"Now is the time for Mr Farage to retreat to the wings. If leave remains the party of cross, old, Right wing men then it is doomed"
"It may pain Nigel Farage to hear it, but he is among the Remain campaign's biggest assets."
"The Farage led 'surprise' appearance of George Galloway at Grassroots Out rally on Friday night caused another shiver of revulsion in ordinary people yet to make up their minds"
Farage's vanity and capacity for self delusion knows no bounds. On Marr this morning he was claiming that like BoJo he can influence voters in other parties but unfortunately Farage switches them off where BpJo switches them on.
If BoJo comes in as leader of the Leave campaign his first job will be to stop Farage appearing on national TV. cameron knows what an asset Farage is to remain hence on Marr this morning he said,
"Do you really want to link arms with Nigel Farage and George Galloway?"
There are lots of good centre ground leave politicians. Use them and put Farage out to grass asap.
Look at what Daniel Hannan tweets
So another lie from the PR man. There never will be treaty change.
Then there is Gove's brilliant piece
For weeks now I have been wrestling with the most difficult decision of my political life. But taking difficult decisions is what politicians are paid to do. No-one is forced to stand for Parliament, no-one is compelled to become a minister. If you take on those roles, which are great privileges, you also take on big responsibilities.I was encouraged to stand for Parliament by David Cameron and he has given me the opportunity to serve in what I believe is a great, reforming Government. I think he is an outstanding Prime Minister. There is, as far as I can see, only one significant issue on which we have differed.And that is the future of the UK in the European Union.It pains me to have to disagree with the Prime Minister on any issue. My instinct is to support him through good times and bad.But I cannot duck the choice which the Prime Minister has given every one of us. In a few months time we will all have the opportunity to decide whether Britain should stay in the European Union or leave. I believe our country would be freer, fairer and better off outside the EU. And if, at this moment of decision, I didn’t say what I believe I would not be true to my convictions or my country.I don’t want to take anything away from the Prime Minister’s dedicated efforts to get a better deal for Britain. He has negotiated with courage and tenacity. But I think Britain would be stronger outside the EU.
My starting point is simple. I believe that the decisions which govern all our lives, the laws we must all obey and the taxes we must all pay should be decided by people we choose and who we can throw out if we want change. If power is to be used wisely, if we are to avoid corruption and complacency in high office, then the public must have the right to change laws and Governments at election time.But our membership of the European Union prevents us being able to change huge swathes of law and stops us being able to choose who makes critical decisions which affect all our lives. Laws which govern citizens in this country are decided by politicians from other nations who we never elected and can’t throw out. We can take out our anger on elected representatives in Westminster but whoever is in Government in London cannot remove or reduce VAT, cannot support a steel plant through troubled times, cannot build the houses we need where they’re needed and cannot deport all the individuals who shouldn’t be in this country. I believe that needs to change. And I believe that both the lessons of our past and the shape of the future make the case for change compelling.The ability to choose who governs us, and the freedom to change laws we do not like, were secured for us in the past by radicals and liberals who took power from unaccountable elites and placed it in the hands of the people. As a result of their efforts we developed, and exported to nations like the US, India, Canada and Australia a system of democratic self-government which has brought prosperity and peace to millions.Our democracy stood the test of time. We showed the world what a free people could achieve if they were allowed to govern themselves.In Britain we established trial by jury in the modern world, we set up the first free parliament, we ensured no-one could be arbitrarily detained at the behest of the Government, we forced our rulers to recognise they ruled by consent not by right, we led the world in abolishing slavery, we established free education for all, national insurance, the National Health Service and a national broadcaster respected across the world.By way of contrast, the European Union, despite the undoubted idealism of its founders and the good intentions of so many leaders, has proved a failure on so many fronts. The euro has created economic misery for Europe’s poorest people. European Union regulation has entrenched mass unemployment. EU immigration policies have encouraged people traffickers and brought desperate refugee camps to our borders.Far from providing security in an uncertain world, the EU’s policies have become a source of instability and insecurity. Razor wire once more criss-crosses the continent, historic tensions between nations such as Greece and Germany have resurfaced in ugly ways and the EU is proving incapable of dealing with the current crises in Libya and Syria. The former head of Interpol says the EU’s internal borders policy is “like hanging a sign welcoming terrorists to Europe” and Scandinavian nations which