Farage denounces ‘cretins’ in charge of the economy as he pledges ‘big bang two’
“Cretins” have been running the UK economy for “too Long”, Nigel Farage said, as he pledged to repeat the “big bang” reforms in the City of London introduced by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.
Speaking at the Digital Asset Summit in London, the Reform UK leader took aim at Gordon Brown, who he accused of selling off gold reserves too cheaply, and imposing too much regulation in a bid to stop “boom and bust”, as Labour chancellor at the turn of the century.
Speaking on the day his party confirmed it would now not implement huge tax cuts pledged in its manifesto, Mr Farage mocked Mr Brown as a “genius” for selling off 50% of gold reserves at 275 dollars an ounce at the same time as imposing “massive regulation”.
‘Miss the boat’
Referencing the former chancellor’s approach, Mr Farage said: “These are the kind of cretins, I’m afraid, that have been running this for too long.”
Mr Farage earlier warned that the UK may “miss the boat” on the benefits of the trade in digital assets such as Bitcoin and called for sweeping deregulation to disrupt the status quo.
He said: “The big bang of the 1980s, that’s worth mentioning because today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Margaret Thatcher.
“Love her or not, she broke up the City of London and we got massive investment coming in and we really made London the world’s leading centre.
“If you ever want to have a look at an example of sensible deregulation, getting rid of ridiculous market practices and customs leading to success, big bang in London in the 80s is one of them.
“So what we’re going to need is big bang two, with (digital assets) being right at the epicentre of what we want to try to do.”
Outdated system
Mr Farage claimed Rachel Reeves is planning to sell off five billion dollars of seized Bitcoin, saying it should be kept by the Bank of England to start to “build up and make Bitcoin a reserve category”.
The Reform UK leader described the banking system as “outdated and not working” as he bemoaned “thousands of bank accounts being closed every single year”.
There was controversy in 2023 when private bank Coutts closed an account held by Mr Farage, claiming he had not met eligibility criteria.
It later emerged that the bank’s action was in part due to Mr Farage’s political views.
Mr Farage said: “We have excessive anti-money laundering rules that mean if a bank sees an unusual payment, it just closes you down.
“All this to stop money laundering – yet, every high street in Britain now has a proliferation of Turkish barbers, where they don’t cut any hair. They only take cash and there’s a brand new Lamborghini parked out the back.
“So yes, our financial services industry needs disrupting, and there will be winners and losers, but there will be a lot more winners.”
Sovereignty
Recalling his campaigning against the UK’s membership of the European Union, Mr Farage said: “We got back our sovereignty, we haven’t used it very well.
“The reason I’m sitting here this morning talking to all of you, this is about governments not controlling us.
“It is about banks not closing us down. It is about crypto being allowed back into the fold.”
Reform UK confirmed on Monday that it has dropped its commitment to most of the £90 million tax cuts it pledged in its manifesto last year.
Interviewed on Times Radio on Monday, deputy leader Richard Tice said: “A manifesto is based on a point in time. The principles behind it are rock solid.
“We said we’ve got to make very significant savings in order to fund a different way to run the economy.
“What has happened since then is that the state of the economy, because of mismanagement by this Labour Government, the numbers have got far worst. And we will be focusing relentlessly, as I’ve been saying, on savings.”
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” We have excessive anti money laundering rules ” what hypocrisy. The super rich want bitcoin for one thing , they will no longer need tax havens or offshore accounts. With a mere click of a button they can move their assets around that fast the tax man won’t be able to keep up and know exactly who has what .
Bitcoin, the choice of criminals, charlatans and money launderas. Maybe an expose of Reforms real agenda.
Very true.
There are two dictionary definitions of ‘Cretin’. Check in on them and make up your own mind.
This is the cretin that lauded Liz Truss crashing the economy. The same cretin that has councils that will have to put the rates up at the maximum allowed and ask the government for more money after saying they would cut waste and cut council rates but surprise surprise, didn’t find any waste. This is the same cretin that say’s he bought a house then turns out he didn’t. That must have been a shock. This is the same cretin that brought us Brexit, a monumentally cretinous action of self financial harm and a big part of the problem we… Read more »
Well Ironic Farage mention selling gold too cheaply
His metal trading company which he started with his brother went west
Farage jumped ship as soon as it turned from profit to loss in 2011
A captain who was never going down with the ship
Leaving his brother to carry the can
Eventually folded owing HMRC £100k .
Irony is the pay farage gets for the face of a gold bullion firm.
https://members.parliament.uk/member/5091/registeredinterests
Yes indeed.There is always the sickly smell of self interest behind anything Farage says or does .He whipped up support for his beef against Coutts
Champion of the people.The website he proposed to help others failed to materialise when he got paid out compensation ,
Gentle reminder. Big Bang One crashed capitalism. And Gordon Brown saved the world.
You only have to look at Argentina over the last couple of years to see where this will take us.
I see Tow Countries Tice is ruling out the tax cuts that Reform guaranteed in it 2024 manifesto.
Let’s hope there aren’t enough cretins voting for him then.
Wondering if my comment will disappear because of that term. But then it’s ok for Farage isn’t it?
Whenever Farage is asked an awkward question by the wrong kind of journalist he always gives a long pause and a hard stare that seems to be saying “just you wait until I’m president of England and we start rounding up and disappearing the woke” before launching into a condescending and slightly intimidating diatribe.