Nigel Farage v the elites, one champagne reception at a time

“I’m here in Davos to put the global elites on notice. We will not live by their agenda.” The words of fearless Nigel Farage in a video that his rebel alliance somehow managed to smuggle out of the snowy Swiss Alps and onto social media, possibly using a chubby robot with a projector in its eye, like in Star Wars.

Cunningly dressed exactly like a member of the global elites (freshly pressed suit, crisp white shirt, expensive-looking tie), Nigel was in deep cover at the annual World Economic Forum, where his trip had been bought and paid for by the family trust of Iranian-born venture capitalist billionaire Sasan Ghandehari (no elitist, he).

Farage had gone, he said, to shatter the “cosy consensus” of the “absolutely craven” ranks “partying hard” at the top of the world while the rest of us suffer. You feared for our Nige, buried deep in the belly of the beast.

Would the lizard people sweep him away in the Davos dark? Would his recent tiring clandestine forays – speaking truth to power at gatherings of MAGA billionaires in Palm Beach and Washington DC; giving investment bankers and CEOs what for in London’s private members’ clubs – finally take their toll on a man whose complexion already has the lustre of a yellowing sock?

For goodness’ sake, just how much luxury travel by private jet, how many cigars and how much port can one man be expected to enjoy on other people’s expense accounts, just to give voice to ordinary decent people on the dole in Clacton?

In the event, furtive Farage played a blinder. No more would British political leaders kow-tow to the globalists. Instead, by daringly climbing so high up Donald Trump’s capacious arsehole that he could see out of his nostrils, Nigel signalled a whole new era of kow-towing to senile megalomaniacs instead.

Alas, just as he was suggesting that the world would be a “better, more secure place” if Trump took full control of Greenland, Don The Deranged was in another room deciding that he didn’t want to take full control of Greenland after all. It was a rare moment of disruption for the close personal bond between the man Farage calls “Mr President” and the man Trump calls “Who?” But these things happen in Davos.

Suggested Reading

A lunch date with Truss for man-of-the-people Farage

Rats in a Sack

Beyond the Reform charlatan being made to look like a clueless, freeloading hypocrite as he preened on the world stage, something else very satisfying happened at Davos. On Tuesday, Canadian prime minister Mark Carney, a Brexit opponent during his time as governor of the Bank of England, made a remarkable speech about the future of a world on which America has turned its back.

Carney said that only the great powers could afford to go it alone. He talked of a future in which “the middle powers must act together, because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.”

He talked of “building coalitions that work – issues by issue, with partners who share enough common ground to act together… creating a dense web of connections across trade, investment, culture, on which we can draw for future challenges and opportunities.” And he said of the relationship that Britain now finds itself in, “when we only negotiate bilaterally with a hegemon, we negotiate from weakness. We accept what’s offered. We compete with each other to be the most accommodating.”

It was a refreshing contrast from the careful tip-toeing of Keir Starmer in Downing Street on Monday morning (although you could argue that in the end, quiet diplomacy-as-usual rather than EU bazooka-rattling or Carneymania seems to have won the day over Greenland, for now). Certainly, Starmer seemed invigorated by the speech at PMQs on Wednesday, daring to publicly rebuke Trump for the first time.

The path as laid out by Carney is now clear for the prime minister. Get as close as you can to the EU and allied nations like Canada, as quickly as you can. If Starmer can’t see that and follow it, he deserves to be replaced by the new member for Gorton and Denton.