Transcription
Now let's uh go to the UK, where Reform, they've gone from recording spectacular poll numbers. There was a poll where they were leading everybody; they were leading the Tories in every national poll at one stage. But now they're in the midst of this damaging internal rift between Nigel Farage and Rupert Lowe. Can they recover from this? Can they be the dominant conservative force in the UK? And what is this clash all about? Is it just a matter of, os um, it's actually a little early to say.
Uh, you're right. Uh, Reform has been polling extraordinarily well in recent weeks, um, and as I see it, uh, there's always, um, in small parties, you know, new parties, there's always a lot of churn and turmoil. Um, and actually, saying The Spectator this week, you know, sort of it requires quite a microscope sometimes to get under what's actually going on in such internal rifts, on the right as on the left. But from what I can see, it actually boils down, for once, to an issue of policy and not of personalities.
Um, Nigel Farage seems to have been making a grab for the moderate center of politics, uh, whilst uh Rupert Lowe has been going in a different direction. And Rupert Lowe has been going very hard actually in Parliament and on social media and so on about issues like the deportation of illegal migrants in the UK. Now Nigel Farage has been reacting to these statements of Rupert Lowe's by increasingly, it seems, giving interviews in which he says that it's just not possible to deport all of the illegal migrants who are in the UK, and he's not going to get into that discussion. I think that is a very, very interesting difference. As let's say, maybe Farage is simply trying to appeal to the political center, and maybe Rupert Lowe is trying to appeal more to the right. Maybe they're both saying what they just actually think, um, but it is a very, very interesting disagreement, um, because to my mind, if you say we have perhaps millions of people in the country illegally, many of whom have been carrying out acts of criminality, all of whom carried out an act of criminality by breaking into the country illegally, then they should be made to leave. It seems to me that's a perfectly reasonable policy. Nigel Farage is clearly terrified of the policy or of saying that, and so instead he's saying, well, you know, it just can't be done. I think there's not much point of a party of the right, particularly one to the right of the Conservatives, that simply says we're going to sit back and not do anything about the existential threats to our country. Um, so I think it is actually beyond personalities, for once, there's a serious rift here on the right, and it's going to be very interesting to see because either either Reform can continue to be a party where people who are opposed to the mainstream narrative of recent decades can put their trust, or it isn't, and it falls apart as so many small parties have before. Yes, it needs to uh decide where it stands on that issue; that is an important one, and I'm got to say I'm pretty surprised by Nigel Farage's uh stance on that.
Now I mentioned The Guardian newspaper; they've made a big song and dance about leaving X. They said that was because the platform was uh full of disinformation and misinformation. Well, it's The Guardian that has had to issue a fullsome apology for disinformation and misinformation. The apology has been to you, Douglas, and from what I understand, a big fat check as well, because they falsely accused you of supporting violent racist attacks during anti-immigration protests in the UK last year. Tell me about this case, and uh just before you do, if I could just read from one of the court documents. This is about as comprehensive an apology as one could find: "The defendant, through me, this apologizes unreservedly to Mr. Murray and is pleased to set the record straight. It acknowledges that the allegations were false and has agreed to pay substantial damages." Douglas, congratulations on the victory. How did this come about?
Well, it came about because uh the uh the journalist in question, a man called Kenan Malik, uh um wrote an article last summer, there a very heated and worrying time in the UK, uh which simply lied about me, simply spread falsehoods about me, and um you know, if you're in any kind of public life, you have to get used to quite a lot of rough and tumble, and um you know, you you when you think of reaching for the lawyers, uh then it's you know, usually quite quite it's it's quite rare I think that people actually, certainly people like me, feel the need to do that. But on this occasion, uh the column that The Observer published was so gratuitously false and untrue and so libelous and damaging actually uh uh that that that I decided I had to take action. I'm I'm no fan of The Guardian newspaper group. I I think that they have, whilst they pretend that they are the sort of sole arbiters of what is true, I think they spread an awful amount of falsehood, but this was so flagrantly false and demonstrably provably false uh that I did take action, and they tried to defend themselves a bit, but it was completely impossible uh for them to defend the sloppy journalist Kenan Malik and his incredibly sloppy and vituperative journalism. And yes, they had to make a full apology as you saw at the court in London uh this week, promise not to repeat the charges and pay what they call substantial uh damages as well as legal costs. I just think it's very important that people uh remember that it's you know, to to to use a phrase that The Guardian is fond of, uh um a comment is is free, comment is free, uh but facts should be sacred, and it's not the case that writers for The Guardian newspaper group should simply be allowed to make up things, make up facts, lie, uh falsify information and get away with it. Uh so I'm very pleased that that for once uh The Observer, The Guardian newspaper group have have have been held uh uh to rights. Um I I wish it would happen more often, frankly.
Congratulations from uh everyone in Australia. I'll speak on behalf of the country, Douglas Murray. Thank you so much for your time tonight. It's a great pleasure. Thank you.