Simon Jenkins in the Guardian has described Nigel Farage as “froth:. And he may will be right. Should some sense and courage return to our assorted politicians throughout Europe.
But then what is it that has caused the froth? Disenchantment with the fallacious austerity panacea recipe? Yes, to a great extent. And we are seeing similar reactions throughout Europe from Beppe Grillo in Italy to that far more sinister and potentially dangerous rise of Golden Dawn nazism in Greece.
But I would say that Nigel Farage has something more. He is charismatic, full of passion, makes fiery speeches in the European Parliament that pull down those obnoxious, unaccountable, appointed, irresponsible Eurocrats more than a peg or two.
Now is there more substance? Well, this should be a wake up call. If the politicians do not want the European Union to ossify into an undemocratic, command economy, governed through social engineering (that inevitably goes wrong, such as internal deflation) they should take heed.
Not only is the EU no longer not inspiring any more, it has become positively repellant. It feels like a rigid dictatorship which has abolished “local” (that is national) governments altogether. Instead of leaders we now have second rate administrators of central policy. A fully fledged command economy where the voice of the people counts for nothing.
Where human rights and human values have been abolished in favour of good book keeping. But not even that, because if these years of European crisis management have proved anything, it is that none of the plans imposed by the so called troika have worked at all.
So in comes Nigel Farage, perhaps a relic from the past, but a relic we are all hankering for. National dignity, a politician who is not terrified of calling a spade a spade, who does not cringe and kow tow to whatever nonsense economics the German Chancellor and Olli Rehn declare is the ONLY way to go. And which we all know is the only way to go straight to hell.
Having said that, I would probably not vote for Nigel Farage myself (unless it was to send him to the European Parliament again), because he is too “right wing”. On the other hand the European Commission and the German directorate have made “right wingers” look positively benign!