once prided themselves on their openness are now turning in on themselves. All of these factors, combined with popular anger at the lack of political accountability, has encouraged extremism, to the extent that far-right parties are stronger across the continent than at any time since the 1930s.The EU is an institution rooted in the past and is proving incapable of reforming to meet the big technological, demographic and economic challenges of our time. It was developed in the 1950s and 1960s and like other institutions which seemed modern then, from tower blocks to telexes, it is now hopelessly out of date. The EU tries to standardise and regulate rather than encourage diversity and innovation. It is an analogue union in a digital age.The EU is built to keep power and control with the elites rather than the people. Even though we are outside the euro we are still subject to an unelected EU commission which is generating new laws every day and an unaccountable European Court in Luxembourg which is extending its reach every week, increasingly using the Charter of Fundamental Rights which in many ways gives the EU more power and reach than ever before. This growing EU bureaucracy holds us back in every area. EU rules dictate everything from the maximum size of containers in which olive oil may be sold (five litres) to the distance houses have to be from heathland to prevent cats chasing birds (five kilometres).Individually these rules may be comical. Collectively, and there are tens of thousands of them, they are inimical to creativity, growth and progress. Rules like the EU clinical trials directive have slowed down the creation of new drugs to cure terrible diseases and ECJ judgements on data protection issues hobble the growth of internet companies. As a minister I’ve seen hundreds of new EU rules cross my desk, none of which were requested by the UK Parliament, none of which I or any other British politician could alter in any way and none of which made us freer, richer or fairer.It is hard to overstate the degree to which the EU is a constraint on ministers’ ability to do the things they were elected to do, or to use their judgment about the right course of action for the people of this country. I have long had concerns about our membership of the EU but the experience of Government has only deepened my conviction that we need change. Every single day, every single minister is told: ‘Yes Minister, I understand, but I’m afraid that’s against EU rules’. I know it. My colleagues in government know it. And the British people ought to know it too: your government is not, ultimately, in control in hundreds of areas that matter.But by leaving the EU we can take control. Indeed we can show the rest of Europe the way to flourish. Instead of grumbling and complaining about the things we can’t change and growing resentful and bitter, we can shape an optimistic, forward-looking and genuinely internationalist alternative to the path the EU is going down. We can show leadership. Like the Americans who declared their independence and never looked back, we can become an exemplar of what an inclusive, open and innovative democracy can achieve.We can take back the billions we give to the EU, the money which is squandered on grand parliamentary buildings and bureaucratic follies, and invest it in science and technology, schools and apprenticeships. We can get rid of the regulations which big business uses to crush competition and instead support new start-up businesses and creative talent. We can forge trade deals and partnerships with nations across the globe, helping developing countries to grow and benefiting from faster and better access to new markets.We are the world’s fifth largest economy, with the best armed forces of any nation, more Nobel Prizes than any European country and more world-leading universities than any European country. Our economy is more dynamic than the Eurozone, we have the most attractive capital city on the globe, the greatest “soft power” and global influence of any state and a leadership role in NATO and the UN. Are we really too small, too weak and too powerless to make a success of self-rule? On the contrary, the reason the EU’s bureaucrats oppose us leaving is they fear that our success outside will only underline the scale of their failure.This chance may never come again in our lifetimes, which is why I will be true to my principles and take the opportunity this referendum provides to leave an EU mired in the past and embrace a better future.
Farage is intellectually incapable of articulating anything as good as this.. For God's sake Farage go and leave the campaign to the big boys and girls Gove, Bojo, IDS, David Davies, Gisela Stuart, Frank Field, Liam Fox , Kate Hoey. UKIP's job is done. Become a foot soldier NF if you want to help and just admit you are now out of your depth.
Finally I was amused to hear Dave quoting Patrick McLoughlin at Cabinet yesterday, "I would like to live in Utopia but when Iget there I will find the EU there."
Learn your history Cameron or watch Wolf Hall
Thomas More an ardent supporter of the Pope in Rome collecting huge revenues in England wrote Utopia. Henry VIII was an outer and had More executed for treason and kept the money in England. Its a pity Thomas Cromwell is not around now to arrange Cameron's treason trial..
3 comments:
There are four possible explanations, not necessarily all mutually exclusive, for the damage Farage’s crassness continually does to our cause, of which his pollution of the Go Rally with Galloway is the most stupefying example yet.
