But Gove and Johnson treat facts with Trump-scale disdain. Instead, reaching into dark-hearted fear, they claim Turks, Albanians, Macedonians, Serbs and Montenegrins are poised to invade. [...]
It really doesn’t matter that it isn’t true. For their campaign, facts get in the way – they are contemptuously judging that their supporters won’t know the difference. Besides, the likes of Iain Duncan Smith have form on ignoring evidence, repeating untruths about migrants on benefits despite rebukes from the UK Statistics Authority. [...]
Even the most effortlessly privileged can pose as representatives of the underdog if they stir anti-migrant anxiety. Public schoolboys Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage can pose as men of the people, just as billionaire Donald Trump pretends to champion the common man, just as classical scholar Enoch Powell did – and as Sir Oswald Mosley postured in the 1930s. Racism can bestow street cred on the most unlikely leaders if they stoop into the political gutter to conquer.
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