Nigel Farage’s Humiliation on Cameo

‘Farage’s worst enemies once knew him as the big bad Brexit maker, now they know him as a fool.’

How the mighty have fallen! From the highs of verbally scolding the Brussels Bureaucrats on their home soil and watching the Brexit victory materialise on that fateful early morning in 2016, to transferring his rather chaotic persona into virtual self-humiliation. Farage mastered the big state and the bright lights of politics as if he were riding his own pure-bred stallion, and when he had accomplished his life-long ambitions after many years on the inside (yet hardly ever elected to public office besides the hated European Parliament), it was time to pack up and say goodbye. 

Many expected he would pick a gig in journalism to pass the time; whilst he did spend some time with LBC, he was spat out when he accused Black Lives Matter of being a Marxist group, the same group whose leadership declared that they were ‘trained-Marxists’. Perhaps fearing another round in the cancel culture boxing ring, he instead opted to submit himself to the free-lance dominated gig economy, and signed up to the video-sharing site Cameo. 

Cameo is a late-stage capitalist marketplace which epitomises this morally bankrupt, atomising, futuristic world of technology, where, for a fee, washed-up celebrities will say something on camera at the customer’s request. The Farage menu involves a ‘message for Mother’s Day, a birthday, a wedding, or to surprise somebody’ for the bargain price of £75.

In a world where politics is no longer conducted through open discussion and honest debate, but full-blown character destruction, you can guess what happened next. The internet trolls smelled blood in the water, with Farage’s Europhilic opponents taking advantage. Investigative Journalist Carole Cadwalladr, who looked into the Cambridge Analytica firm’s harvesting of personal data, paid for an uplifting message from Farage.

He acted like a gun was pointed towards his head during the recording, complete with forced facial expressions and fake emotions. People admired Farage because he was not afraid to say what was trying to burst from his voice box, avoiding the soul selling inherent in careerist politics, and kept his own character intact. Now he has his character decided for him by faceless people, whom he does not know, shoving cash in his pocket. Well, if you live long enough, I guess you do see yourself becoming the villain. 

Then we have the joke of secondary school classrooms, where Farage, probably not saying the words through in his head before broadcasting (he must have had a busy schedule), gave a happy birthday to ‘Hugh Janus’. Now I’m not going to explain the joke for those who are too oblivious or innocent, but if only Cameo had launched five years before it did, and this act of self-humiliation appeared in the letterbox of the Remain Campaign’s PR Headquarters, David Cameron may still be Prime Minister. 

Farage’s worst enemies once knew him as the big bad Brexit maker, now they know him as a fool.