Farewell Nigel Farage

W

Wahaay

Registered User
Messages
292
He's stepping down from his political career(again) and concentrating on his media work instead.
Without doubt the most influential UK politician of his era whose leadership of UKIP forced Cameron into a referendum and whose Brexit Party scared the Tories into making sure Brexit meant Brexit.
Not to everyone's taste but a great public speaker and excellent media performer who ran rings around his anti-Brexit opponents.

m.youtube.com

Nigel Farage's biggest BUST-UPS in the EU Parliament

Nigel Farage caused chaos in the European Parliament on more than one occasion. Here's our pick of his biggest bust-ups.Nigel Farage insists Boris Johnson WO...
m.youtube.com m.youtube.com

He was spot on about the incompetence and unaccountability of Ursula Von Der Leyen too.
 
i bet he goes to america and gets back on the Trump bandwagon or joins another brexit campaign possibly italy. Uk domestic politics too boring for him probably wants to get back into european or US politics where the action is now
 
He was/is a rabble rouser. He identified Brexit as something that might appeal to the English hankering for the days of Empire. The same people love to stick it to the French (cheese eating monkeys, straight bananas etc).
Admittedly he is a great orator (just like many rabble rousers ), but it was clear that the whole Brexit campaign was as much about Farage loving the limelight as “getting out of Europe “. But now that Brexit is done (he clearly has not yet identified a new policy platform) he is again more focused on seeking out a new media platform to satisfy his ego. Since Fox News are losing viewers, he may be sufficiently right of right-wing to get a job rabble rousing on that propaganda outlet or perhaps join Trump TV.
 
Conan said:
He was/is a rabble rouser. He identified Brexit as something that might appeal to the English hankering for the days of Empire. The same people love to stick it to the French (cheese eating monkeys, straight bananas etc).
Admittedly he is a great orator (just like many rabble rousers ), but it was clear that the whole Brexit campaign was as much about Farage loving the limelight as “getting out of Europe “. But now that Brexit is done (he clearly has not yet identified a new policy platform) he is again more focused on seeking out a new media platform to satisfy his ego. Since Fox News are losing viewers, he may be sufficiently right of right-wing to get a job rabble rousing on that propaganda outlet or perhaps join Trump TV.
Click to expand...
Empire.Straight bananas.
The beginnings of a very good Brexit Bingo game.
'Tis only a matter of time before swivel-eyed loons and racist xenophobes make their usual appearance ...
 
Last edited:
Wahaay said:
Empire.Straight bananas.
The beginnings of a very good Brexit Bingo game.
'Tis only a matter of time before swivel-eyed loons and racist xenophobes make their usual appearance ...
Click to expand...
If it walks like a duck and quacks like aa duck...
 
Sunny said:
Not sure I follow this thread....Are you giving Nigel Farage and UKIP the credit for that?
Click to expand...

Of course.
They represented the very essence of a tolerant UK within clearly defined immigration limits implemented by London and not Brussels.
Once that was achieved immigration was no longer an issue that divided the country.
You barely hear it mentioned these days.
 
@Wahaay Very interesting report. The UK come out easily the most tolerant society in Europe, though I note that even in the UK ethnic minorities are over 50% at risk of poverty compared to 17% for the average. Not too surprised that Adolf's native country comes out worst (sorry for the Godwin's Law).
We in Ireland have allowed Brexit to reinforce a totally misplaced prejudice that the UK is a racist society. NF is not a racist, he is not a fascist. He had very strong points against EU bureaucracy, that was his conviction and he is entitled to bask in his Brexit achievement for it was his. Make no mistake, Brexit will be a success, already the £ has recovered 5% against the euro after the Y2K like event of final Brexit in January.
Ireland is of course possibly the biggest Europhile of them all recalling how membership transformed us from basket case to poster boy and now fuelled by a reinforced anglophobic dimension.

PS NF did let himself down in supporting The Donald but I suppose that was because he, The Donald, supported Brexit and actually wanted NF to be Brit ambassador to US.
 
