Make no mistake about it, Nigel Farage is a major political figure. Even though he is not a member of one of the main political parties in the UK, he is nevertheless one of the best known political faces in the country, a household name, with a similar public profile to ex-prime ministers like Boris Johnson and Tony Blair. Also, it is difficult to present him as any kind of extremist. His entire political career has been predicated on avoiding any of the nastiness and unpleasantness normally associated with nationalism. He's also a uniquely successful politician, having secured a major political goal in the 2016 Brexit referendum. It is unlikely that this will ever be fully reversed, even if the pendulum of public opinion swings strongly the other way.
So, Farage is not some unimportant little nobody blogging away on the Internet with "extremist" views, or some micro party politician with outlandish notions and unrealizable goals. He is a big player. He has real pull, and much of the Conservative party lives in constant fear of him.
So it is somewhat surprising that his bank accounts are apparently being shut down. Here is the man himself explaining his plight:
There is a naïve supposition, evident also in this video, that everything should or can be explained, or at least revealed. Of course, it is true, relatively speaking, that people in the West live in largely open societies. But it is also clear that not everything is or can be revealed.
Without wanting to sound conspiritard, there is undoubtedly an esoteric or secret level to our society. Matters of national security especially are cloaked in much secrecy. This is out of necessity, if nothing else, and while this may lead to abuses, my impression -- and of course I may be mistaken here -- is that the more secretive side of British society is generally subjected to relatively firm democratic political and administrative control. In other words the British Deep State does exist, but it isn't going rogue and following its own agenda. It isn't too deep, certainly not as deep as some of the really deep states I could mention.
Without wanting to sound conspiritard, there is undoubtedly an esoteric or secret level to our society. Matters of national security especially are cloaked in much secrecy. This is out of necessity, if nothing else, and while this may lead to abuses, my impression -- and of course I may be mistaken here -- is that the more secretive side of British society is generally subjected to relatively firm democratic political and administrative control. In other words the British Deep State does exist, but it isn't going rogue and following its own agenda. It isn't too deep, certainly not as deep as some of the really deep states I could mention.
So, back to Nigel Farage. What's up with his bank accounts being pulled?
There has been a lot of smoke about his funding in the past, some of which he refers to in his own video. Yes, Labour MP Chris Bryant accused him of receiving over half a million pounds from the Kremlin, which may or may not be true, but it is certainly true that Farage was something of a darling of Russian propaganda channel Russia Today back in its heyday, when Putin seemed like a tough but generally cool leader restoring Russia to greatness. Farage was a frequent guest, who was paid considerable amounts for his time and trouble, all because he was effectively pushing a political message that suited the Kremlin.
Whatever one thinks about Brexit and the European Union -- and I personally supported Brexit -- the Russians have long had a vested interest in the division of Europe into separate squabbling nations, along with the breakup of any alliance on their western flank.
This is even understandable, as any state elite wants to weaken its opponents or potential opponents and strengthen its own power. But, just as this is understandable, it is also understandable that those states targeted by Kremlin ops take the opportunity to strike back.
There's not all that much out there in the public domain to damn Farage. Back in the day of his frequent appearances on RT, the state-funded Russian propaganda channel was a fully paid-up member of terrestrial TV, able to have on various guests and to pay them as they pleased, just like other news channels do. It was seen as no different to Al Jazeera, Sky, or GB News, for which Farage now works, and which "interestingly" sprang into life almost the same instant that RT went out of business. Check its interesting financial backing here.
There has been a lot of smoke about his funding in the past, some of which he refers to in his own video. Yes, Labour MP Chris Bryant accused him of receiving over half a million pounds from the Kremlin, which may or may not be true, but it is certainly true that Farage was something of a darling of Russian propaganda channel Russia Today back in its heyday, when Putin seemed like a tough but generally cool leader restoring Russia to greatness. Farage was a frequent guest, who was paid considerable amounts for his time and trouble, all because he was effectively pushing a political message that suited the Kremlin.
Whatever one thinks about Brexit and the European Union -- and I personally supported Brexit -- the Russians have long had a vested interest in the division of Europe into separate squabbling nations, along with the breakup of any alliance on their western flank.
