MEP Nigel farage

[Deportivo Seagull]

I was on business in Germany on Tuesday. After taking a load of crap for the debacle of the Iceland game conversation turned to brexit. The general consensus is that neither GB or the EU will do well ouT of this but there was some sympathy to the GB cause. However the most telling comment was " we have heard of Farage, 70 years ago he would have felt very much at home here" I was in Munich, the home of the Nazi party. The final comment was that many thought Hitler was a clown ......

 

[BigGully]

Hmm, what is so inappropriate about his ill advised rant is we are about to enter some very delicate negotiations in which we are starting off on the back foot. He massively ****ed this up.

Farage has been a thorn in their side for years, they would of hated him suddenly become statesman like, absolutely hated it as you would of too, in a kind of 'who does he think he is representing' and 'well I can tell you he aint representing me' 'how dare he' etc etc.

It was Farage being Farage and good luck to him.

 

[The Clamp]

Farage has been a thorn in their side for years, they would of hated him suddenly become statesman like, absolutely hated it as you would of too, in a kind of 'who does he think he is representing' and 'well I can tell you he aint representing me' 'how dare he' etc etc.

It was Farage being Farage and good luck to him.

He didn't need to become anything, he needed to keep his big gob shut. Leave voters and Farage have turned the UK into a laughing stock.

 

[BigGully]

He didn't need to become anything, he needed to keep his big gob shut. Leave voters and Farage have turned the UK into a laughing stock.

That isnt much of an analysis, Leave voters in the main is what we are ...................

 

[nicko31]

I was on business in Germany on Tuesday. After taking a load of crap for the debacle of the Iceland game conversation turned to brexit. The general consensus is that neither GB or the EU will do well ouT of this but there was some sympathy to the GB cause. However the most telling comment was " we have heard of Farage, 70 years ago he would have felt very much at home here" I was in Munich, the home of the Nazi party. The final comment was that many thought Hitler was a clown ......

The guy reminds me of zippy from rainbow, but unfortunately without the zip..

 

[Soulman]

He didn't need to become anything, he needed to keep his big gob shut. Leave voters and Farage have turned the UK into a laughing stock.

"Leave voters have turned the UK into a laughing stock"

Really how?. Leave voters all 17+ million of them eh, the laughing stock are the bleating Remainers who do not accept a democratic referendum.

 

[The Clamp]

"Leave voters have turned the UK into a laughing stock"

Really how?. Leave voters all 17+ million of them eh, the laughing stock are the bleating Remainers who do not accept a democratic referendum.

I can accept the result, what choice do I have? I think the clutching at straws that we'll get to stay is laughable too really, I wish it was the case but I doubt it. No, what we have to do now is negotiate a good exit deal. Farage , in my and many people's opinion across Europe, has put his great big clowns shoe bang in the middle of it. And yes, Europe is laughing at us.

Lest you forget, Farage himself stated he wouldn't accept a 48/52 split and would be looking for a second referendum if the result had gone against his wishes. Glass houses, stones etc

 

[Soulman]

I can accept the result, what choice do I have? I think the clutching at straws that we'll get to stay is laughable too really, I wish it was the case but I doubt it. No, what we have to do now is negotiate a good exit deal. Farage , in my and many people's opinion across Europe, has put his great big clowns shoe bang in the middle of it. And yes, Europe is laughing at us.

Lest you forget, Farage himself stated he wouldn't accept a 48/52 split and would be looking for a second referendum if the result had gone against his wishes. Glass houses, stones etc

I get all that but you stated that ""Leave voters have turned the UK into a laughing stock".....so i can understand your gripe with Farage, but as i asked, why have ""Leave voters have turned the UK into a laughing stock"

 

[The Clamp]

I get all that but you stated that ""Leave voters have turned the UK into a laughing stock".....so i can understand your gripe with Farage, but as i asked, why have ""Leave voters have turned the UK into a laughing stock"

Because we are being laughed at because we are leaving the EU because leave voters voted us out of the EU and the rest of the EU is laughing at us. Because of leave voters.

 

[BigGully]

I can accept the result, what choice do I have? I think the clutching at straws that we'll get to stay is laughable too really, I wish it was the case but I doubt it. No, what we have to do now is negotiate a good exit deal. Farage , in my and many people's opinion across Europe, has put his great big clowns shoe bang in the middle of it. And yes, Europe is laughing at us.

