These days it\u2019s not enough to disagree with opponents \u2013 it seems we have to accuse them of being con artists too<\/p>\n
Our world is full of grifters. Or so it seems, considering how often that word is thrown around in public life these days.<\/p>\n
This year alone, Zarah Sultana, the former Labour MP and founder of a new left party with Jeremy Corbyn, called the Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, a \u201cbillionaire-backed grifter<\/a>\u201d (perhaps borrowing from the language of Coutts staff<\/a> who referred to him as a \u201cdisingenuous grifter\u201d when his bank account was closed two years ago). Sultana, in turn, was accused of being a \u201cgrifter\u201d duping \u201chonest socialists\u201d<\/a> by the journalist Paul Mason.<\/p>\n Anoosh Chakelian is Britain editor of the New Statesman<\/p>\n