When Farage Came to Town

This week, author, academic and Ipswich Town season ticket holder Jack Saunders joins us to discuss the tawdry affair of Nigel Farage’s photoshoot at Portman Road, Ipswich CEO Mark Ashton’s sorry attempts to manage the fallout, and how Ipswich fans have worked to counter emboldened far-right elements of the fanbase and assert that the club belongs to them. Reaching across the East Anglian rivalry, we asked what it means for owners to impose their politics on their clubs, the specifically English demand to “keep politics out of football” – as Farage had demanded of Black players taking the knee – and how this plays in contestation over which symbols can be allowed official approval to be displayed in stadia. We also discussed the need for collective rather than individualised responses to a provocation such as Reform UK’s trip to Portman Road, including Ipswich fans’ presence at the recent Together Alliance march in London, and why Farage chose, and was able to leech onto a club like Ipswich rather than one of the Premier League’s globally popular Big Six. Read Jack’s post on Blue and White Notes: https://bluewhitenotes.beehiiv.com/p/speechless