On Wednesday night, Nigel Farage decried the “career, professional political class” and predicted a “seismic shock in British politics” will come in the wake of Brexit.
He said:
“In America, the revolution is total. Not only have the people spoken and won, the whole administration - Obama and all those ghastly people - are out, and the Trump people are in and are now in control.
“The problem we have in this country is that while the people have spoken the same players have just been shuffled around the chessboard. We’re still being run by the career, professional political class.
“I’m not sure what’s going to happen over the next couple of years, but suspect there’s a big seismic shock in British politics, perhaps going to come at the next election. I suspect the Conservative Party will not fit with the legacy of Brexit.”
It was an unabashed, anti-Establishment message from the self-styled man of the people, delivered at a party held in honour of what he himself had achieved in the fight to leave the EU.
Here are 7 things about last night’s party that don’t quite chime with his anti-Establishment message.
1) Nigel Farage
Let’s get this minor discrepancy out of the way first.
Nigel Farage is a politician. Politics is his career. His profession. In fact you could say he’s a professional career politician.
It could be argued that because he had a non-political career before politics that this disqualifies him from such a description.
In which case he’s a former City trader turned professional politician. Just like your average Joe...
He was also privately-educated at Dulwich College which, as you can see, doesn’t look like the sort of place that had to hold geography lessons in a “temporary” pre-fab shed that was still being used six years later.
2) The Organisers
This is Sir David Rowat Barclay and Sir Frederick Hugh Barclay.
They organised the party.
They own an island and live in a mock-Gothic castle.
3) The Venue
In case you didn’t know, The Ritz is a bit on the fancy side.
It describes itself as “the epitome of fine taste” and the “benchmark for excellence”.
Margaret Thatcher lived and died there.
4) The Guest-List
The guest-list included but was not limited to:
- Multi-millionaire Ukip donor Arron Banks (net worth £100m)
- Multi-millionaire Ukip donor Jim Mellon (net worth £850m)
- Multi-millionaire Paul Sykes (net worth £650m)
- Multi-millionaire Evgeny Lebedev (net worth £880m)
- Billionaire Express donor Richard Desmond (net worth £1 BILLION)
- And of course the Billionaire Barclay Brothers (net worth £2.96 BILLION)
5) Jacob Rees-Mogg
Jacob Rees-Mogg was there and he deserves his own section as he is the poshest man on earth (and has a net worth of £45m)
6) Ferrero Rocher
Sure your Gran used to eat them at Christmas but she didn’t have them served to her by a man earning £84k a year on an actual silver platter because she’d been shamelessly courted by the President-Elect of the United States.
7) The Speech
Let’s just have a look at that again...
That’s no soapbox, that’s a gilded staircase.
In The Ritz.
Surrounded by millionaires.
You get the idea...