Unlike Keir Starmer and his cabinet, Reform UK\u2019s leader actually understands and exploits the rules of engagement in our digital age<\/p>\n
As so often happens, what Nigel Farage said on a recent visit to south Wales deserved endless pejoratives. It was ludicrous, condescending, half-baked, opportunistic and plain stupid. Even he<\/em> didn\u2019t seem to know exactly what he wanted. At a Reform UK press conference in Port Talbot, he seemed to make the case<\/a> for reopening the town\u2019s steel-making blast furnaces, before admitting that \u201cit might be easier to build a new one\u201d, though he also acknowledged that it would \u201ccost in the low billions\u201d to do so. But he had even more dizzying visions of reopened Welsh mines. \u201cIf you offer people well-paying jobs \u2026 many will take them,\u201d said Farage, \u201ceven though you have to accept that mining is dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n The climate crisis, predictably enough, was not worth considering. He also did not offer any opinions about coal-related issues such as slag heaps<\/a>, land slips, rivers that run black, and unimaginable underground disasters<\/a>. When he was asked where new pits might be located, he blithely offered the opinion that it \u201ccomes down to geology\u201d. That is true, up to a point, but he would surely also have to think about the housing developments<\/a> and business parks<\/a> that often sit atop all those disused coal seams.<\/p>\n