Rickard Berg, The Guardian.
I remember him as a racist, obnoxious bully, and his allegation that other ex-Dulwich boys and I are liars tells me he hasn’t changed.
The new year has delivered a new position from Nigel Farage on the multiple and detailed accounts of his alleged racism and antisemitism during his time as a pupil at Dulwich College.
We had outright denial when the Guardian first published its investigation. As further witnesses came forward, we had excuses: it was “banter”, there wasn’t any malice involved and any such abuse was never targeted at an individual.
Now Reform’s leader says that much, although seemingly not all, of what is being claimed from the now 34 alleged witnesses and victims about his behaviour is “fantasy”. The motivation of this large group of fantasists is said to be political. The politician’s response does not sit well with me.
I know that Farage targeted his contemporaries at the school with abuse because of their ethnicity and nationality because I was there – and I was one of them. I knew him throughout my time at Dulwich: sometimes we would be on the same train, when he would smoke the thinnest rollups you’ve ever seen in the compartments.
I remember it so clearly because Farage was so different to what my friends and I were all about. His presence felt like a constant noise. The persona he had adopted was negative, destructive and intolerant of anything non-British. As he wasn’t really very good at anything – no great orator, not charismatic or engaging – he had clearly worked out that being vitriolic was the only way he’d get noticed.
Yes, he had a few others that thought like him, but he didn’t need them around to repeatedly taunt the targets he had singled out based on their skin colour, nationality or religion, and had targeted because retribution was unlikely – as in essence he was a simple bully.
I was picked on because I am Swedish. He had no retort when people like myself who he told to “go home, back to your own country” told him to fuck off.
In case he’s forgotten, he said that to me in the classroom overlooking the science block. It was definitely not playground banter – at Dulwich there was no playground apart from in Lower School, years 7 and 8 – the school grounds were massive and we all disappeared to different corners to hang out with our friends during breaks. To repeatedly harass someone took a bit of effort.
Why does it matter now? Yesterday, today or tomorrow, it matters. If there is any doubt about the impact he had, please read the testimony of Peter Ettedgui, the award winning film-maker who counts people murdered in the Holocaust among his family. He described how Farage would hiss “Hitler was right” into his ear, and “gas them”.
Farage and his acolytes are today calling me, some of my friends and other ex-Dulwich boys liars. It is bullying those who were hurt by him all over again.
My motivation is not political. Farage has chosen a profession where character matters. It’s pathetic of him to pretend he shouldn’t be open to personal scrutiny or that his behaviour at Dulwich wouldn’t resurface: as pathetic as picking on a wounded BBC to deflect from having to answer questions, but I guess that’s the bully right there. Had he wanted to remain anonymous, he should have stayed in the City rather than choosing a public career.
My motivation is that in not acknowledging and explaining that “that was school, this is now”, he is showing that he simply isn’t being honest – and insulting us ex-fellow pupils in the process.
Farage coming into the classroom in which Peter was sitting to start a rendition of the antisemitic song “Gas ’em all”, about killing Jews and other minority ethnic people, is not something you forget. I could no longer keep to just telling this story to my mates on bike rides through the Surrey Hills.
Fudge (Farage’s nickname) is someone I remember as being nothing but a racist, antisemitic, obnoxious bully who would get the early train so he could polish his CCF boots before first bell; that’s about it. His response to the recent accounts of him at Dulwich doesn’t really make me feel he’s changed that much. To me, he remains a spineless little person incapable of making anything better.
