Will Self

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A walk through Britain’s flag-waving heartlands

March 7, 2013

‘Back in the tail end of 2009, Nigel Farage stepped aside from his leadership of the United Kingdom Independence Party to concentrate on challenging the speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, in the parliamentary elections of 2010. In a characteristically forthright statement, Farage said that Bercow “represented the worst” of a legislature that had “broken the trust” of the British people. In due course Bercow, a somewhat maverick Tory, was returned to parliament and the speaker’s throne, but not before Farage himself had been spectacularly unseated. It was during an election stunt, while he was flying his light aircraft high over the Angleterre profonde of Northants. The banner trailing the plane, and bearing the legend “Vote for Your Country, Vote for Ukip”, created a little too much drag, and the habitually ebullient Farage fell to Earth.

‘Photographs from the crash site showed Farage disentangling himself from the wreckage and, with what was either astonishing insouciance or simply shock, walking away, his typically rubious face only a touch drained of colour. This Biggles-like tale would add lustre to any politician’s image, yet for Farage and the party he subsequently returned to helm, the most telling detail is not that he escaped unscathed, but that it was blazoning Ukip’s unashamed nationalism that had caused him to fall.

‘In the wake of Ukip’s triumphant outing in the Eastleigh byelection last week – pushing the Conservatives into a humiliating third place – it’s worth asking ourselves if Farage’s party, now indisputably in the ascendant, can maintain its semi-benign cast, or, if the runner-up does indeed begin to run over the Tories, the mask will slip to reveal a more sinister visage. After all, Farage has for some years now been the MEP for the Southeast of England, which means that he sits in a democratically elected assembly the legitimacy of which he utterly denies. A benign view of this would be that he and the rest of Ukip are simply plucky small-nation nationalists standing up against an oppressive suzerainty; a darker perspective would be that some Ukip supporters have a more deep-seated antagonism to our current constitutional settlement, one they share with a quiescent sector of our society, that, when the time is right, will blossom not into a lovely English rose but a poisonous xenophobia.

‘In the spring of last year my then 10-year-old son and I set off from our home in Stockwell, South London, for our annual long-distance walk. On this occasion our destination was the manor house in Worcestershire belonging to friends. Our route took us past the tube station where a middle-aged white woman has a greengrocery stall. I often see her chatting happily with her customers – many of whom belong to ethnic minorities. During the 2010 general election I had conducted a vox pop for the Evening Standard in the area, and asked her how she would be voting: “Oh, BNP, I s’pose.” When I had remonstrated with her, pointing out that, despite their disavowals, Nick Griffin’s party remained racist and fascist to the core, she came back at me with the habitual plaint of the London white working class: “I’m not racial – but …” The “buts” in her case were those so carefully analysed by Daniel Trilling in Bloody Nasty People, his recent study of the rise of the British National Party. She was not opposed to black and brown Britons per se; what she objected to were recent immigrants of any colour scrounging social benefits, including healthcare and council housing. She despaired of any of the mainstream parties curtailing mass immigration, and looked to the BNP as the only credible promoter of what she saw as the rights of indigenous, white working people.’

Read the rest of Will Self’s essay for Guardian Review here.

Will’s Latest Book

Will Self - Elaine
Will Self's latest book Elaine will be published in hardback by Grove on September 5 2024 in the UK and September 17 2024 in the USA.

You can pre-order at Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com

Will’s Previous Books

Will Self - Will
Will
More info
Amazon.co.uk

  Will Self - Phone
Phone
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
Shark
Shark
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
  Umbrella
Umbrella
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
The Unbearable Lightness Of Being A Prawn Cracker
The Unbearable Lightness Of Being A Prawn Cracker
More info
Amazon.co.uk
  Walking To Hollywood
Walking To Hollywood
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
The Butt
The Butt
More info Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
  Grey Area
Grey Area
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
Junk Mail
Junk Mail
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
  Great Apes
Great Apes
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
Cock And Bull
Cock And Bull
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
  The Quantity Theory Of Insanity
The Quantity Theory Of Insanity
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
The Sweet Smell Of Psychosis
The Sweet Smell of Psychosis
More info

Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
  My Idea Of Fun
My Idea Of Fun
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
The Book Of Dave
The Book Of Dave
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
  Psychogeography
Psychogeography
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
Psycho Too
Psycho II
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
  Liver
Liver
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
How The Dead Live
How The Dead Live
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
  Tough Tough Toys For Tough Tough Boys
Tough Tough Toys For Tough Tough Boys
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
Dr Mukti And Other Tales Of Woe
Dr Mukti And Other Tales Of Woe
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
  Dorian
Dorian
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
Feeding Frenzy
Feeding Frenzy
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
  Sore Sites
Sore Sites
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
Perfidious Man
Perfidious Man
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
  The Undivided Self
The Undivided Self
More info Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
Bloomsbury  
Penguin

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