As politicians Nigel Farage and Harold Wilson have little in common. One thing they do share is a grasp of the importance of political image.
In public Wilson could often be seen smoking a pipe. Probably the best understanding of this was that he used the pipe, its lighting etc, as a device to gain a few seconds thinking time before answering a question. In private he preferred cigars, not so much a man of the people image.
Farage also likes to present that image. It seems unlikely from a former public schoolboy and broker and it is. Of course like Boris Johnson, Farage can be found sinking the odd pint. Indeed in a Times interview (8th June) he said he’d like to meet Starmer (an actual beer drinker) for a pint in the pub.
The same Times interview finds Farage in a restaurant drinking a G&T and noting he had prepared for a TV debate with a glass of red wine.
The image has been a long time in construction. In 2014 when Farage was campaigning for UKIP the journalist Geoffrey Wheatcroft (Bloody Panico, Verso,2024) met Farage for lunch at the Belgrave branch of the Boisdale restaurant (Farage held his 60th in the Canary Wharf branch in May). They drank champagne and what Farage described as an ‘excellent claret’
With Farage the populist beer drinker hides something much more unpleasant.
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