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| The story of the Ukip leader and his racist girlfriend is more than gossip | The story of the Ukip leader and his racist girlfriend is more than gossip |
| (about 14 hours later) | |
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| Mon 15 Jan 2018 19.26 GMT | Mon 15 Jan 2018 19.26 GMT |
| Last modified on Tue 16 Jan 2018 08.50 GMT | |
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| The Henry Bolton spectacle was paraded on Radio 4 a little too early this morning, which did nothing to allay its surreal and dreamlike quality. It was 07.21 hours, and an elderly man was quizzing a slightly younger man about his relationship with a 25-year-old white supremacist. They had their first date on Boxing Day 2017. Then, mysteriously, it seemed they were back in 1936. Given that Jo Marney only wanted to keep Britain white in a private Facebook message, and that wasn’t a “core belief”, didn’t Bolton, the leader of Ukip, feel moved to “stand by her”? | The Henry Bolton spectacle was paraded on Radio 4 a little too early this morning, which did nothing to allay its surreal and dreamlike quality. It was 07.21 hours, and an elderly man was quizzing a slightly younger man about his relationship with a 25-year-old white supremacist. They had their first date on Boxing Day 2017. Then, mysteriously, it seemed they were back in 1936. Given that Jo Marney only wanted to keep Britain white in a private Facebook message, and that wasn’t a “core belief”, didn’t Bolton, the leader of Ukip, feel moved to “stand by her”? |
| Well, yes and no. This wasn’t a “cold parting of the ways”; he would “stand by” Marney “and the family, in terms of trying to put her life back together”. Which family was unclear – his own children, who are currently in Austria with his wife, for “reasons to do with family finances, and her work”? Or Marney’s relatives, who must be feeling the disgrace very keenly. | Well, yes and no. This wasn’t a “cold parting of the ways”; he would “stand by” Marney “and the family, in terms of trying to put her life back together”. Which family was unclear – his own children, who are currently in Austria with his wife, for “reasons to do with family finances, and her work”? Or Marney’s relatives, who must be feeling the disgrace very keenly. |
| In the last period of stability for the party, Farage led Ukip to win almost 4m votes in the 2015 general election, making them the third-biggest party by vote share. | |
| Things went awry shortly after the MEP succeeded Farage in the wake of the Brexit referendum. In just 18 days James was gone, saying splits at the top of the party made it impossible for her to do the job. | |
| Farage held the fort as interim leader ahead of a new election. | |
| The former deputy leader confidently predicted he would help Ukip replace Labour. But this ambition crumbled amid questions about his credibility and a failed tilt at the Stoke Central by-election. He stepped down after Ukip slumped to below 600,000 votes in the 2017 election. | |
| The former party chair stepped up as interim leader as members voted on a permanent replacement. | |
| The little-known former army officer beat off six challengers to win, positioning himself as the sensible candidate who would revamp the party structure. But an unexciting start to his tenure turned chaotic after he began a relationship with much younger activist Jo Marney, who turned out to have sent deeply offensive messages. | |
| Who, in their position, would not want the leader of Ukip putting their lives back together? It was a baffling cloud of words, but nothing on the next bit: “The day that we realised we’d been photographed together, we made a statement because I had absolutely no wish to deceive anybody or hide anything.” “Wait, you made a statement as soon as you were discovered, because you had absolutely no wish to hide anything that everybody now knew?” is what John Humphrys, the Radio 4 presenter, didn’t say – perhaps because it would have sounded discourteous. | Who, in their position, would not want the leader of Ukip putting their lives back together? It was a baffling cloud of words, but nothing on the next bit: “The day that we realised we’d been photographed together, we made a statement because I had absolutely no wish to deceive anybody or hide anything.” “Wait, you made a statement as soon as you were discovered, because you had absolutely no wish to hide anything that everybody now knew?” is what John Humphrys, the Radio 4 presenter, didn’t say – perhaps because it would have sounded discourteous. |
| Marney herself previously seemed rather a robust individual, judging by her Twitter rants about “eastern European sluts” who would “fuck a mangey dog for about 10 quid and a Big Mac”. (Don’t make the mistake I did, of trying to imagine the marketplace in which such an exchange would be made: you’ll be down that rabbit hole for hours.) | Marney herself previously seemed rather a robust individual, judging by her Twitter rants about “eastern European sluts” who would “fuck a mangey dog for about 10 quid and a Big Mac”. (Don’t make the mistake I did, of trying to imagine the marketplace in which such an exchange would be made: you’ll be down that rabbit hole for hours.) |
| Yet she has been “devastated” by her own remarks, or rather devastated “that they’ve become public, that it’s been taken the way it has”. “Have any remarks ever been less ambiguous? Bemoaning the possibility of a black king, a Muslim prime minister, talking of a woman of colour as a ‘taint’ to the royal family: how else could it possibly have been taken?” is what Humphrys again didn’t ask the Ukip leader, doubtless because he had a more pressing task – he had to find out which came first for this titan of British politics, his job or his true love. | Yet she has been “devastated” by her own remarks, or rather devastated “that they’ve become public, that it’s been taken the way it has”. “Have any remarks ever been less ambiguous? Bemoaning the possibility of a black king, a Muslim prime minister, talking of a woman of colour as a ‘taint’ to the royal family: how else could it possibly have been taken?” is what Humphrys again didn’t ask the Ukip leader, doubtless because he had a more pressing task – he had to find out which came first for this titan of British politics, his job or his true love. |
