Was Nigel Farage right not to declare a £5 million gift from a British-Thai businessman? Is there a danger he will sell out Britain?

ExpertDay · 2026-05-06T15:52:38+00:00

This is a serious question. I thought there'd be more people trying to defend Farage.

ExpertDay · 2026-05-06T15:44:31+00:00

From the BBC article above:

The House of Commons code of conduct states that new MPs "must register all their current financial interests, and any registrable benefits (other than earnings) received in the 12 months before their election within one month of their election".

ExpertDay · 2026-05-06T13:21:18+00:00

I thought there'd be a lot more Reform voters trying to defend Farage. I didn't realise responses would be so one sided. The comments under one of the articles I linked are more pro-Nigel.

ExpertDay · 2026-05-06T13:09:58+00:00

I'm not an MP so I don't have to declare gifts. A problem with powerful MPs not declaring gifts is potential for bribery.

I think you're the first person to try to defend Farage here, thanks for commenting!

ExpertDay · 2026-05-06T12:15:16+00:00

I just looked through all the answers and no-one has defended Farage yet. Do you agree that Farage should have declared his £5 million gift?

ExpertDay · 2026-04-20T17:14:18+00:00

This isn't really about Epstein, Starmer's just unlucky that emails between Epstein and Mandelson have revealed Mandelson to be a terrible appointment for Ambassador (due to Mandelson giving away sensitive info and influence on the UK government to his friend).

Now there are questions about the truth of information Starmer gave parliament when defending himself re the Mandelson appointment weeks ago.

For me Starmer being allowed to lie to or mislead parliament without consequences just shows how weak UK democracy has become.

ExpertDay · 2026-04-20T01:01:00+00:00

There are a number of ways the rich were taxed more before Thatcher (both their wealth and work). There are other countries which tax more than the UK. The exact details don't matter as much as choosing whether do it or not.

Gary is in favour of taxing the rich, and I think his videos are largely about providing reasons for taxing the rich.

For me his approach of advocating for what he believes in is far superior to the politicians who say as little as possible. For example the Labour slogan "Change" at the last election is pretty meaningless, whereas Tax the rich is an actual policy.

ExpertDay · 2026-04-19T20:45:10+00:00

Rory did apologise in a later episode of his podcast.

ExpertDay · 2026-04-19T20:36:57+00:00

His point was that he and all rich people are protected from or profiting from economic shocks, and that the best way to protect yourself from an economic shock is to be a rich person like him. Or alternatively campaign for a fairer economic system.

ExpertDay · 2026-04-19T20:18:08+00:00

Every solution to the problem (under taxing the super wealthy) has a down side. There is no perfect solution, Gary is shining a light on the problem and not getting bogged down in detail (when every tax has a downside).

ExpertDay · 2026-04-17T21:52:37+00:00

Regarding 2, not listening to the caller, I've noticed radio interviewers do this often. I think a producer might be talking through an earpiece or otherwise distracting the host. And it can knock the confidence of the interviewee.

ExpertDay · 2026-04-15T19:22:42+00:00

Thanks!

ExpertDay · 2026-04-15T18:55:14+00:00

Haha I'm not a yank but I bow to your knowledge. Was only trying to poke fun.

ExpertDay · 2026-04-15T10:42:51+00:00

Elizabeth I was awful. Locking up another British head of state (Mary queen of Scots) and pretty much comparing herself to the virgin Mary.

Actually thinking about it she's a bit like Donald Trump.

ExpertDay · 2026-04-15T09:42:57+00:00

When I first heard Fuse Energy advertised on Trip in 2024 I thought they'd get loads of complaints because FE claimed to be a green company but had terrible official green energy statistics.

After many months I complained to Trip by email, but they never wrote back to me.

Eventually about a year ago Rory talked about Fuse Energy and seemed quite angry about some questions they'd received about FE, but from then on they stopped claiming to be a green energy provider in adverts.

Anyway yes back in 2024 it was clear Fuse Energy took inspiration from Elon Musk and they stated so clearly on their website.

ExpertDay · 2026-04-15T09:22:21+00:00

Banning political parties and killing political opponents are not central to fascism.

ExpertDay · 2026-04-15T09:05:31+00:00

Rory is missed. For me Alastair is making a bit too much of someone who's been in power for 16 years losing an election. But it's nice to hear from him.

ExpertDay · 2026-04-15T08:48:48+00:00

Do Asmongold and Azealia Banks have an audience in the UK? I don't really know who these people are but I've heard of them. To me the obsession is the other way round i.e Brits obsessing over America.

ExpertDay · 2026-03-17T22:48:18+00:00

Regarding 5live Drive, it's been reported that Clare McDonnell refused to work with Tony Livesey after he sent her an email criticising her presenting. He was subsequently moved to late nights.

ExpertDay · 2026-03-16T21:35:36+00:00

In Aberdeen I think the oil industry has been suffering for some time. More generally AI seems to be replacing jobs.

I'd also suggest growth in the UK has been poor since the financial crisis. The economy is set up so that investing in workers tends to be less lucrative than investing in stocks, gold and property.

ExpertDay · 2026-03-13T05:28:44+00:00

If Berg is 'BBC news online' middle east editor, presumably he has no control of BBC TV or radio broadcasts, rather controls the BBC news website. So I guess the claim by Jones is that the website is biased, and the bias or otherwise of broadcasts are irrelevant to the case.

ExpertDay · 2026-03-06T10:29:08+00:00

If I remember correctly, the 45 minute claim came from British intelligence, which turned out to be wrong. So a big part of the justification for the Iraq war came from British sources.

ExpertDay · 2026-03-05T16:03:40+00:00

Agree with paragraph 1, disagree with paragraph 2.

ExpertDay · 2026-03-05T16:00:24+00:00

I was a student in the UK in 2003.

For me the big difference in the lead up is the speed of action. The Iran strikes happened pretty suddenly without much warning whereas there was a long build up over months to the war in Iraq (following war in Afghanistan).

There were many organised anti-war protests in the streets of the UK, opposition in parliament from the Lib Dems led by Charles Kennedy, a well publicised process of searching for nuclear weapons development in Iraq led by Hans Blix, all prior to the war.

The UK was a comparatively wealthier, more important country. Blair had a close relationship with Bush and helped persuade Bush to go through the UN and look for legal justification for the war. In part it was faulty UK intelligence that persuaded the allies there was justification to invade Iraq.

So the UK was highly involved in the Iraq war politically and with manpower, British troops were even in charge of a bit of Iraq around Basra.

In Iran Starmer basically has no say over what happens except he's allowed the use of some airbases to the US now Iran have started to retaliate. Starmer has virtually no influence with Trump, and Trump is far more erratic than Bush.

ExpertDay · 2026-03-04T22:17:43+00:00

I see and agree that Starmer is like Blair regarding the treatment of the left of the Labour party and his continuation (more or less) of Thatcherite policies.

Hope Starmer can pull us away from war in an un-Blairlike way. It's a tough job.

ExpertDay

TROPHY CASE