1. His appalling judgment, which has been well-documented many times - certainly no argument for letting him get anywhere near the leadership of the Out campaign, but at least the most innocent of the four possible explanations.
2. His obsession with money over principle, which seasoned Farage-watchers have seen him demonstrate over and over again in Brussels as he has eagerly jumped into bed with an endless stream of continental extremists in order to ensure the survival of his European Parliament group (for which, read: "money, lots of it"). The politics of his bedfellows do not enter into his calculations, only the bare statistics like number of MEPs and number of nationalities which the rules of his EU paymasters demand. He has been able to do this largely without scrutiny from the UK media, which has emboldened him into chasing ever more sordid alliances. We are seeing a further extension of that exact same pattern here, as he seeks to outbid the rival Out campaign in terms of the number of different parties involved, so as to be declared the official campaign (for which, read: "money, lots of it"). With Galloway, just like all those vile continental racists and fascists in Farage's Brussels group, only one thing registers in Farage's calculations: Respect counts as an extra unit, the last in the row of cherries that he hopes will make the one-armed bandit go "kerr-ching!". Any other consideration such as Galloway's consorting with terrorist sympathisers and all the rest is of no consequence to Farage. Fatally, his years of playing this game in Brussels largely free of media scrutiny have emboldened him to the point of recklessness. He thinks he will always get away with it, but of course this time he is not in Brussels, he is back home and part of a major story in which he could not be more sharply in the media glare. This also links therefore into point number 1 - his appalling judgment.
3 and 4 follow......
3. The third possibility is that Farage knows damned well that actions such as linking up with Galloway will doom the Out campaign to defeat, but such sabotage is what he really wants, because Brexit would mean the end of the one thing upon which his lucrative political career depends. No Britain in Europe means no British MEPs milking all those lovely euros out of the Brussels cash-cow. This is even more of an issue for a British MEP who has continually proved himself to be a serial loser when it comes to trying to establish a proper political career at Westminster. A British MEP like Nigel Farage, for example. He'll be 56 come the next general election and getting a bit long in the tooth to be a newbie MP. If he can no longer be a member of the make-believe parliament in Brussels either, he'll have managed to fulfil his great hero Enoch Powell's dictum that all political careers end in failure before his own has even begun. And that would never do for the Great Leader, would it? Better to carry on building up the Euro-pension for a good few years yet, he may well be thinking. Of course, he could always defect to the Tories like his inadequate on-off back-on-again mate David "Campbell" Bannerman, but he'd lose his personal cult plus his little Brussels empire of fascists and, anyway, the pay's a lot worse at Westminster.
4. Of course, if Farage is intent on deliberate sabotage, there's another possibility. It's a theory which has done the rounds for years and I am starting seriously to wonder if it might be true - namely, that Farage is nothing but a plant of the pro-EU Establishment, be it the spooks or the Foreign Office or the Conservative Party (or Lib-Lab-Con) or a combination of the lot. The basis for this speculation has always been the myriad ways in which a) he brings our movement into disrepute and b) causes splits and endless rancour within it. In the Galloway case, he is yet again achieving both these effects at the most critical moment imaginable. As we finally reach the endgame, have the spooks given him his ultimate instructions to royally screw up the anti-EU movement once and for all? Or could his instructions be coming not from Whitehall, but from Brussels? We know they are his very generous paymasters, after all.....
I must say at the same time that I am also deeply suspicious of what is currently being played out between Cameron and Johnson.
Just as I find it extraordinary that Farage could bring in Galloway without having any idea of the damage it would cause to the Out campaign, so I find it equally incredible that Johnson could introduce his absurd "Vote No, Get Yes" idea without realising the chaos and division that this will cause within the campaign. Nor can I see how he could possibly believe that such a scenario could possibly be put in motion without widespread public uproar. Unlike Farage, Johnson doesn't even have the excuse of being thick. Indeed, he is very far from being thick.
This is all so convenient to Cameron that I'd be very wary of all the reports of his rage at Johnson. If Farage could be a plant, might Mr Mayor be too? Could the whole thing be another jolly jape dreamed up by the old Bullingdon chums? "What ho, Bozzers, we haven't had such a lark since we stitched up the presidency of the Wine Society! Good job you've always been so thick-skinned. I can even impugn your marital arrangements without it bothering you and then no-one will ever guess we've staged the whole thing, eh?"
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