Byelections are supposed to take place because a member is no longer able to serve. In Farage\u2019s petulant speech<\/a> of July 7, when he stood down as MP for the Essex constituency, he objected to being held accountable for undeclared payments from a foreign national. He stated that he could make some \u201creal big money\u201d in the US, where he said he had \u201cplenty of offers\u201d. <\/p>\n Farage went on to say he wanted the people of Clacton to judge him and now \u2013 after the votes have been counted \u2013 says the result \u201cspeaks for itself\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n But this byelection was not an opportunity for the voters of Clacton to scrutinise the sources of Farage\u2019s finances. No hard evidence was presented to them. And they have other things to do with their time than pursue the kind of forensic investigation that a parliamentary standards commissioner<\/a> will be able to carry out. Now that Farage is once again an MP, the previously opened probe resumes.<\/p>\n It is not as if the voters of Clacton don\u2019t have other pressing issues to think about. According to government findings<\/a>, one part of the constituency (Jaywick) is the most deprived area in England. The number of people in Clacton leaving school with no formal qualifications is reckoned to be the second highest<\/a> of any town in England. Parts of the district has one of the lowest life expectancies<\/a> and highest under-75 mortality rates nationwide. Nearly half of the working-age population is economically inactive<\/a>, heavily exceeding the national average. <\/p>\n This is a population that may well want to be pick a fight with \u201cthe establishment\u201d. But promoting the career of a multimillionaire politician is probably not the best way to go about it<\/p>\n So what does this byelection say about contemporary British politics? The Farage narrative suggests that it is about the heroic representation of the real people by a leader who is uniquely capable of speaking their language. <\/p>\n But what was most striking in the Clacton panto-plebiscite, where a record 34 candidates<\/a> faced off against each other, was the cynical disconnect between Westminster politics and the experiences of people who feel ground down and institutionally neglected. (Not to mention so far from political decision-making that one in four of them chose to vote for a bloke with his tongue in his cheek and a bin over his head.)<\/p>\n This byelection was less about political choices than the expression of a public mood<\/a> \u2013 democracy as a register of feelings rather than the \u201cwho gets what, when and how\u201d summed up by American political scientist Harold Laswell<\/a>.<\/p>\n Farage does not offer his followers a way out of their deprived status. After all, the one cluster of policies that really motivates him \u2013 ending mass immigration<\/a> \u2013 is hardly going to invigorate Clacton. It is one of the least ethnically diverse<\/a> constituencies in England, with 96% of residents<\/a> classed as white.<\/p>\n The story that Farage tells \u2013 and he does so masterfully \u2013 is of a last-ditch attempt to save Britain from contamination by globalism, as if any contemporary nation state could possibly stand alone against the might of transnational corporations and the all-powerful bond markets. <\/p>\n Fittingly for a coastal town MP, Farage is a King Canute, publicly promising to hold back the cosmopolitan waves while privately accepting gifts from overseas billionaires<\/a>.<\/p>\n The problem with Farage\u2019s narrative is that it requires ongoing supplies of rhetorical fury to stir the passions of its believers. Reform UK faces competition from Rupert Lowe\u2019s far-right Restore Britain party, with its support from Elon Musk, who fell out with Farage<\/a> apparently over the Reform leader\u2019s unwillingness to back far-right agitator Tommy Robinson. <\/p>\n
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\n Read more:
\n Why Nigel Farage is resigning as an MP, only to stand again \u2013 expert analysis<\/a>
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\nAn expression of mood, not politics<\/h2>\n
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