Nigel Farage: 'Legitimate Concerns'

In a week of unimaginable tragedy, Russ Jones decries those who used the killing of children as an opportunity to stoke hatred.

Nigel Farage took to social media to respond to the Southport knife attack, sparking condemnation for stirring conspiracy theories that led to violence.

As is appropriate for a hot take on current events, let’s begin 3.7 billion years ago, where one of history’s first microbes suddenly evolved the ability to move around at will, and immediately decided to head away from danger and towards opportunity. To adapt populist jargon from the 1980s, it got on its stromatolite and looked for work.

Every single organism, from that day to this, has followed the same impulse, and no matter how much Nigel Farage stomps around the clifftops of Dover with a film crew and an attitude, we will never – not ever, ever, ever – stop people from wanting to migrate. It’s not only human nature, it’s the nature of every single living thing on earth: flee from pain, head towards reward.

Of course, there are legitimate concerns. We hear that all the time. People aren’t bigoted against immigrants, they just have legitimate concerns. And I know how that feels. This week, for example, I found a large lump on my dog’s side. I had legitimate concerns about it, so I took Baxter to the vet, who charged me a small fortune to tell me it was not a sinister and malign growth that would kill my beloved pet, but a painless knot in a muscle, caused by the joyful little idiot leaping around too much. I could massage it away with my thumb in five minutes. That will be £150, please.