Last edited:
Duke of Marmalade said:
@Wahaay Very interesting report. The UK come out easily the most tolerant society in Europe, though I note that even in the UK ethnic minorities are over 50% at risk of poverty compared to 17% for the average. Not too surprised that Adolf's native country comes out worst (sorry for the Godwin's Law).
We in Ireland have allowed Brexit to reinforce a totally misplaced prejudice that the UK is a racist society. NF is not a racist, he is not a fascist. He had very strong points against EU bureaucracy, that was his conviction and he is entitled to bask in his Brexit achievement for it was his. Make no mistake, Brexit will be a success, already the £ has recovered 5% against the euro after the Y2K like event of final Brexit in January.
Ireland is of course possibly the biggest Europhile of them all recalling how membership transformed us from basket case to poster boy and now fuelled by a reinforced anglophobic dimension.
Click to expand...

I can't really disagree with any of that except perhaps over the wording of your last paragraph.
There is intense anglophobia in sections of the Irish media - notably the Irish Times and with certain broadcasters such as Matt Cooper - driven mainly by anger that Brexit actually happened and the world hasn't caved in on itself and Boris appears to be very popular still.
But elsewhere, and speaking as an Englishman, I haven't noticed a marked change from the healthy and friendly antipathy towards Brits that's inevitable considering the shared history.
I always look forward to the rigorous banter of the last weekend of the 6 Nations ...
 
mathepac said:
Y2K was a non-event, is that your point?
Click to expand...

I'm still waiting for the immediate recession and 500,000 unemployed that was predicted after the Leave vote - not even Brexit itself - by the Irish Times' economic guru Chris Johns.
Although my all-time favourite was that paper's London Editor Denis Staunton who compared a London cabbie calling him mate to the Black and Tans burning down Cork.
I'm not kidding.
How a journalist based in London didn't know that London cabbies call everyone mate is still beyond me to this day.
His weekly column is an essay in bile and vituperation from somone who clearly thinks he is dug in behind enemy lines waiting for the predicted lorry stack on the M20 that has so far failed to materialise.
I genuinely feel sorry for his pain.
 
I don't like Farage.

His whole Brexit strategy was to focus on immigration. I think he, or anyone else for that matter, are entitled to hold a legitimate view if they perceive there is too much immigration. It's no different to anyone who identifies that a country has too much emigration.

What I don't like about him is that he bases his immigration argument on illegal immigration, refugees fleeing from war torn countries like Syria or from failed states of Africa. He is regularly posting video clips of migrants on inflatable overcrowded dinghys. He promised that Brexit would resolve this, but it hasnt made any noticeable difference.
Instead, immigrants from France, Germany, Sweden, Netehrlands, Spain, Poland etc, who arrive by aeroplane, through official customs ports, mostly to work or come on holiday, are now being denied entry.

I have no issues with the British wanting to leave the EU, that is their perogative. I did take issue with the lack of consideration in the whole campaign about British borders in Ireland. Typically, Irelands interests play a distant second to Britains interest, as it was when the whole country was part of the UK. And as we seeing, loyalism has had its nose put out of joint with this whole sea border issue and it is causing political rancour in that quarter. Does anyone think land borders between North and South would not have caused similar disquiet in republican circles?

I do sense that moves to take us out of the EU will gain momentum in the coming years if trade between Ireland and Britain is being interrupted.
The British have an ace up their sleeve - a border poll for a UI in return for being part of a federal alliance between Ireland & Britain outside of the EU.
 
WolfeTone said:
I don't like Farage.

