I’m all for Bonnie Blue and Nigel Farage – they truly deserve each other

News outlets have long held their best exclusives to a midnight embargo, and this week it was The Spectator’s deputy political editor, James Heale, who trumpeted just such a one on the X (Twitter) replacement, Bluesky: “Bonnie Blue nails her colours to the mast, writing in The Spectator: ‘Reform has sensible positions on immigration and inheritance tax, so I stand with Nigel Farage.’”

What a coup for the Speccy. You can just hear the metaphorical pop of monocles falling out over the breakfast table at Ms Blue’s poll-changing announcement.

Born Tia Billinger, Bonnie Blue is a wildly successful porn star who made a fortune on OnlyFans with sexual stunts until she was chucked off it for running “extreme challenges” where men queued up to have sex with her. She is also an exceptionally canny operator, whose team has seen which way the wind blows and followed. “Rage bait” is the word of the year, not just because of the argument over whether it is actually two words, and so Bonnie Blue serenely appears on TV and fringe video, with interviewers confronting her about her influence. Young men know her from porn. Their parents know her from This Morning, Talk TV and her Channel 4 documentary.

The headline here is Blue’s comments on Farage. “I am not knowledgeable about politics, but I do know the UK is very messed up,” she says, which presumably informs her admirable use of consent forms, ID checks and head coverings for Brand Blue’s interactions with the young public. The tax system is “terrible”, she says – rumours of her hitting £600,000 a month, possibly spread by Brand Blue, indicate a strong Conservative streak – and “it’s smart to leave if you have money”. As long as you aren’t then banned from Fiji or have your Australian visa revoked, both of which have happened to Blue after she broke her visa terms by filming pornography.

“There are too many people here, we are too accommodating, and it is causing problems,” she said, in a reference to British immigration rhetoric, rather than the day she slept with more than 1,000 men in one of the “extreme challenges” that got her the boot from OnlyFans. “I worked for the NHS, and most people have no idea where the money goes.”

All seems explicable when you understand that she worked in financial recruitment for the NHS. Of all the jobs to make you lose faith in Britain as a country, that’s probably the one.

She’s also not keen on inheritance tax: “You’ve already been taxed on that money. When my grandad died, it was particularly sad because he was too young for my grandma to receive his pension. That’s disgusting. Reform has sensible positions on immigration and inheritance tax, so I stand with Nigel Farage.”

This all feels in the grand tradition of Page 3 girls of old, when gorgeous models, often “barely legal” themselves, would be photographed topless next to some mocked-up comments by the subs desk about which political manifesto was the most appealing.

And I’m sure that Bonnie Blue has plenty of rather interesting things to say: it’s just not in her brand’s interest for her to say them. This “piece” has all the hallmarks of one of Private Eye’s “Me and My Spoon”: “I’m the worst person to give health tips… Don’t be a slut like me: at this time of year, stay hydrated, stay warm.” Also splendid: “Given that I’m often naked, people wonder why I have a stylist. But I’m grateful to have Ermes in my life.”

Blue also turns out to be a history buff. She is “obsessed” with Victoria and Albert (“the sweetest couple ever”) and watched The Crown until the recent series. Her recommendations for Derbyshire tourist attractions (no, seriously: what is this column/interview/Spoon?) include “Bradgate House, where Lady Jane Grey lived.” The Rest of History should snap her up as a guest star if their ratings start to slip.

Whatever this piece shows, she is no fool. When Cosmopolitan interviewed her earlier this year and asked whether the young men in her stunts understand what they’re signing up for, she described the controversy as “stupid”. “We’ve got no problem sending 18-year-olds to war,” she said briskly.

But the UK has always had more of a problem with sex, and sexual women, much more than it does with things like murder. This is also true for the US (where, incidentally, the Bonnie Blue is an old flag closely associated with the Confederate States of America). The oldest trade in the world doesn’t stay relevant by stagnancy, and Bonnie Blue is an intensely commercial woman. However, she is many men’s worst fear: someone who isn’t owned.

Last week, she was arrested in Bali and faces up to 15 years in prison or deportation. Without missing a beat, her answer to reporters as to whether she would continue to make porn was, “Subscribe and you’ll find out.” Reactionary, glued to social media, and whose mantra may as well be Oscar Wilde: there is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about. Bonnie Blue and Nigel Farage seem like a perfect fit. They both like “extreme challenges” – Farage, of course, went through extraordinary trials with snakes on I’m a Celebrity for a reported £1.5m fee – and will apparently do almost anything if the airtime and money are good enough.