he picks a personal fight with a major mainstream editor.Good, that should help him get out of this mess.What's he going to do next?Publish his bank statements.

He's doing his nut because certain media outlets are no longer exclusively reporting the positive stories he wants to see.The Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph are still publishing the sort of articles Farage wants to see, but they are also publishing critical articles, none of which are unfair to him.But Farage seems to be like Trump in so many ways.He clearly can't forgive any betrayal.You would think a smarter man would observe that Donald Trump is actually very unpopular in Britain, even amongst many of the voters Farage is trying to appeal to, and that it's not a good idea, therefore, to mimic his behaviour.And as the pressure grows, is he going to pick more and more fights with editors?

Because I have to say, at the moment, he's really losing it.And if he does, he's just going to make articles critical of him easier to write and easier to sell.He is melting down.The control freak is losing control, and he can't handle it.He's clearly not listening to his advisors.If even senior sources in Reform UK are shocked at the way he's behaving, all we need is for Andy Burnham to make sure he only piles the pressure on.

Don't inadvertently ease it here.And the transition into 2027, two years after Reform UK took the lead in the polls, we could be seeing the collapse in real time.What do you think?Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.Please subscribe to the channel for more content.Click the bell notification icon so you know when new videos are out.

Thanks for watching and until next time, I'll see you later.