Lest you forget, Farage himself stated he wouldn't accept a 48/52 split and would be looking for a second referendum if the result had gone against his wishes. Glass houses, stones etc

Wasnt this a comment on the majority (likely Remainers) would still need to listen to Outers on its reservations on the EU, I think even Remainers acknowledge that it needed reforming, but luckily the majority was us lot and we can get on with prioritising our own preferences ahead of what Brussells thinks .... happy days.

 

[Soulman]

Because we are being laughed at because we are leaving the EU because leave voters voted us out of the EU and the rest of the EU is laughing at us. Because of leave voters.

Of course they are laughing at us....that is why a few countries are also having a think. They are laughing because the second biggest EU contributor has left.....of course (in your mind) the " rest of the EU is laughing at us. Because of leave voters"....really.

 

[Soulman]

He didn't need to become anything, he needed to keep his big gob shut. Leave voters and Farage have turned the UK into a laughing stock.

is that the UK’s vote is reverberating across the continent. Brexit could alter the course of the entire ‘European project’. Also apparent, even from very early exchanges, is that Britain has far more bargaining power than the Remain side has so far allowed itself to admit.

The ‘Europe will punish us’ doom-mongers were always paid-up members of Project Fear’ — and wrong. Forget the bad-tempered bluster of pompous officials like European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and assorted Brussels nonentities. Angela Merkel runs Europe. ‘There is no need to be nasty,’ observed the German Chancellor, within hours of our Brexit vote. ‘We want a good, objective atmosphere,’ she said, kicking Juncker into touch. ‘We must work together to achieve the right outcome.’

That means keeping UK markets open for Italian furniture-makers, French food-exporters and German car-producers. The UK’s goods trade deficit with the EU — a record £24 billion during the three months to April — represents hundreds of thousands of eurozone jobs and billions of euros in profit. It would be ‘very, very foolish’ to impose protectionist barriers against Britain, said BDI last week, a large German industrial lobby. Merkel, too, knows that trading freely with Britain helps bring home Europe’s bacon.

Our position is strengthened, also, by a growing realisation that, far from being about UK exceptionalism, Brexit is the first serious rebellion in a broader electoral uprising against this relentless Brussels power-grab. Some 73 per cent of voters in Holland oppose ‘ever closer union’, says the latest Pew Global Attitudes Survey, and 85 per cent in Sweden — hardly illiberal, reactionary countries. In Greece, it’s 86 per cent — I can’t think why. Even in core EU member states like Germany, Italy and France, no fewer than 68, 65 and 60 per cent of voters, respectively, reject Brussels-driven empire building.

Self-serving Eurocrats and out-of-touch Remain supporters portray Brexit as a temper tantrum by stupid, misguided Brits. The reality is different. Leave won in part because its claims that the EU is arrogant, complacent and guilty of ghastly economic policy-making are true. The democratic deficit is real — and widening. Free movement of people, handy for big business and virtue-signalling professionals, is making countless millions of economically vulnerable people, in the UK and across Europe, feel even more under threat.

Rather than responding to Brexit with humility or self-reflection, Brussels has immediately pressed ahead with plans for a ‘great leap forward’ to ‘political union’, as outlined in a new joint paper from the French and German foreign ministries. Such a proposal, at this time, amounts to bureaucratic megalomania: a move guaranteed to rile Dutch, Nordic and East European voters, as even the EU’s most ardent British supporters now acknowledge. ‘The knee-jerk reaction of the Commission is always to try to seize on any crisis to push for more Europe and closer integration,’ says Charles Grant from the Centre for European Reform. ‘This time, they can dream on.’

Rising EU-scepticism across Europe — galvanised by this Brexit vote — will make it impossible for the Commission to stonewall the UK once negotiations begin in earnest. Of course the talks will get testy — the stakes are too high for them not to. But Merkel and other EU grown-ups will be extremely mindful of the rising popularity of the Swedish Democrats, the True Finns, Italy’s Five Star movement and AfD in Germany — all highly critical of the EU.

