Let us all feast on left-wing milk and woke sandwiches

Nigel Farage is angry at left-wing milk. I know this reads like a discarded line from an old episode of The Thick of It, but the Farage fury is real.  

He made a social media video. He was in what he called a “smart hotel” in London. He wanted milk for coffee. He didn’t want semi-skimmed, or oat milk or almond milk – none of that for Nigel. What he wanted, he raged, was “proper bloody milk, not left-wing options”. Quite why he didn’t just ask, as he was in a hotel and they would have been in more of a position to help than people watching on video, only Angry Nigel can tell. Of course, he could just take his coffee black, as nature intended. Maybe that is pro-Europe anti-Brexit coffee bias by me. Apologies, Nigel, you angry milk man. 

I look forward to his incandescent madness about woke sandwiches. 

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It’s the time of year when lists are put together. I like these lists, most of which are barely concealed efforts by companies to boost their brand. When the news can feel like a dark fever dream, discovering where the favourite place to live in Britain sits (that’s Rightmove’s list, drawn from a poll of site users) or the nation’s favourite sandwich filling (that’s from Allinson, the bread manufacturer) is a welcome distraction. I recognise I’m being played. Here I am talking about the brands. IT’S WHAT THEY WANT!! But, frankly, who cares. Relatability is key. There is an interest because you immediately think about what you like/dislike about where you live, or the stuff you pack into your bread. 

Which brings me back to woke sandwiches. There is a generational split. Older eaters still lean towards sliced ham, while Gen Z, clearly the locus of EVERYTHING that is wrong EVERYWHERE, are heading to what the Daily Mail calls “fancy woke fillings”. This involves chicken. The wokies are going for things like “upmarket extras” too, such as chillies and peppers. There is also a generational divide when it comes to toppings/sauces in sandwiches. One in 10 Boomers stick with salad cream. That’s down to one in 100 for Gen Z. I really hope Nigel is OK. 

A different poll last week asked Brits how they felt with the cost of living, as 2024 drew to a close. There were some uncomfortable truths. Despite national economic changes, or even a drop in headline inflation, people are still feeling the financial pinch. Only three in 10 of those polled by YouGov said they feel financially comfortable, eight out of 10 say prices are still rising faster than their income and six in 10 said they had to make cuts in household budgets to manage. It’s younger people who are feeling it hardest.  

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We’ve written before that the cost of living crisis has not gone away, it has simply been normalised. The Labour administration has a job in hand to alter the course. And they really need to get on with it so that a generational split currently growing in Britain doesn’t become a permanent fissure. 

While it’s nice to be distracted and laugh at Farage getting angry at milk – and it is funny – he’s no mug. He knows what he’s doing. When he roars about left wing, or woke, he means young: people with a future who have ideas of their own and a challenge to the ways that went before. Given that Farage is all about upsetting the status quo, you’d think he’d be with them. But he’s not. In the general election, the median age for Reform voters was 56.  

Of course, poverty and fearfulness are not unique to a younger demographic, but it may feel more entrenched and part of the national DNA. If you’ve grown up and known only austerity and exploding housing costs, you’re unlikely to feel the nation is, or has ever, been a place of positivity. 

So, carry on eating your woke sandwiches. Bathe, if you wish, in your oat milk. Know that Big Issue will not scoff or sneer. As we head towards the end of the year, and into the next one, we reiterate our pledge to help fight the ends of poverty and offer opportunity for all those we can help, young and old alike. There is no generational one-upmanship here. 

And we’ll also carry on laughing at those who get angry at milk. It’s healthy. 

Paul McNamee is editor of the Big Issue. Read more of his columns here. Follow him on X.

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