Nigel Farage, racism & the City of London in the 1980s & 1990s
The Guardian is continuing its coverage of Nigel Farage’s school days at Dulwich College. Its alleged he was well known for making racist and anti-Semitic comments, which he denies.
I went to a North London Comprehensive School not a South London public school so I can’t make a useful comment on the specific Guardian reports. However I’ve always thought that Farage was and is a racist but someone, mostly, politically skilled enough to avoid crossing a line into overt racist politics.
Farage left school in 1982 and worked as a broker in the City of London until 2003. Here I can make a more useful comment. For much of that time I was also working in the City of London, initially as a junior manager in one of the UK’s largest companies (post 1984).
I was located in various offices over the 1980s and 1990s but none more than 10 minutes’ walk from the trading areas Farage was employed. The workplace culture was much the same across the City I think. It was mostly male, and mostly a drinking culture, in particular after lunch. In the days before mobiles and e-mail the long lunch was common in one of the many City hostelries.
Most but not quite all of my colleagues were considerably older and mostly (but again not all) they were on the right politically. There was consternation when the Guardian named me on its front page as the Editor of Living Marxism. This of course was one of the paper’s famous errors.
Were my colleagues racist? Mostly not overtly although most were sexist.
In summary it was a very male, nearly all (but not quite all) white, drinking culture. Its very much the context of Farage with a very important difference. All of my colleagues were trade union members and understood very well why it was important to be part of a collective organisation. That’s why despite the fact they had little time for my left-wing politics they reliably elected me as their union rep.
A world of which Farage, working just minutes away, had and has no conception.
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