Nigel Farage is a name that will remain in the history of Europe. Or, rather, in the history of the failed European Union and the failed European financial union.
He became known to many Europeans just a year ago when enthusiasts published on YouTube a video of one of his short speeches to the European Parliament. The speech is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gm9q8uabTs. In a daring and politically incorrect tone, Farage asked the European Parliament who had just voted for tighter control by the Federal Government . . . oops, I meant the European Commission, over the process of national elections in the members states of the European Union. “Who the hell do you think you are” was the bottom line of the speech. Who the hell do you think you are to unilaterally destroy the freedom of the people to vote and decide for themselves? Farage pointed to the fact that the encroachment on the rights of the peoples in Europe by the centralized government in Brussels uses as an excuse the Euro project; the euro is failing because it has never been a healthy project to start with. But instead of accepting the reality that the project is failing, the eurocrats are going to preserve the project at any cost – even at the cost of destroying the little liberties left to the European nations in the union. Sacrificing the rights in the name of a failed project, that’s what the European Empire is doing.
And Farage asked: “Who the hell do you think you are?” And this phrase made him a celebrity overnight, and his popularity in Europe keeps rising.
Farage, a long-time member of the Conservative Party, left the party in 1992. His reason was that the Conservative Party is just another Social-Democratic Party (the nick name for a socialist party in Europe). He had embraced the Libertarian principles that Margaret Thatcher promoted in Britain during her terms as a Prime Minister. After leaving the party, Farage affirmed those principles even more faithfully, founding the UK Independence Party and becoming one of the most vocal critics of socialism at home and the foreign policy of joining the European Union. In 2006 he was elected leader of the UKIP, and in his maiden speech as a leader made a statement that echoed throughout Britain: “We’ve got three social democratic parties in Britain — Labour, Lib Dem and Conservative are virtually indistinguishable from each other on nearly all the main issues” and “you can’t put a cigarette paper between them and that is why there are nine million people who don’t vote now in general elections that did back in 1992.”
Largely ignored at the beginning, Farage received an increasing barrage of criticism from the official media for his libertarian positions after 1999 when he was elected to the European Parliament as the leader of a significant group of 13 members of the UKIP. The main arguments against Farage are known to the American public from own experience here: “unelectable,” “fringe candidate,” “crazy,” “wacko.” His views on foreign policy have been declared “dangerous” by the official establishment propaganda because he calls for the withdrawal of Britain from any entangling alliances, and for “minding our own business.” Even the “racist” accusations have appeared once or twice. His views on the European Central Bank and the Euro have been called “idealistic,” even in the midst of a collapsing financial structure throughout the whole European Union.
But no matter what the establishment in Britain and in Europe is trying to do, Farage’s popularity steadily rises, both in Britain and in Europe, especially among the young people. The end of false conservatism and the socialist consensus between all parties may not be so close for Britain, but it certainly is coming. When the European Union finally collapses, only Farage’s name will remain in history, as the lonely British rebel against the Brussels Empire.
