Nigel Farage gets a taste of economic reality on his day out at the Bank

Powell is at the sharp end of having to cope with ignorant advice from the current president of the United States. Since Farage clearly sees Donald Trump as his role model, Bailey presumably decided to get in first and give Farage some sage advice about living in the real world of economic policy, and not the fantasy land of Liz Truss mark two.

Farage apparently joined the chorus of those who are urging the Bank to reduce interest rates. Well, Bailey has made it clear that he should like to but is concerned, as is the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), about the immediate outlook for UK inflation.

It is interesting, however, that the mighty asset manager Pimco believes such worries are overdone, and is adjusting its investment plans accordingly.

Where Farage is being especially pernicious is in criticising Bailey for wanting the British government to get closer to the European Union. This is a bit rich coming from the man who was the leading champion of Brexit, now recognised by most of the population to be an unmitigated disaster. When one leading Brexiter was asked not long ago how he rated the success of Brexit on a scale of one to 10, he replied: “minus 70”.

While the government scratches around in search of a growth policy, the answer is staring it in the face. It is to apply to rejoin the European customs union and single market. This would give a welcome boost not only to our trade but also to that of our former EU partners, many of whose economies are also in the doldrums. Which brings me once again to the unfortunate lacuna in the current economic debate: the failure to distinguish between the short and long term.

I recently heard an interviewer on the Today programme say something like “every serious economist knows that taxes will have to go up in the budget”.

Oh yes? The demand for goods and services in the economy is already depressed. What do the advocates of further tax increases at a time like this think will be done to economic demand and the animal spirits of business?

There can be little doubt that once the economy is on the road to recovery, the demands on public services will need to be financed by higher taxation. Unless, of course, the electorate are stupid enough to bring Farage and his gang into power. If this happens, à la Trumpian Maga, there will be carnage in store for public services.

The madness of Reform’s ideas was well illustrated in an interview one of the leading Brexiters and Reform supporters, Arron Banks, gave to the Financial Times on Friday. Yes, wholesale carnage of the public services, and removal of civil servants doing vital govertnment work. Banks even lauded the Bolsheviks who massacred Russian intellectuals after the 1917 October Revolution. He also praised Liz Truss’s notorious Budget and called for “the abolition of regulators”. I am not making this up!

Farage leads a motley crew and it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that the whole Reform movement could implode. This is certainly to be hoped for, but cannot be assumed. Optimists recall how the Social Democrats – a respectable party, unlike Reform – had a huge poll lead over the Tories in the early 1980s but it didn’t last.

Earlier in the month Farage himself had called for the massive deportation of immigrants.

Surely, as he prepares for this week’s Labour party conference, Sir Keir Starmer should curtail the party’s attempt to ape Reform, and go hell for leather to point out how damaging to public services, the economy generally and society’s wellbeing is the denigration of immigration.

One has only to look across the Atlantic to see the economic damage wrought by Trump’s inhuman assault on immigrants who have been there for years and form – or formed – a vital element in the workforce.

Starmer should also be capitalising on the economic damage Farage brought about with the Brexit referendum which David Cameron called in an effort to appease him.

Talking of which, I note that the LIb-Dem leader is a lot more positive about the need to rejoin the European customs union and single market than Starmer is. Bully for Sir Ed Davey.

Photograph by Carl Court/Getty Images