This is even understandable, as any state elite wants to weaken its opponents or potential opponents and strengthen its own power. But, just as this is understandable, it is also understandable that those states targeted by Kremlin ops take the opportunity to strike back.
There's not all that much out there in the public domain to damn Farage. Back in the day of his frequent appearances on RT, the state-funded Russian propaganda channel was a fully paid-up member of terrestrial TV, able to have on various guests and to pay them as they pleased, just like other news channels do. It was seen as no different to Al Jazeera, Sky, or GB News, for which Farage now works, and which "interestingly" sprang into life almost the same instant that RT went out of business. Check its interesting financial backing here.
But not everything is in the clear. When Guardian journalist Carole Cadwalladr tried to make the case that key Farage associate and backer of Brexit, Aaron Banks, was in the Kremlin's pocket, she overstepped the mark somewhat and got hit with libel fees and costs. But just because something can't be proved out in the open by affirmative-hire Guardian journalists doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
One of the blind sides of our technocratic, materialist society is to dismiss anything that we cannot prove, and to then pretend that it doesn't even exist. All in all, this epistemic parsimony is probably a good thing, given the propensity of human stupidity and emotions to believe all sorts of idiocies. But in the esoteric realm of the Deep State, it also clouds, blinds, and then distorts what little we can see.
Deep State operations by Foreign countries to influence the political processes of their rivals will naturally do all they can to keep their hands hidden and their subjects out of blame. To explicitly pay and control a shill is a fragile move. It is something that can be exposed and if exposed the blowback is hard. Much better to identify certain organic political trends in the target country and then to find ways to indirectly boost them, for example, by giving them a £5000 pay-cheque for a couple of appearances on RT, or by using bots and shills to boost an already popular or semi-popular message that serves the foreign agenda.
But this is not to rule out explicit payment and control. The fact that Farage's banking access is being seriously compromised, suggests to me that the Deep State knows a lot more about who is paying him and for what than can be readily proved out in the open.
One of the blind sides of our technocratic, materialist society is to dismiss anything that we cannot prove, and to then pretend that it doesn't even exist. All in all, this epistemic parsimony is probably a good thing, given the propensity of human stupidity and emotions to believe all sorts of idiocies. But in the esoteric realm of the Deep State, it also clouds, blinds, and then distorts what little we can see.
Deep State operations by Foreign countries to influence the political processes of their rivals will naturally do all they can to keep their hands hidden and their subjects out of blame. To explicitly pay and control a shill is a fragile move. It is something that can be exposed and if exposed the blowback is hard. Much better to identify certain organic political trends in the target country and then to find ways to indirectly boost them, for example, by giving them a £5000 pay-cheque for a couple of appearances on RT, or by using bots and shills to boost an already popular or semi-popular message that serves the foreign agenda.
But this is not to rule out explicit payment and control. The fact that Farage's banking access is being seriously compromised, suggests to me that the Deep State knows a lot more about who is paying him and for what than can be readily proved out in the open.
But why would they keep any of this secret? Really that is a rather naïve question, isn't it? Of course, the Deep State keeps secret the means by which they track and trace the hand of their rivals, as well as the subtle, complex processes of inference and evidence that leads to their conclusions. All we get to see is the strange yank by their invisible hand on those they mark for their attentions.
But there are more ways than money to control the likes of Farage. One of the more unsettling images of Farage shilling for Mother Russia is an odd scene where he kneels before a little girl dressed as a queen. What is the Kremlin signifying here? What are they trying to remind Farage of? Is he being blackmailed as well as paid, and, if so, for what crime or scandal? And lastly why is there a child involved in this weird charade, and why is she shown exerting power over him?
But there are more ways than money to control the likes of Farage. One of the more unsettling images of Farage shilling for Mother Russia is an odd scene where he kneels before a little girl dressed as a queen. What is the Kremlin signifying here? What are they trying to remind Farage of? Is he being blackmailed as well as paid, and, if so, for what crime or scandal? And lastly why is there a child involved in this weird charade, and why is she shown exerting power over him?
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