{"id":805,"date":"2011-01-14T00:01:40","date_gmt":"2011-01-14T00:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unitedexplanations.org\/?p=805"},"modified":"2013-04-09T14:23:18","modified_gmt":"2013-04-09T13:23:18","slug":"nigel-farage-the-no-more-mr-nice-guy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/2011\/01\/14\/nigel-farage-the-no-more-mr-nice-guy\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigel Farage: the no longer Mr Nice Guy"},"content":{"rendered":"

The no more Mr Nice Guy<\/span><\/h3>\n

“The collapse of the Euro would benefit the European economy”. That’s the view of Nigel Farage, a British politician and former leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party, position he held from September 2006 to November 2009.\u00a0He is a current Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South East England and co-chairs, as you might expect,\u00a0the Eurosceptic Europe of Freedom and Democracy group.<\/p>\n

He is famous for his “straight” speeches at the European Parliament.\u00a0Nigel Farage has slammed EU bosses over European crisis. “It’s even more serious than economics because if you rob people of their identity, if you rob them of their democracy, then all they are left with is nationalism and violence. I can only hope and pray that the Euro project is destroyed by the markets before that” – Farage said at the end of his speech on November 26th<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Herman Van Rompuy’s speech on 24 February 2010<\/h3>\n

But Farage suddenly became known across the world because of a response to a\u00a0speech of\u00a0Herman Van Rompuy on 24 February 2010 in the\u00a0European Parliament. Farage\u2014to protests from other MEPs\u2014taunted the first long-term\u00a0President of the European Council by saying he has the “charisma of a damp rag and the appearance of low grade bank clerk”,\u00a0also asserting that Van Rompuy’s “intention is to be the quiet assassin of European democracy and of European nation states.”\u00a0He also referred to Belgium as a “non-country”, and that “nobody in Europe” knows who Van Rompuy is, nor how he was elected.<\/p>\n

Van Rompuy commented afterwards, “There was one contribution that I can only hold in contempt, but I’m not going to comment further.”\u00a0After refusing to apologise for behaviour that was, in the words of the\u00a0President of the European Parliament,\u00a0Jerzy Buzek, “inappropriate, unparliamentary and insulting to the dignity of the House”, Farage was reprimanded and had his right to ten days’ allowance (expenses) rescinded.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0President of the European Parliament,\u00a0Jerzy Buzek, said after his meeting with Farage:<\/p>\n

“I defend absolutely Mr Farage’s right to disagree about the policy or institutions of the Union, but not to personally insult our guests in the European Parliament or the country from which they may come. [. . .] I myself fought for free speech as the absolute cornerstone of a democratic society. But with freedom comes responsibility – in this case, to respect the dignity of others and of our institutions. I am disappointed by Mr Farage’s behaviour, which sits ill with the great parliamentary tradition of his own country. I cannot accept this sort of behaviour in the European Parliament. I invited him to apologise, but he declined to do so. I have therefore – as an expression of the seriousness of the matter – rescinded his right to ten days’ daily allowance as a Member”.<\/p>\n

Some of the Farage’s statements<\/h3>\n

“The immigration in the UK is out of control”, “divided Belgium is EU prototype”, “Greece in eurozone was a mistake”, “Icelanders don’t need EU membership and they don’t want it”.\u00a0During the spring of 2005, Farage requested that the\u00a0European Commission disclose where the individual Commissioners had spent their holidays…<\/p>\n

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no more Mr Guy from me!<\/strong><\/p>\n

His response to Herman Van Rompuy made him so famous that he decided to change his slogan on twitter. Now you can read: “And I told Mr Van Rompuy, it’s no more Mr Nice Guy from me!”.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

By the way, he has over 5,500 followers on twitter and over 4,400 fans on facebook. But his channel is Youtube, where his videos have received more than 2.5 million views.<\/p>\n