There will always be a certain class of people who sigh that Nigel Farage only reaps what he sows. Ever since milkshakes starting being tossed at a man they regard as an incendiary rabble-rouser, they have argued that it’s his fault for having raised the volume and coarsened the tone of political discourse in this country in the first place. In other circumstances this would be called ‘victim-blaming’: he shouldn’t have behaved so provocatively. He was asking for it.

We have for so long derided the puritanical left for their hyper-sensitivity to language, that we forget how this thin-skinned, intolerant mentality has long been embedded in the mainstream

We have for so long derided the puritanical left for their hyper-sensitivity to language, that we forget how this thin-skinned, intolerant mentality has long been embedded in the mainstream

In a week in which it was revealed that the Reform leader has received 1,577 threats since February, including 597 death threats, the victim-blamers have been out in force again. Two letters in the Times yesterday repeated the thrust of the argument. ‘There can be little doubt that Nigel Farage has thrived by being provocative and confrontational,’ one began. ‘Would it not be better if he toned down his approach to the level of normal political discourse?’ Another,........

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