That’s why Brexit could well provoke copycat referendums elsewhere. Given that Article 50 won’t be invoked until September at the earliest, and the haggling could take two years or more, such votes could happen at the same time as the UK is striking a better deal. As Britain turns the screw, and other EU members follow — their leaders impelled by increasing voter discontent — Brussels could be forced, iteratively but inexorably, to accept a looser, more democratic and sustainable union.

‘Rubbish!’ I hear EU ‘experts’ snort. But did such ‘experts’ predict the fall of the Berlin Wall or the Arab spring? Of course they didn’t. Because, just like Treasury economists with their laughably one-sided projections of long-term woe, Brussels-focused ‘experts’ have every professional incentive to think and say only what their political masters want.

Much has been made of the market reaction to this referendum result, and rightly so. Financial gyrations represent real money, so sharp falls in sterling and the FTSE the ‘morning after’ and since are alarming. Market turmoil is also politically potent, of course, with those who most vehemently opposed Brexit pointing to the business pages and declaring: ‘I told you so.’

A big reason the pound has fallen so sharply, though, is that all ‘the smart money’, steered by erroneous opinion polls and punditry, was convinced Remain would win. When that didn’t happen, the instantaneous unwind was always going to be violent. Currencies tend to ‘overshoot’ — and the 10 per cent fall in sterling over the last week is likely partly to reverse. Bear in mind, also, that practically every major economy has been trying covertly to devalue over recent years: part of the reason for all that quantitative-easing money printing. Brexit has just delivered that in a stroke. I’m not saying there aren’t losers when sterling falls, but when you’re sporting an external deficit of around 6 per cent of GDP, the export-boosting effects of a lower pound are worth having.

The UK has also had its credit rating downgraded since Brexit. Again, this is serious. Having said that, we first lost our triple-A rating (for the first time since 1978) back in 2013, when Moody’s took umbrage at the rate at which the government was piling up debt. Since then, we’ve seen little fiscal improvement, with borrowing higher so far during the current financial year than in 2015/16.

Yes, you’d have expected other US-based rating agencies to now finally join Moody’s, going along with the ‘official line’ that the UK should stay in the EU. But the initial loss of our stellar credit rating happened three years ago, long before Brexit, and is largely about the doubling since 2009 of our national debt. The main reason Leave’s victory is causing ructions on global markets is that such markets, after years of central bank largesse, are a house of cards.

When it comes to delivering Brexit, despite calls from the Eurocrats for an instant break, the UK should not be rushed. It is perfectly reasonable, given how this vote has shattered the illusions of our two major parties, that the UK’s body politic pauses for breath before plunging into complex EU deal-making.

Before that, senior Leave campaigners must head off the mischief-makers, reassuring 17.5 million voters that Brexit will happen. They should also make clear that the closeness of the vote, and the need to strike a deal with Europe, means some concessions will be made.

‘We are linked to Europe, but not combined,’ wrote Churchill in 1930. ‘We are interested and associated but not absorbed.’ That sentiment, to my mind, rings true – and Soames now backs Johnson for leader anyway. If negotiations go well, if we hold our collective nerve, Brexit could become an inspiration, a source of strength for the other peoples of Europe who have long demanded EU reform but have been haughtily rebuffed by political and business elites. It is the ‘European Project’, not the UK, that’s now on the back foot.
http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/07/project-hope-why-britains-in-a-better-position-than-brussels/

 

[The Clamp]

Of course they are laughing at us....that is why a few countries are also having a think. They are laughing because the second biggest EU contributor has left.....of course (in your mind) the " rest of the EU is laughing at us. Because of leave voters"....really.

Well, I think we are being laughed at. Only time will tell if we have the last laugh. Not much fun at the moment and my livelihood is severely threatened with it. Not much more to say on it really.

 

[Soulman]

Well, I think we are being laughed at. Only time will tell if we have the last laugh. Not much fun at the moment and my livelihood is severely threatened with it. Not much more to say on it really.

"Well, I think we are being laughed at."........who is laughing at us?

 

[The Clamp]

is that the UK’s vote is reverberating across the continent. Brexit could alter the course of the entire ‘European project’. Also apparent, even from very early exchanges, is that Britain has far more bargaining power than the Remain side has so far allowed itself to admit.