| Because that’s, naturally, what we’re all asking: what does it all mean for Ukip, that its leader should be facing this impossible choice between the garden variety, send-back-the-foreigners-except-the-one-I’m-married-to-whoops-no-need-she’s-already-gone racism of his head, and the more full-throated, keep-the-bloodline-pure racist who captured his heart? | Because that’s, naturally, what we’re all asking: what does it all mean for Ukip, that its leader should be facing this impossible choice between the garden variety, send-back-the-foreigners-except-the-one-I’m-married-to-whoops-no-need-she’s-already-gone racism of his head, and the more full-throated, keep-the-bloodline-pure racist who captured his heart? |
| There is an argument that it was a short-lived relationship that should command not one more moment of our attention | There is an argument that it was a short-lived relationship that should command not one more moment of our attention |
| It’s a dilemma no man should face. Was it poor judgment or just a cruel, cruel universe? Bolton, you’ll be relieved to hear, spoke to Marney late into the night about all of this and more, after which he lost no time in announcing that it’s the job: the job comes first, for both of them. Now, that was slightly ambiguous – was it his job, coming first for both? Or did they each put their careers first, like in La La Land? | It’s a dilemma no man should face. Was it poor judgment or just a cruel, cruel universe? Bolton, you’ll be relieved to hear, spoke to Marney late into the night about all of this and more, after which he lost no time in announcing that it’s the job: the job comes first, for both of them. Now, that was slightly ambiguous – was it his job, coming first for both? Or did they each put their careers first, like in La La Land? |
| Marney’s own career is following a reality TV trajectory, where you list a number of jobs there’s scant or no evidence of your ever having done – broadcaster, journalist, model, actress – then get famous some other way and score enough gigs to validate your CV on a post-hoc basis. That was also Paul Nuttall’s plan, because if he’d stayed Ukip leader for long enough, someone definitely would have made him an honorary professional football player, and given him a PhD. Sadly for him, larger beasts were waiting to take his place. | Marney’s own career is following a reality TV trajectory, where you list a number of jobs there’s scant or no evidence of your ever having done – broadcaster, journalist, model, actress – then get famous some other way and score enough gigs to validate your CV on a post-hoc basis. That was also Paul Nuttall’s plan, because if he’d stayed Ukip leader for long enough, someone definitely would have made him an honorary professional football player, and given him a PhD. Sadly for him, larger beasts were waiting to take his place. |
| It would have been a bizarre interview to hear on the nation’s foremost morning news event even between Christmas and new year, when they let any old joker plan the schedule: on a regular Monday morning, never minding the relatively greater importance of literally all other news, it was discombobulating. Like waking up to find yourself in the middle of a curse written by Fay Weldon: may your hot new girlfriend turn out to be a shape-shifted manifestation of the Ku Klux Klan; may you have to stay up very late debating with her whether or not it’s funny to make a joke about raping a baby, the night before your Today interview that should have been your big break; and may you emerge from all that having achieved what nobody previously thought possible – having utterly traduced the reputation of your party, made it stranger and more toxic even than the morning after the referendum result, when Nigel Farage appeared before a horrified crowd and sang Tomorrow Belongs to Me accompanied by a bassoon. When all these things befall you, may you know my wrath. | It would have been a bizarre interview to hear on the nation’s foremost morning news event even between Christmas and new year, when they let any old joker plan the schedule: on a regular Monday morning, never minding the relatively greater importance of literally all other news, it was discombobulating. Like waking up to find yourself in the middle of a curse written by Fay Weldon: may your hot new girlfriend turn out to be a shape-shifted manifestation of the Ku Klux Klan; may you have to stay up very late debating with her whether or not it’s funny to make a joke about raping a baby, the night before your Today interview that should have been your big break; and may you emerge from all that having achieved what nobody previously thought possible – having utterly traduced the reputation of your party, made it stranger and more toxic even than the morning after the referendum result, when Nigel Farage appeared before a horrified crowd and sang Tomorrow Belongs to Me accompanied by a bassoon. When all these things befall you, may you know my wrath. |
| There is an argument that these are all fripperies, that it was a trivial, short-lived relationship between shallow people, and should command not one more moment of our attention. Yet none of this is an accident, that Ukip should pinball between attention-seekers, incompetents and liars, looking for the one true leader who can force through a project whose shape it cannot describe, because it only knows what it hates. | There is an argument that these are all fripperies, that it was a trivial, short-lived relationship between shallow people, and should command not one more moment of our attention. Yet none of this is an accident, that Ukip should pinball between attention-seekers, incompetents and liars, looking for the one true leader who can force through a project whose shape it cannot describe, because it only knows what it hates. |
| Ukip’s figureheads are unworthy of public life because its mission is. Its aerated nationalist rhetoric has polluted British politics, and elements in both main parties have scrambled to borrow popularity from its populism. Acknowledging swiftly, but fully, how utterly shabby its leaders are – and always have been – could be the beginning of the restoration of some quality control in the wider political context. | Ukip’s figureheads are unworthy of public life because its mission is. Its aerated nationalist rhetoric has polluted British politics, and elements in both main parties have scrambled to borrow popularity from its populism. Acknowledging swiftly, but fully, how utterly shabby its leaders are – and always have been – could be the beginning of the restoration of some quality control in the wider political context. |
| • Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist | • Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist |
| UK Independence party (Ukip) | UK Independence party (Ukip) |
| Opinion | Opinion |
| John Humphrys | John Humphrys |
| Race issues | Race issues |
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