Left: At a Reform UK Christmas party, Nigel Farage laughs as he calls his schooldays “banter” and jokes he’ll get “a hard time for it in 40 years’ time”. The moment was filmed by ITV’s undercover investigation. Right: Peter Ettedgui, whose Jewish grandparents escaped Nazi Germany, is one of 34 former schoolmates who say they witnessed or experienced Farage’s alleged racist or antisemitic behaviour. Ettedgui says Farage told him, “Hitler was right” and “Gas ’em,” followed by a hissing sound. My view: Racism is not made harmless by calling it “banter”. And when a politician laughs off allegations of racist abuse, while former classmates describe being targeted, it raises serious questions about whether he understands the harm—or expects people to accept it as a joke. The problem goes beyond one man. ITV’s undercover investigation showed Reform figures making racist and Islamophobic remarks. When supporters dismiss this as harmless humour or just a few bad apples, they help make prejudice easier to excuse and accountability easier to evade. That is a grim measure of our political discourse: people targeted by racism are asked to prove their pain, while those accused can laugh, deflect and turn it into a punchline. Politics should challenge prejudice, not teach the public to shrug at it.