What I don't like about him is that he bases his immigration argument on illegal immigration, refugees fleeing from war torn countries like Syria or from failed states of Africa. He is regularly posting video clips of migrants on inflatable overcrowded dinghys.
Click to expand...
If the UK bordered a war-torn country you might have a point.
But it doesn't.
These illegal immigrants are coming from France.
They are not asylum-seekers but illegal economic migrants.
Why should they be treated any differently from an economic migrant who has gone through the legal process to acquire legal status in the UK based on evidence they present about their background and circumstances ?
It is also worth noting that the majority of these migrants are men aged between 18-40 all of whom have amassed enough funds to pay the people smugglers a hefty price to send them on their way in a seaworthy RIB equipped with an outboard motor and life jackets.
The UK has a long history of accepting millions of immigrants over many decades but they have all gone through a legally-established system designed to prevent chaos and a free-for-all that virtually every other developed country in the world has also adopted.
 
WolfeTone said:
I did take issue with the lack of consideration in the whole campaign about British borders in Ireland. Typically, Irelands interests play a distant second to Britains interest, as it was when the whole country was part of the UK. And as we seeing, loyalism has had its nose put out of joint with this whole sea border issue and it is causing political rancour in that quarter. Does anyone think land borders between North and South would not have caused similar disquiet in republican circles?
Click to expand...
This could become a whole off topic rabbit hole. The only trade borders in Ireland were established by the South to protect their basket case economy. The only Brexit trade borders in Ireland would be implemented by the EU to protect their precious single market. Everyone in NI should welcome a delay in implementation of the protocol but unfortunately the debate has been so poisoned by Simon Varadkar that the catholics actually want the ridiculous protocol implemented rigidly, and Simon gets all indignant about Albion's perfidy.
Back on topic, I give NF 5 out of 10.
 
Duke of Marmalade said:
Back on topic, I give NF 5 out of 10.
Click to expand...
Given that Enoch Powell reckoned all political careers end in failure I'd say Farage would take 5/10.
Very few politicians devote their whole lives to a single cause and live to see it triumph.
Of course he has his faults but can you think of many Irish politicians you'd happily spend a convivial night with even if you hated everything they stood for ?
The old Brian Cowen is the only I can think of. Not the sharpest but honest to a fault and, of course, he loved a gargle.
 
Most of all Farage, the City spiv wheeling and dealing over a long boozy lunch, understood precisely the thinking of Joe Public.
And it's the very same reason why Labour and Sir Kneel-a-lot are 13 points behind the Tories in the opinion polls and continuing to hemorrhage support in traditional Labour seats.
Boris wisely declines to comment on the Oprah Winfrey Meghan and Harry hoopla while gormless Starmer appeals to his metropolitan Sandalista base by demanding an inquiry.
He just doesn't get it.
Farage did and Boris does too.
It's a simple understanding on which political careers are made or fail.
www.irishtimes.com/news/world/uk/buckingham-palace-under-pressure-to-respond-to-meghan-markle-s-racism-claim-1.4504663

​

 
Wahaay said:
Why should they be treated any differently from an economic migrant who has gone through the legal process to acquire legal status in the UK based on evidence they present about their background and circumstances ?
Click to expand...

That's exactly the point. The "too much immigration" stems from the automatic access Europeans had to live and work in Britain. But Farage used the scare mongering tactic of illegal migrants from Africa and Mid East. He promised "take back control of borders", but nothing of the sort has occurred.
Instead, it's the ordinary working Europeans that are denied entry (unless they choose to arrive illegally now).
That's Britains business, they can do what they want. Farage sold the immigration issue on the fear of illegal immigration.
 
Duke of Marmalade said:
The only Brexit trade borders in Ireland would be implemented by the EU to protect their precious single market.
Click to expand...

Duke, you must have missed the part where Brexiteers were chanting about how they would take back control of their borders. Meaning, they alone will decide who can access their territory or what can be traded across their borders. They were asked for solutions for the British border in Ireland but came up short.
Anyway, you're right, it's only opening old ground that all the diplomats between EU and UK haven't satisfactorily resolved.

I give Farage an 8/10. He set out to get UK out of EU, he has done that. He loses 2 marks because it was mostly down to Union Jack flagwaving, rule Britiannia nonsense.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top