I needn’t tell you that the world is in a precarious place. Putin’s tanks continue to roll into Ukraine, and bombs are falling on Iran, edging us closer to World War III.
All this agitation translates into oil prices that are incredibly volatile, which in turn means energy bills are exploding and the cost of living is dragging ordinary families into the red.
Given all that, you might expect that politicians would be focused on trying to fix this mess. And to their credit, a lot of them are, whether that’s by attending to the concerns of their constituents, holding advice surgeries or crafting serious solutions.
And then there’s Nigel Farage, showing us where his priorities really lie, doing his bit by investing in crypto.
Specifically, the Reform member for Clacton has invested £215,000 in a cryptocurrency company called Stack BTC.
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If anyone were looking for a sign that the former city trader is seemingly only ever out to line his own pockets, I would suggest that this is a pretty good one.
Although of course, this is not to suggest he has acted against parliamentary or any other rules.
Farage’s investment secures him a 6.3% stake, funnelled through his media vehicle, Thorn In The Side Ltd (the fact that his company sounds like it was named by some teenage edgelord in a gaming forum, not a member of the British parliament, is a subject for another time).
For a man desperate to present himself as the flame of the forgotten working class, Farage has been remarkably well-compensated by this controversial industry.
Because this isn’t his first dip into the crypto pool. Farage earned £20,000 speaking at the Zebu Live crypto event, £30,000 for an appearance at a Blockworks conference, and a further £7,410 at the Bitcoin Conference.
It is also worth nothing that Stack BTC isn’t just any crypto company. No, funnily enough, the three-year-old firm is actually chaired by Kwasi Kwarteng. Yep, the Kwasi Kwarteng whose record-breaking 38 days as Chancellor under Liz Truss is eclipsed only by Iain Macleod, who died in office 30 days after being appointed in 1970.
This is the same Kwarteng who, less than a year ago, warned about what he described as a ‘threat from the populist right’ in Britain, singling out Farage specifically.
It hasn’t taken him long to do a 180 and welcome him as a strategic investor, writing warm press releases about their aligned vision.
On the face of it, none of this is against the rules. MPs are allowed to hold investments and give paid speeches. But it wouldn’t be unreasonable to find it all a bit icky.
Crypto is a contentious issue when it comes to UK politics. Several MPs have called for an outright ban on crypto donations to UK parties, warning that the anonymity of digital transactions makes campaign finance rules almost impossible to enforce.
Currently, Reform UK is the only elected British political party to accept them..
The line becomes even more blurry when the leader of a political party is simultaneously pocketing personal income from the crypto industry, accepting its donations, and publicly promising it favourable legislation.
It’s hard to identify where professional curiosity ends and conflict of interest begins.
All of this may feel jarring at first glance, but if you zoom out, it starts to make a lot more sense.
Farage promised Reform would tear up the establishment. He would be the anti-politician, the authentic outsider. And yet his party is proving itself to be ineffectual, nothing more than a Tory 2.0, bolstered as it is by the defections of a string of disastrous Conservative MPs.
The ex-MEP repeatedly says Britain needs Reform because Britain is broken. Well, of course it is, and it was broken by the same politicians Farage now embraces.
To name just a few: Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister who oversaw net migration hitting an all-time high, Suella Braverman, twice sacked as Home Secretary by two different prime ministers and former Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi, who once compared Farage to a Nazi officer.
Every one of them had a hand in sinking our country through one inept decision or another, and now we’re supposed to believe that those same out-of-date Tories, reheated and re-stocked as the seasonal special, are going to be the ones to fix it.
But no one’s buying this slop.
Not even Trump can be bothered anymore. Farage flew 4,500 miles to Florida, telling an audience ahead of time that he would be ‘dining at Mar-a-Lago’ to reinforce his opposition to the Chagos Islands deal. The implication was that he had the President’s ear.
Except Trump had not actually invited Farage, and ended up pulling a no-show, leaving the Reform leader red-faced.
The picture is clear. Nigel Farage is not a man seriously engaged with the crises facing Britain.
He is very busy indeed, collecting speaking fees from crypto conferences, placing personal investments in Bitcoin firms, recycling rejected Tory ministers, and flying across the Atlantic to try to catch a passing glimpse of his idol.
All while holding a parliamentary seat which is supposed to be a full time job, elected by people who trusted him to fight for them.
Farage has built a career claiming the establishment is rotten, self-serving and in it for themselves. The latest evidence suggests he wasn’t describing his opponents at all – he was just sitting in his glass house, throwing stones.
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