A defaced billboard with Nigel Farage’s face in Scotland
Nigel “no show” Farage’s visit to Scotland shows that he can be rattled by anti-racist protests.
The last time Farage made an appearance in Scotland in 2013, he was run out of town by protesters and whisked away by police.
If he thought his visit this week would be different, he was in for a rude awakening.
Scores of protesters gathered outside the Aberdeen venue on Monday where Farage was holding a press conference. It was organised by Stand Up To Racism (SUTR), which had held a 250-strong Stop Reform summit in Glasgow two days before.
Protesters chanted, “Farage, Farage we know you, you’re a racist through and through,” and, “Rescue every refugee, throw Farage into the sea.”
Farage had hand-picked those at the press conference, hoping to avoid the same humiliation he experienced on his previous visit to Scotland.
Speaking at his press conference, Farage was visibly furious that he had been met once again by defiant protestors. He said to the press, “This location was only sent to you guys, it wasn’t put out in the public wires.
“We didn’t put it out to our membership and yet they knew. And as for outside, well you know who they are, they’re antifa.”
Farage had then planned to travel to Hamilton, where he is hoping his party will make a breakthrough in the upcoming Scottish parliamentary by-election.
But, instead of taking to the campaign trail like he’d planned, he slipped in through the backdoor of the Reform UK office in the area. And never made an appearance after that. The polls currently put Farage in second place in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse.
But Farage shouldn’t count his chickens before they’ve hatched. One protestor from Hamilton took to the megaphone to give Farage a piece of his mind. “One fun fact about Mister Farage, he went to a private school, he’s a stock broker just like his father,” they said.
“The money that you’re putting in that is allegedly all going to immigrants, is going to rich folks like him that are dodging their taxes.”
One anti-racist activist said, “He wants to blame migrant workers like myself for the crisis in the NHS, the crisis in housing, the crisis in education.
“And we’ve got a message for him—which is that migrant workers and refugees did not cause the crisis in society. Billionaires, like himself, did.”
He continued, “Farage wants to privatise what’s left of our public services. My message to Farage today is that migrant workers like myself make the NHS. He wants to smash the NHS.
“Migrants and refugees are not enemies of the Scottish working class. We’re part of the Scottish working class, and we’re going to stand up to Farage and his racism.”
Stopping the rise of Reform UK means taking on the lies about migrants pushed by Farage and mainstream politicians. That requires building a side in unions and areas where the far right party wants to put down roots.
We need to give confidence to anti-racists—and protesters denting Farage’s confidence on the campaign trail can help do just that.
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