The Brexit party leader was hit by a shake thrown by a disgruntled remainer yesterday
Nigel Farage’s astonishing success terrifies his opponents – which is why the pro-EU brigade is so determined to undermine him.
But this hostility has plumbed new depths as a protester drenched the Brexit Party leader in a milkshake yesterday in Newcastle.
No mainstream, elected British politician in recent decades – and Farage has been an MEP for 20 years - has had to endure such a relentless barrage of abuse and condemnation.
The incident was not a prank, as some pretend, but a nasty assault that left Farage visibly shaken.
If he been a woman or belonged to any minority, it would have probably been classified as a hate crime.
The left’s double standards are breath-taking. Just imagine their outrage if a leading Remainer politician, like the high-profile Tottenham MP David Lammy or the Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry was attacked like this.
The indignation would be deafening.
In lurid tones, we would be told that such an incident reflects the viciousness of the Brexiteers, who want to silence their opponents.
Indeed, exactly that kind of language was used by the political establishment when Anna Soubry, the pro-EU Tory MP who defected to the Change UK splinter group, was accused of being a “Nazi” by an idiotic Brexiteer loudmouth. The abuse of Soubry was wrong then, just as the assault on Farage is wrong now.
Politicians taking part in our democracy should not be targeted in this way.
Yet all too predictably, parts of the left and the Remain camp feel very differently.
Many of them have not only seen the incident as funny, but have also claimed that it was fully justified by anger at Farage’s politics.
In the fevered mindset of some hysterical anti-Brexiteers, Farage is regarded as fair game, a classic example of victim-blaming which, in other circumstances, liberals are usually quick to denounce.
Yesterday the left-leaning Independent newspaper carried an appalling article in which the journalist Tom Peck not only called the milkshake attack “absolutely hilarious”, but also said Farage deserved it because, in his calls for tighter immigration, he had “exploited the misery” of refugees “for shallow gain.”
Others joined this chorus of support for the assault.
“It’s a harmless way of showing fascists they aren’t welcome,” said one Twitter user.
“He got his just desserts,” read another tweet.
Arch-Remainer and journalist Ian Dunt pompously declared that “throwing a milkshake is a non-violent act,” while the diehard pro-European Guardian newspaper asked if a milkshake “is a new symbol of the resistance.”
Many of the Remainers might like to see themselves as the heroic resistance, but all they are resisting is the democratically expressed will of the British people.
The milkshake from Five Guys that was thrown at the Brexit party leader
But that sort of hypocrisy sums up their stance.
Much of the left, suffering from Brexit derangement syndrome, seems to have lost its moral compass.
That moral decline can also be seen in the frivolous attempts to downplay the incident, arguing that it was just a drink. That is a slippery slope to much worse.
If throwing a milkshake is acceptable, then what about a scalding hot drink, or ink or paint or bleach? What about pebbles or even planks of wood?
The Remainers always wail about the turmoil in our society caused by Brexit, but many among them are the ones who help to promote the divisions, both with their refusal to accept the 2016 result and their determination to portray Leave voters as bigoted extremists.
Through their defence of the indefensible, they are poisoning our political culture.
As Brendan Cox, the husband of the murdered Labour MP Jo Cox put it yesterday, “throwing stuff at politicians normalises violence and intimidation.”
The cheerleading for the milkshake attack makes a mockery of left-wingers’ boasts about their tolerance.
They blather about diversity, but they do not want to hear a diverse range of views.
So smug about the righteousness of their outlook, they think that no other voices should be heard, that alternative politicians should be bullied into submission.
In such a climate, political campaigning becomes impossible, open debate is lost, and freedom of speech disappears.
Tony Blair summed it up well when he called the attack on Farage “horrible and ridiculous”, adding that “the guy is entitled to his point of view.”
But that is not the way the radicalised anti-Brexiteers see it.
They are engaged in a systematic campaign to demonise Farage and undermine the legitimacy of his cause.
As the Guardian pointed out, the milkshake has become the favourite weapon of attack against right-wing activists.
It has already been used recently against Tommy Robinson formerly of the English Defence League and Carl Benjamin, the notoriously hardline UKIP candidate and rape joke enthusiast.
By adopting such a tactic against Farage, his enemies aim to bracket him with the far right.
“He stirs up hatred and bitterness with his fascist lies so a milkshake should be the least of his worries,” read a menacing tweet yesterday.
While Farage may have aligned himself with some questionable policies in the past, the attempt to paint him as a zealot, allied to Robinson, is grotesque.
On the contrary, in the run-up to European elections, he is the leader of Britain’s most popular party.
If Farage is an extremist, so are millions of decent British voters who just want our national independence back.
In fact, the real extremists are those who aim to subvert democracy by saying “Boll**ks to Brexit”, to adopt the infamous Liberal Democrat campaign slogan.
Defenders of the milkshake attack have debased our politics – but their tactics could backfire.
In 2014 Farage was assaulted outside a hotel in Margate by a 37-year old man called Andrew Scott, wielding a wooden placard.
For this offence, Scott who was sentenced to complete 80 hours of community work and pay £140 in costs.
A few months later, Farage led UKIP to a resounding triumph in the European elections, paying the way for the Brexit earthquake.
In the wake of the milkshake incident, history may be about to repeat itself.
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