The biggest topic in British political circles on Monday wasn’t the country’s impending departure from the European Union. It was milkshakes—or, rather, one milkshake in particular that was lobbed by a bystander in Newcastle at Nigel Farage, a Brexit Party candidate in the European Parliament elections later this week.
Farage, the spiritual leader of the Brexit movement, quickly used the lactic confrontation to blame politicians who oppose him. “Sadly some remainers have become radicalised, to the extent that normal campaigning is becoming impossible,” he wrote on Twitter shortly after the incident. “For a civilised democracy to work you need the losers consent, politicians not accepting the referendum result have led us to this.”
The former UKIP Leader isn’t alone. In recent weeks, other far-right figures running for European Parliament seats have been met with dairy-centric direct action. Anti-racist protesters have targeted Tommy Robinson, the former leader of the English Defense League, with milkshakes on multiple occasions. Carl Benjamin, an alt-right YouTube personality who said last month he “wouldn’t even rape” a woman running against him, has been milkshaked (milkshaken?) four times in the past week.
