Englischkolumne

The Farce with Farage Continues

Remember him? The man with the smirk on his face promising to save up to £350 million a week to invest it into the National Health Service of Great Britain? The man who dropped out of sight after Brexit made it through the referendum and flew to America to hobnob with the Trumps? Well, he is back, sitting (or rather standing) in the EU Parliament. I say standing because he and his clique of friends decided to stand and turn their backs as the “Ode to Joy” was being played at the opening session of the European Parliament.

The main aim of this puerile action is of course to grab media attention and cause outrage amongst the other members of parliament. All it got was just a short comment in the evening news which you would have missed if you had blinked. Farage, who has never been elected into British Parliament, has been spreading his xenophobic views amongst the British elderly promising heaven on earth for the Brits after they leave the EU. Now, thanks to May’s inability to meet various Brexit deadlines, he has been elected into the EU Parliament once more with one clear aim: to disrupt and cause havoc. The hypocrisy of the man is beyond belief! Whilst promoting Brexit, which will close the door for many young British people dreaming of living and working in the EU, his children have been found to possess German passports! Farage has changed political horses in midstream and resigned and returned so many times it is hard to keep track of who he associates with now. In 1978 he joined the Conservatives, in 1989 he voted for the Green Party, then he founded UKIP and more recently the Brexit Party. Now he is sitting once more in Brussels, being paid a handsome salary by the EU to sabotage the EU.

Farage, like many other fervent Brexiteers, has never ever presented a concrete plan on how Britain is going to fare once it is outside of the EU. There seems to be this general tally-ho feeling fox hunters used to have in the past. Once the fox is captured (at the cost of injuries to horses and riders) everyone sits around drinking tea and eating cucumber sandwiches. Similarly, once Brexit is achieved and the first repercussions start being felt, most of these people will scurry away from their responsibilities like rats and blame the loss of jobs and income on anyone and anything under the sun except themselves.

One can easily foresee more childish attempts to provoke moral outrage and to subvert the work of the EU Parliament. After all, this is the man who remained seated when Prince Charles was given standing ovations after a speech urging the EU to take more concrete steps against climate change. This is also the man who told Herman Van Rompuy, former Belgian Prime Minister and first President of the European Council, to his face that he had “the charisma of a damp rag”. Farage wants to turn the European Parliament into the kind of shambles the British Parliament is at the moment. These people thrive on media attention. The best way to defeat them is to change channels on TV and not buy papers which give them excessive coverage. I have long ago given up on ridiculing people like Farage and Trump because I realized that by sharing the hilarious memes I received on social media, I was contributing to their image as enfants terribles.

I am not worried about Farage. His clownish days in the European Parliament are numbered anyway. Honestly, whether he gives his backside or his face to us and his colleagues is immaterial. He is full of hot air and it tends to come out at both ends.