The ‘Europe will punish us’ doom-mongers were always paid-up members of Project Fear’ — and wrong. Forget the bad-tempered bluster of pompous officials like European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and assorted Brussels nonentities. Angela Merkel runs Europe. ‘There is no need to be nasty,’ observed the German Chancellor, within hours of our Brexit vote. ‘We want a good, objective atmosphere,’ she said, kicking Juncker into touch. ‘We must work together to achieve the right outcome.’

That means keeping UK markets open for Italian furniture-makers, French food-exporters and German car-producers. The UK’s goods trade deficit with the EU — a record £24 billion during the three months to April — represents hundreds of thousands of eurozone jobs and billions of euros in profit. It would be ‘very, very foolish’ to impose protectionist barriers against Britain, said BDI last week, a large German industrial lobby. Merkel, too, knows that trading freely with Britain helps bring home Europe’s bacon.

Our position is strengthened, also, by a growing realisation that, far from being about UK exceptionalism, Brexit is the first serious rebellion in a broader electoral uprising against this relentless Brussels power-grab. Some 73 per cent of voters in Holland oppose ‘ever closer union’, says the latest Pew Global Attitudes Survey, and 85 per cent in Sweden — hardly illiberal, reactionary countries. In Greece, it’s 86 per cent — I can’t think why. Even in core EU member states like Germany, Italy and France, no fewer than 68, 65 and 60 per cent of voters, respectively, reject Brussels-driven empire building.

Self-serving Eurocrats and out-of-touch Remain supporters portray Brexit as a temper tantrum by stupid, misguided Brits. The reality is different. Leave won in part because its claims that the EU is arrogant, complacent and guilty of ghastly economic policy-making are true. The democratic deficit is real — and widening. Free movement of people, handy for big business and virtue-signalling professionals, is making countless millions of economically vulnerable people, in the UK and across Europe, feel even more under threat.

Rather than responding to Brexit with humility or self-reflection, Brussels has immediately pressed ahead with plans for a ‘great leap forward’ to ‘political union’, as outlined in a new joint paper from the French and German foreign ministries. Such a proposal, at this time, amounts to bureaucratic megalomania: a move guaranteed to rile Dutch, Nordic and East European voters, as even the EU’s most ardent British supporters now acknowledge. ‘The knee-jerk reaction of the Commission is always to try to seize on any crisis to push for more Europe and closer integration,’ says Charles Grant from the Centre for European Reform. ‘This time, they can dream on.’

Rising EU-scepticism across Europe — galvanised by this Brexit vote — will make it impossible for the Commission to stonewall the UK once negotiations begin in earnest. Of course the talks will get testy — the stakes are too high for them not to. But Merkel and other EU grown-ups will be extremely mindful of the rising popularity of the Swedish Democrats, the True Finns, Italy’s Five Star movement and AfD in Germany — all highly critical of the EU.

That’s why Brexit could well provoke copycat referendums elsewhere. Given that Article 50 won’t be invoked until September at the earliest, and the haggling could take two years or more, such votes could happen at the same time as the UK is striking a better deal. As Britain turns the screw, and other EU members follow — their leaders impelled by increasing voter discontent — Brussels could be forced, iteratively but inexorably, to accept a looser, more democratic and sustainable union.

‘Rubbish!’ I hear EU ‘experts’ snort. But did such ‘experts’ predict the fall of the Berlin Wall or the Arab spring? Of course they didn’t. Because, just like Treasury economists with their laughably one-sided projections of long-term woe, Brussels-focused ‘experts’ have every professional incentive to think and say only what their political masters want.

Much has been made of the market reaction to this referendum result, and rightly so. Financial gyrations represent real money, so sharp falls in sterling and the FTSE the ‘morning after’ and since are alarming. Market turmoil is also politically potent, of course, with those who most vehemently opposed Brexit pointing to the business pages and declaring: ‘I told you so.’

A big reason the pound has fallen so sharply, though, is that all ‘the smart money’, steered by erroneous opinion polls and punditry, was convinced Remain would win. When that didn’t happen, the instantaneous unwind was always going to be violent. Currencies tend to ‘overshoot’ — and the 10 per cent fall in sterling over the last week is likely partly to reverse. Bear in mind, also, that practically every major economy has been trying covertly to devalue over recent years: part of the reason for all that quantitative-easing money printing. Brexit has just delivered that in a stroke. I’m not saying there aren’t losers when sterling falls, but when you’re sporting an external deficit of around 6 per cent of GDP, the export-boosting effects of a lower pound are worth having.

