The claim is essentially Farage's subjective assessment that, looking back, many people would find the heavy drinking culture of the City of London repulsive. While the statement is an opinion about how people would react, it rests on a factual foundation: that the City of London had a well-documented, heavy drinking culture that has since fallen out of favor. The evidence strongly supports this factual basis. Academic research from 1990 (Kahn, published in Stress Medicine) found that 41.3% of City dealers drank more than the average for professionals, and 23.6% reported drinking at least twice the recommended maximum weekly intake. Multiple news sources describe "boozy lunches" as a "defining feature" of the finance industry in London. The Times described old City culture of lunches that "began at ten, ended at ten" with enough beer and wine to "breaststroke in." Bloomberg noted the "era of excessive daytime boozing" in the City. In 2017, Lloyd's of London — an anchor of the City's financial industry — banned its employees from drinking during office hours, explicitly signaling institutional rejection of the old culture. The BBC reported that younger workers see drinking as "a drain on their productivity," and that there is still pressure to drink but it is increasingly frowned upon. The claim that "many people would be repelled" by this culture is a subjective judgment, but it is one well-supported by the documented shift in attitudes, institutional policy changes, and reporting on how the old drinking culture is now viewed. The core assertion — that the City had a drinking culture that many would now find excessive or objectionable — is accurate. Sources: - CNN, "Last call: Lloyd's of London bans boozy lunches," https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/15/news/lloyds-of-london-drinking-ban - BBC Worklife, "The jobs where career success means drinking at work," https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20170425-the-jobs-where-career-success-means-drinking-at-work - Bloomberg, "The City of London Finally Tackles Its Drink Problem," https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-06-16/city-of-london-finally-tackles-its-alcohol-problem-with-lme-ban - Kahn, "Mental health, job satisfaction, alcohol intake and occupational stress among dealers in financial markets," Stress Medicine (Wiley, 1990), https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/smi.2460060407 - The Times, "Trade Secrets: raise a glass to a bygone age," https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/uk-travel/england/london-travel/trade-secrets-raise-a-glass-to-a-bygone-age-j7p7q0nm3n2