Why Nigel Farage is the High Druid of our burgeoning Age of Unreason

In its stances on climate change, vaccines and immigration, Reform UK demonstrates it should be taken about as seriously as the modern-day druids chanting prayers of protection against Covid

It was reportedly “a joyous and peaceful occasion” as a record-breaking crowd of 25,000 “sun devotees and other revellers, including druids, pagans, hippies, locals and tourists”, in the words of the Associated Press, witnessed sunrise at Stonehenge on the longest day of the year, while more than 400,000 from around the world watched online.

“It is fantastic to see Stonehenge continuing to enchant and connect people,” said Richard Dewdney, English Heritage's head of operations for the ancient monument. It may well be fantastic from English Heritage’s viewpoint – given it depends on people being interested in its sites – but is it really such good news from a broader perspective?

Many people may have gone along simply for a nice photo on Instagram, but the druids will doubtless have been delighted to perform for such a large audience, spreading their message and perhaps winning a few converts.

READ MORE: Migration reforms risk deepening skills crisis in Scottish construction, industry panel warns

The sun rises over Stonehenge on the summer solstice, an event that attracted record crowds of druids, sun devotees, tourists and others (Picture: Finnbarr Webster) | Getty Images

‘False association’

It seemingly matters not that, according to Professor Ronald Hutton, a Bristol University historian, we know “practically nothing” about the historical druids of Britain at the time of the Roman invasion. Undeterred by the lack of facts, our imaginations have apparently recreated no less than eight different kinds of druid since about 1500, including the “nationalist druid”, the “demonic druid”, and the “green druid”, the latter of which, Hutton says, “appealed strongly to the Romantic Movement’s veneration of nature as an antidote to civilisation, urbanisation and industrialisation” or, in other words, the world made possible by advances in science and technology.

It also does not seem to matter that Stonehenge’s famous stone circle was built in about 2500 BC, and was possibly even more ancient and mysterious to the druids than they are to us. Professor Carole Cusack, in expert in religion, has written: “The false association of [Stonehenge] with the druids... has become a form of folklore or folk-memory that has enabled modern druids to obtain access and a degree of respect in their interactions with Stonehenge and other megalithic sites.”

READ MORE: Nigel Farage is a threat to the Union, warns Kemi Badenoch

Modern druids may argue they are tapping into the spiritual ‘energy’ of the site, as their ancient predecessors would surely have done in the past and, as an agnostic, I previously wouldn’t have had a problem with this.

However, unfortunately, the increasing number of people inventing their own reality, in one form or another, means my attitude towards such make-believe has been hardening dramatically.

In April 2020, shortly after Covid hit the UK, the British Druid Order issued a “Chant for Healing & Protection”. “It draws inspiration, language and symbolism from a poem in the medieval Irish Metrical Dindsenchas. The story in which the poem is contained describes actions taken by the Irish god of healing, Dian Cécht, to quell a disease outbreak by destroying the serpent that embodies the illness, reducing its remains to ashes and then washing them away in the purifying waters of a fast-flowing river (a reminder to keep up regular hand-washing),” the BDO’s blog explained.

The reminder about hand-washing – an effective way of reducing the spread of viruses such as Covid one – saves the author from my outright contempt. But the suggestion that a chant can provide any kind of ‘protection’ is ridiculous.

READ MORE: Why humanity's 'greatest ally against climate change' may be about to switch sides

Nigel Farage has emerged as the UK's leading 'nationalist druid' (Picture: Carl Court) | Getty Images

‘Harmful alternative treatments’

Such ideas feed into a growing anti-science movement. Oncologist Dr Tom Roques, vice-president of the Royal College of Radiologists, recently told BBC Panorama that medical misinformation was becoming increasingly problematic, partly because of politicians like Robert Kennedy Jr, the US Health Secretary, who has expressed some decidedly bizarre views about vaccines.

"I think the risk is that more harmful alternative treatments are getting more mainstream. That may do people more active harm,” Roques said.

Empowered by social media, shallow, pretentious and arrogant ‘influencers’, health ‘gurus’ and other assorted armchair experts who think they know better than the real ones are, like the druids, imagining their own reality and, unfortunately, convincing far too many people.

This burgeoning Age of Unreason has also created a new source of trouble for hard-pressed climate scientists. It is no coincidence that the Reform UK party dismisses efforts to tackle climate change as “net stupid zero” while also wanting an inquiry into vaccine “harms”.

It should be noted that, in the very real worlds of high finance, insurance and military planning, to name but three, the ‘debate’ is over – there is widespread acceptance of climate science and the dangers of delaying meaningful action.

The fact that ‘green druids’ are also concerned about all this, in their own special way, makes it no less real. Climate ‘sceptics’ want people to think it’s all a lot of hippy-dippy nonsense but it is not. The scientists who work in this field include physicists with a working knowledge of quantum mechanics.

Sneering at scientists, doctors and business

Of course, Reform is most associated with its opposition to immigration, which they deem to be a ‘Bad Thing’. Experts in the business world – such as the Confederation of British Industry and the Scottish Chambers of Commerce – take a very different view. Rain Newton-Smith, the CBI’s chief executive, has warned that current immigration policy “is preventing businesses from accessing critical skills to deliver investment, putting at risk growth and jobs”.

This would be dramatically worse under a Reform government. Despite such practical warnings, the party is adamant that the UK must reduce immigration, possibly even to “net zero”, to “protect our culture, identity and values”. I imagine those “nationalist druids” would wholeheartedly agree and venerate Nigel Farage as their High Priest.

If we continue along a path of sneering at climate scientists, doctors and business leaders – people who know what they are talking about – this year’s record-breaking crowds at Stonehenge will be as nothing compared to the vast hordes who will turn up for the summer solstice in the year 2100, desperately, hopelessly, chanting some bogus prayer of protection against the evil climate ‘serpent’ as roaring wildfires rage all around.