The UK has also had its credit rating downgraded since Brexit. Again, this is serious. Having said that, we first lost our triple-A rating (for the first time since 1978) back in 2013, when Moody’s took umbrage at the rate at which the government was piling up debt. Since then, we’ve seen little fiscal improvement, with borrowing higher so far during the current financial year than in 2015/16.

Yes, you’d have expected other US-based rating agencies to now finally join Moody’s, going along with the ‘official line’ that the UK should stay in the EU. But the initial loss of our stellar credit rating happened three years ago, long before Brexit, and is largely about the doubling since 2009 of our national debt. The main reason Leave’s victory is causing ructions on global markets is that such markets, after years of central bank largesse, are a house of cards.

When it comes to delivering Brexit, despite calls from the Eurocrats for an instant break, the UK should not be rushed. It is perfectly reasonable, given how this vote has shattered the illusions of our two major parties, that the UK’s body politic pauses for breath before plunging into complex EU deal-making.

Before that, senior Leave campaigners must head off the mischief-makers, reassuring 17.5 million voters that Brexit will happen. They should also make clear that the closeness of the vote, and the need to strike a deal with Europe, means some concessions will be made.

‘We are linked to Europe, but not combined,’ wrote Churchill in 1930. ‘We are interested and associated but not absorbed.’ That sentiment, to my mind, rings true – and Soames now backs Johnson for leader anyway. If negotiations go well, if we hold our collective nerve, Brexit could become an inspiration, a source of strength for the other peoples of Europe who have long demanded EU reform but have been haughtily rebuffed by political and business elites. It is the ‘European Project’, not the UK, that’s now on the back foot.
http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/07/project-hope-why-britains-in-a-better-position-than-brussels/

I certainly agree with you that trade will still be good for the UK and that we won't be as screwed in the long term as people are predicting. My work will be compromised but not impossible. For me, it's more of a personal ideal, I like being part of the EU in principal. Shame we couldn't work these things out without leaving but that was the fault of both the UK and the EU at large.

 

[Soulman]

I certainly agree with you that trade will still be good for the UK and that we won't be as screwed in the long term as people are predicting. My work will be compromised but not impossible. For me, it's more of a personal ideal, I like being part of the EU in principal. Shame we couldn't work these things out without leaving but that was the fault of both the UK and the EU at large.

As a side to our discussion, you mentioned that the Brexit has affected you......... i really hope that it is temporary and you do benefit, i genuinely do, in fact i hope we all will in the long run, which rightly or wrongly is why i voted Leave.

 

[Jim in the West]

"Well, I think we are being laughed at."........who is laughing at us?

I think most of the population of the UK is laughing - or crying. The whole Brexit thing is an unbelievable shambles. A campaign full of lies and deceit, followed by implosion of the two main political parties, the potential break up of the United Kingdom, and an economic recession. All this for what? A relationship with the EU which will be marginally different (slightly worse) than the one we have now. Would 52% of the population have voted "Leave" if they'd realised this would happen? Of course not. Yet we're probably going to stagger on, inflecting more self harm, in the name of "democracy". And, as I have maintained all along, it will be the poor and disadvantaged who really suffer. What a joke we are. No wonder the world thinks we're a laughing stock.

 

[Soulman]

I think most of the population of the UK is laughing - or crying. .

A bit over the top don't you think "most"........considering 52% over 17million voted Out...then "most" is a tad exaggerated to say the least.

 

[The Clamp]

As a side to our discussion, you mentioned that the Brexit has affected you......... i really hope that it is temporary and you do benefit, i genuinely do, in fact i hope we all will in the long run, which rightly or wrongly is why i voted Leave.

Thanks, I hope the same for you. The ability to travel and work and seek various permits across Europe makes my life a lot easier.
It's a case of seeing how it plays out. Hopefully short term hassle for long term gain. Good luck!

 

[Pretty pink fairy]

Shackles of the EU my arse...keep in mind how free you are when you have to get a visa to go on holiday to your package holiday in Benidorm and you can only bring back 200 fags and a litre of spirits.

I don't holiday in Spain ,nothing like pidgeon holing
regards
DR