By rights, Nigel Farage should have lost every shred of credibility he ever had due to the unquestionable disaster that is Brexit; he should be a national laughing stock. Yet, an hour or so ago in Nationwide, I caught sight of him on the TV there, appearing on a stage in Birmingham, speaking to an audience like some great showman or statesman. As usual I found the very sight utterly repugnant: how anyone can be stupid enough to even listen to – let alone believe – the shyte that disgrace to human civilisation is beyond me. Yet the fact remains, there he was, the members of his party fawning over him like some great hero, Reform gaining more and more traction in the polls.

This is a trend I think we should all be very worried about indeed. I’m sure most people reading this will be aware of the resurgence in nationalism taking place across the country, with flags appearing on lamp posts and red crosses being painted on mini-roundabouts. It’s a symptom of a far bigger problem: a feeling of socioeconomic disenfranchisement felt by many people across the country, which Farage seems to be tapping into. He has reduced matters down to an ‘us and them’ paradigm, where ‘British people’ must square off against ‘foreigners’ or ‘asylum seekers’. In doing so, he has distorted an issue caused directly as a result of Brexit to suit his own sickeningly cynical purposes, presenting himself as some kind of saviour of the downtrodden. Where he should be an object of universal contempt for robbing us of our rights as members of the EU, Farage has managed to blame migrants for the problems he himself caused, essentially setting one group of people against the other and then positioning himself as a kind of saviour figure. The bastard doesn’t seem to care how much anger, hatred or fear he whips up in doing so, as long as he can bask in the adulation of these misguided fools.

The problem is, that anger now seems to be fast reaching boiling point. Communities are bitterly divided; thugs rampage the streets raising flags; tribalism is becoming almost visceral. Meanwhile their leader parades himself on TV, basking in misguided adulation. We have been here before, and we know what happened.