Stratford & South Warwickshire Lib Dems 🔶

We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to Count Binface for returning to us that life-affirming & unifying relish of the ridiculous which we have come very close to losing. A win for him is a much needed win for all of us.

Susanna Reid, "What did Nigel Farage say to you when you were both at Dulwich college together?" Peter Ettedgui, "He regularly would come up to me and say Hitler was right, and he's also come up to me and go, gas them" Susanna Reid, "Are you Jewish?" Peter Ettedgui, "Yes" Susanna Reid, "So he was specifically targeting you because you were Jewish, with the most hurtful comment?" Peter Ettedgui, "Yeah, absolutely" "My German Jewish grandparents had escaped Nazi Germany in 1937, so I kind of grew up knowing about the Holocaust and everything that had happened" "This was the first time I had ever been targeted for antisemitic abuse in my life" "I have to say it was also the last time. I have since never remotely had anyone say anything like that to me" Susanna Reid, "How old were you at the time?" Peter Ettedgui, "Between the ages of 13 and 14" "When I was first approached to talk about this back in 2013, I felt that it was an unfair thing to do. And it was only after Nigel Farage denied it, that I had to say something, because there's no way he couldn't remember" "I was really worried that it was one person's word against another, but what has come up in the more recent reporting there's a large number of people who not only corroborate my experience but have their own experience" Ed Balls, "Nigel Farage has at times said this is untrue. At other times said it's playground banter. That it was a long time ago. That there was no intent to cause harm" *GMB play the clip of Farage denying antisemitism" Ed Balls, "He's never directly racially abused anybody" Jean-Pierre Lihou, "That's not true" "Peter and I were good friends at school, and I've heard it live" Susanna Reid, "So you weren't the target of Nigel Farage's comments but you witnessed them. Were there any others?" Jean-Pierre Lihou, "Yeah, anybody who wasn't white would likely to have a comment" "That was for many years. We're talking 13-14, all the way up to senior school" Susanna Reid, "So what else did you witness?" Jean-Pierre Lihou, "Anybody who was not white, Nigel Farage would go up to and say useless, or, send them home" "Nigel Farage used to draw NF (National Front) all over his schoolbooks, with pride" "When I came over from Belgium at the time as a ten year old, my father was in the military, my mother was from Germany" "While I had no conflicts with Nigel Farage, it was odd to come to this big school in London and to have such an obvious thing" Ed Balls, "Playground banter. We all grew up in the 1970s. It was harsh then. People said things on television about disability which you wouldn't say now" "But, the Nazi's were right and the hissing of the gas chamber" Jean-Pierre Lihou, "When you think about it its crazy" "When I used to be called, because I'm from Germany, the K word, but you say, things you couldn't imagine saying now" "That's the point. When you look online, those things are starting to come out again, and that's the dangerous thing" Susanna Reid, "Was this a one off?" Peter Ettedgui, "No. We were in the same class. Neighbouring desks because we were seated in alphabetical order" "This was, whenever he saw me. It was almost a kind of gut reflex when he saw me" "I was very struck by an interview a classmate gave to The Guardian the other day, where he said, I don't understand why Peter took it, why he didn't react" "I think learnt to throw a protective cloak over myself and ignore him" "I found my own tribe at school, and it wasn't all bad" "So I kind of got on with my life" "That experience marked me" "Antisemitism is often called the oldest hatred, and when I think of the oldest hatred, it's Nigel Farage's face that I see in front of me" "I'd like to pick up on this thing about it being the 1970s, it was a different time, you're absolutely right" "But words like, the K word, the Y word, the Jews, the P word, those were being thrown around" "Nigel Farage was of a completely different order" "The regularity, the intention with which he did this, to so many pupils of different races" Jean-Pierre Lihou, "The singing of the song: gas them all" "He used to regularly sing that at school" "It's horrendous. I don't want to sing it on TV" Peter Ettedgui, "Another story has come out from another Jewish pupil, younger than me, who remembers Farage and his pals waiting outside Jewish assembly, waiting to taunt the kids coming out" Ed Balls, "Nigel Farage says he didn't ay any of these things with intent" "But standing outside the Jewish assembly at Dulwich college to say things about the Nazis, feels like it has some intent" Peter Ettedgui, "A great deal of intent" Jean-Pierre Lihou, "Regular" Peter Ettedgui, "Yeah, and the targeting of other students of ethnic minorities waiting at the school gates" Ed Balls, "Last night Nigel Farage told us that the stories they are telling about him from 50 years ago are not true" Jean-Pierre Lihou, "It said these things also when he was 14, 15, 16, 17, when the issue of the prefect of the nomination came up, it wasn't just 50 years ago when he was 11" Ed Balls, "He says the two of you are politically motivated" Jean-Pierre Lihou, "I don't have any political affiliations at all" Peter Ettedgui, "And neither do I" "There isn't a political, but a deeply personal motivation" "I do not want to see a school bully become my prime minister" "That probably goes for all 20+ people who have spoken out about his behaviour at school"