As you say, who benefited? Pretty obvious that the Tories and Reform benefit, and that the Tories can also pretend that it was nothing to do with them in government. But we have seen before this hunt through old emails to find emails that are damaging or ones that can be interpreted that way. Beats me, there's some powerful searching going on there. And apparently people can never change their opinions, or are allowed to. Once a Nazi, always a Nazi?Oh, I forgot, if you are Reform Leader Nigel Farage, it was just playground banter:-"In an interview last month, when asked if he ever racially abused fellow pupils, Farage replied, "not with intent".He added: "Have I said things 50 years ago that you could interpret as being banter in a playground that you could interpret in the modern light of day in some sort of way? Yes."Mr Ettedgui acknowledged that a lot of racially offensive terms were commonplace to hear in the 70s, "but I think Nigel Farage was of a completely different order. The regularity, the intention with which he did this to so many pupils of different races." (ITV)So it is, in Farage's case, all down to others' ill-intentioned interpretations. But somehow Tories and Reform just know that Alaa Abd el-Fattah meant it all then, and that he believes exactly the same now, after his years in gaol. So, a double-hit.
David Ainsworth ● 306d