Nigel Farage was at a farmers protest in Westminster again on 11th December. And again he came dressed as a farmer although on this occasion he was not wearing garish yellow trousers. Farage owns several properties in Kent and possibly one in Clacton (its gone quiet on that again) but he is not now and never has been a farmer.
As in France farmers protests span some rather different bases. There are millionaire farmers, who certainly last time gave their workforce time off to attend. They may be hit by Labour’s inheritance tax changes although their financial advisors will probably find a way around it.
Then there are much smaller farmers who are unlikely to be impacted by tax changes but certainly struggle to get by thanks in part to the activities of the millionaire farmers.
Farmers protests under the New Labour Governments from 1997 tended to be aligned with the Tories, although the far right were also present. The Tories in 2024 are clearly in no position to do much, hence the attraction of Farage and Reform UK Ltd which has a TV station GB News to promote the cause.
Hence Farage appeared dressed as a farmer. However if he wants to play being a farmer he might look for an opening on the Archers where there are numbers of actors who play farmers (rather better than Farage does)
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