The BBC is out of touch with the real problems facing the UK

James Delingpole:

Nigel Farage just totally destroyed a BBC interviewer on TV this morning.

And, in doing so, Farage reminded us exactly why his Brexit Party is flying so high in the polls, why he’s being tipped as a future prime minister, and why the current shambles of a Conservative party is so inadequate to the task of beating him…

Interviewer Andrew Marr began by making the huge mistake of treating Farage like the BBC treats all politicians to the right of Lenin: with unutterable contempt, as if he were a dangerous idiot with wacky views which no civilised person could possibly hold.

Marr began (from a long list of “gotcha” questions designed to make Farage look like an extremist) with climate change:

“Do you still believe that worrying about global warming is the stupidest thing in human history?”

Farage was ready:

“I believe that if we decide in this country to tax ourselves to the hilt, to put hundreds of thousands of people out of work in manufacturing industries, given that we produce less than 2 per cent of global CO2, that isn’t terribly intelligent.”

Then he segued seamlessly into an attack on the BBC:

“Here we are with one of the biggest changes in politics that has ever occurred and you don’t want to talk about it. What is wrong with the BBC?”

A more nimble interviewer might have changed tack at this point. Not Marr, who doggedly continued reading from his pre-prepared list of questions about Farage’s supposedly controversial views on gun control (an issue of zero interest to anyone in the United Kingdom) and Vladimir Putin, entirely proving Farage’s point for him.

Farage’s point, which almost everyone watching would have seen instantly, is that the BBC is the enemy of change and hope. It is part of the sclerotic, arrogant, anti-democratic, left-leaning, virulently pro-Remain political Establishment which the Brexit Party is on the verge of overthrowing.

“Do you still feel that people with HIV shouldn’t be allowed into the United Kingdom?” Marr continued, still reading from his notes, his voice a bit tremulous at this point.

Farage was ready:

“Do I think the National Health Service is there for British people? Yes I absolutely do.”

Marr was starting to sound pathetic now.

“So you still do?” he said. Pathetically.

Farage went off on one:

“This is absolutely ludicrous. I have never in my life seen a more ridiculous interview than this. You are not prepared to talk about what is going on this country today. You’re in denial. The BBC’s in denial. The Tory party’s in denial. The Labour party’s in denial. I think you’re in for a bigger surprise on Thursday week [European elections day] than you can even imagine.”

And he’s right. He is absolutely right.

It is why those institutions are headed for a big defeat.  All of them have botched the Brexit opportunity.