Our only bias is in favour of truth and honesty and against those who lie and deceive

Martin Shipton

The media is under attack in Wales and Britain as a whole in a way that is unprecedented – and we at Nation.Cymru are in the midst of it.

Reform UK and its leader Nigel Farage hate being put under scrutiny, and they turn nasty when they are held to account.

They refuse to respond to our enquiries and – as leaks to us from within the party have proved – hold us in contempt.

We don’t care what they think of us. But it should be a matter of serious concern that the party that leads the Britain-wide polls wants to pick and choose which media outlets it will engage with.

They accuse us of bias, and of singling them out for criticism. Our only bias is in favour of truth and honesty and against those who lie and deceive.

We’re not intimidated by them or their pet barrister, as they discovered in recent weeks. And our record shows that we will report on all political parties without fear or favour. Last year we took the lead in exposing and ultimately bringing down a Labour First Minister. And Conservative and Plaid Cymru politicians have had reason to dread negative headlines too.

Level-headed politicians understand that journalists will scrutinise their statements and actions, but Reform don’t get that.

If they have recently been the subject of a succession of negative stories, that’s entirely down to the low calibre of their politicians and officials.

The party’s campaign in the Caerphilly by-election was an absolute disgrace. They went into the constituency following the tragic death of Hefin David with the deliberate intention of winning votes by stirring up racial hatred.

Caerphilly has the smallest proportion of residents born outside the UK in the whole of Wales, but that didn’t matter to Reform. They wanted to nurture discontent and grievances – a technique mastered by Hitler in Germany.

Gas

No wonder there have been multiple reports from pupils who were contemporaries of Farage at his fee-paying school in London that he behaved like a Nazi youth, making grossly offensive comments to Jewish boys and simulating the sound of escaping gas.

The Guardian – a longstanding bête noire media outlet for the far-right – has performed a public service in assembling a weight of evidence against Farage from his schooldays.

Coupled with the highly damaging revelations about Reform’s ex-leader in Wales and Farage groupie Nathan Gill, now serving a ten and a half year jail sentence for taking bribes from the Russians, it’s no wonder that the party is in a panic.

That’s clear to anyone who saw Farage’s unhinged attack on the BBC after a reporter from the UK’s leading broadcaster asked him a pertinent question about his teenage antics.

He sought to compare his own disgusting comments while at school – which he sometimes denies and sometimes nearly admits – with the fact that the BBC ran a weekly light entertainment TV show called the Black and White Minstrel Show in which white singers put on blackface.

It may have been crass – and there’s no way it would be seen as acceptable today – but the stupidity of it is hardly on a level with telling people that Hitler was right and deserved praise for murdering Jews in gas chambers.

Venom

Farage is full of venom for the BBC, when he should be grateful to the broadcaster for all the coverage, much of it uncritical, that it’s given him over the years. His response to the BBC journalist showed him at his Trumpian worst – acting the bully by dishing out insults to those who ask him awkward questions.

We know the kind of broadcaster Farage favours – one where a far right interviewer feeds leading questions to a far right commentator and they nod in harmony to the answer: that sounds like GB News, the outfit that provides him with one of his many highly paid side jobs.

The fact that Reform is leading the polls when its policy cupboard is bare, racism is its USP and those flocking to be its candidates are a combination of far right pub bores and clapped out former Tory MPs is a serious indictment of contemporary Britain.

Here in Wales Reform is in contention to be the biggest party in the Senedd after next May’s election. Yet they have no leader, no candidates and no policies. All of this demonstrates that they don’t want to be scrutinised. Appointing a party leader, with Farage the Führer making the choice, as he previously did with Gill; selecting candidates and drafting policies gives too much ammunition to journalists who are not onside. The game, therefore, is to make such decisions as late as possible.

Reform and its outriders – who unsurprisingly tend to have skeletons in their cupboard – has been desperately pleading with its own insiders not to give information to Nation.Cymru.

Leaked messages

This comes after leaked messages showed their director of communications had referred to the prominent Welsh journalist Will Hayward as a “cunt” and to Nation.Cymru writers as “vile nats”.

It doesn’t take much imagination to think of how a Reform government would behave towards those journalists and news outlets it sees as enemies.

All the time, of course, they’ll be bleating about how freedom of speech is being curtailed in Britain for their sort of people. That’s the sort of person whose free speech consists of racial insults and crackpot conspiracy theories, or who demands the right to advocate burning down asylum hotels.

There are people in Reform who have already provided us with stories that expose how nasty a party it is, and we expect the leaks to keep coming.

We encourage those who may have joined the party out of misplaced idealism and now feel uncomfortable or worse to get in touch with any pertinent information that would cause Reform embarrassment.

In five months’ time, the people of Wales will be electing a new Senedd. Contrary to the wishes of Reform itself, we want them to be as well informed as possible about what would be in store for them if the party were to form a government.

It’s a frightening prospect, but it’s better to be frightened before it happens when there’s still time for preventative action to take place.

In the meantime, we promise to keep you informed about Reform and the other contenders.

Independent journalism in Wales is under increasing attack from political extremists and bad-faith actors who want to drown out or discredit our reporting. Your support can help protect Nation.Cymru and ensure we remain a strong, fearless voice for Wales. Click here to help.