Nigel Farage just totally destroyed a BBC interviewer on TV this morning.

And, in doing so, Farage reminded us exactly why his Brexit Party is flying so high in the polls, why he’s being tipped as a future prime minister, and why the current shambles of a Conservative party is so inadequate to the task of beating him…

Interviewer Andrew Marr began by making the huge mistake of treating Farage like the BBC treats all politicians to the right of Lenin: with unutterable contempt, as if he were a dangerous idiot with wacky views which no civilised person could possibly hold.

Marr began (from a long list of “gotcha” questions designed to make Farage look like an extremist) with climate change:

“Do you still believe that worrying about global warming is the stupidest thing in human history?”

Farage was ready:

“I believe that if we decide in this country to tax ourselves to the hilt, to put hundreds of thousands of people out of work in manufacturing industries, given that we produce less than 2 per cent of global CO2, that isn’t terribly intelligent.”

Then he segued seamlessly into an attack on the BBC:

“Here we are with one of the biggest changes in politics that has ever occurred and you don’t want to talk about it. What is wrong with the BBC?”

A more nimble interviewer might have changed tack at this point. Not Marr, who doggedly continued reading from his pre-prepared list of questions about Farage’s supposedly controversial views on gun control (an issue of zero interest to anyone in the United Kingdom) and Vladimir Putin, entirely proving Farage’s point for him.

Farage’s point, which almost everyone watching would have seen instantly, is that the BBC is the enemy of change and hope. It is part of the sclerotic, arrogant, anti-democratic, left-leaning, virulently pro-Remain political Establishment which the Brexit Party is on the verge of overthrowing.

“Do you still feel that people with HIV shouldn’t be allowed into the United Kingdom?” Marr continued, still reading from his notes, his voice a bit tremulous at this point.

Farage was ready:

“Do I think the National Health Service is there for British people? Yes I absolutely do.”

Marr was starting to sound pathetic now.

“So you still do?” he said. Pathetically.

Farage went off on one:

“This is absolutely ludicrous. I have never in my life seen a more ridiculous interview than this. You are not prepared to talk about what is going on this country today. You’re in denial. The BBC’s in denial. The Tory party’s in denial. The Labour party’s in denial. I think you’re in for a bigger surprise on Thursday week [European elections day] than you can even imagine.”

And he’s right. He is absolutely right.

Something extraordinary is happening in British politics right now. It has been a long time coming but now it’s here — and Nigel Farage is its vessel.

#Marr asks the Brexit Party Leader Nigel Farage if he’s changed his views on the NHS, climate change, gun control and Vladimir Putin #Brexit https://t.co/YWOQuda15q pic.twitter.com/uW8EzpteN6 — BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) May 12, 2019

People are saying how much more professional he has become, how the jolly cheeky chappy Mr Toad character of yore has mutated into a serious player.

But I don’t think it’s that. Farage has been saying similar things on the campaign trail and in interviews for years — decades even. It’s just that where before the prevailing, BBC-dominated political culture was able to ridicule him and marginalise him it can’t any more, because it has lost its power and prestige. The mood has shifted. People have just had enough — and finally, belatedly, are coming round to realising that the BBC is not their benign Auntie friend but very much part of the problem.

"It was the truth" Brexit Party Leader Nigel Farage defends the “breaking point” poster in the 2016 #Brexit referendum campaign#Marr https://t.co/p5SEoaKqGj pic.twitter.com/De0SRK7LUC — BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) May 12, 2019

If I were a Tory leadership candidate I would be terrified by this interview, particularly by the way that Farage dealt with that global warming question.

He gave the right answer, the honest answer, the true answer and the answer that is best for the British electorate.

Even those on the supposed right of the Conservative party, like Boris Johnson, are still floundering around trying to have their cake and eat it by expressing enthusiasm for free markets while simultaneously reassuring us that they understand that climate change is a problem. Why would you wish to support such cautious, cowardly has-beens when there’s a revolution in the air which might yet deliver all those good things the Conservative party has failed to deliver?

Farage is on a roll. The Brexit Party is on a roll. In a fortnight’s time it’s going to win the European Elections. After that, maybe, the world.

EU Election Poll Has Farage's Brexit Party Beating Labour and Tories COMBINED https://t.co/t29mo1P9JT — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) May 12, 2019