Farage knows he’s not cut out to be PM and he certainly doesn’t want the scrutiny that comes with it. He wants to be touring America making money from the think tank speaking circuit. The whole thing has got very, very real. How does he get out of it? Can he now? His backers want their return surely

It’s interesting that article made those allegations and remains on their website today. Clearly never challenged.

I suspect there’s plenty of people in his adult life who can/will come forward. 3.5yrs of being PM in waiting is a LONG time.

Will go full MAGA victimhood, of course. As always.

Why did he not sue over this in the Guardian, 1999?

And it was being written about as far back as 1999

None, unless people from his adult life like former colleagues come forward. He’ll portray himself as the victim and everyone will move on

And a concerted attempt by sinister forces to wreck our democracy. The sooner we accept it’s under attack the better

They are doling out at least 3 resignation demands a week right now

Modern news only survives online by creating outrage to feed the algorithms - and anti-Govt content is what they want to feast on. So the idea that any budget is going to be warmly received is fanciful - so you may as well do the right thing however painful because you’ll be monstered anyway.

So you have a media whose business model is chained to outrage and political parties who have adopted catastrophising as a strategy (their engagement goes up with it too) - it’s a perfect storm for democracy regardless of what’s in the budget. Maybe doing the right thing is best in that case…

It was a crazy thing to do, but how much worse can it get? We live in a news environment which is now structured entirely around outrage, the only way to get clicks and survive as a media organisation online is to trigger people. Doesn’t matter what you do, the most negative takes will be taken.