Oh, Nigel. You raging hypocrite. There was a European referendum in Holland yesterday, which was quite different to ours. But the result did give the EU a bit of a bloody nose by rejecting a new treaty with Ukraine.
Nigel Farage loves referendums. He has spent rather a long time campaigning to have one in the UK. And so he went to Holland to campaign – because he really hates the EU. Oh, and he kind of likes Putin.
Hang on a second. Isn’t this the same Nigel Farage who wrote a grandiose letter to Barack Obama telling him to butt out of the UK’s referendum? Why, yes it is. Naughty Nigel said “it is imperative that the question of exiting the European Union is not one answered by foreign politicians”.
Here’s a video of Farage – a foreign politician, remember – at a rally in the Netherlands. His speech, preceded by a greatest hits montage set to inspirational music, begins about 45 minutes in.
Admittedly at one point Farage says: “It’s important, given that I’m a foreigner, that I don’t come along here and tell you how you should vote”. But in a stroke of luck he’s speaking at an event hosted by a eurosceptic party, where presumably all the attendees are already voting the way he would like them to.
So let’s get this straight. Obama – the leader of our closest ally – is not allowed to expressly advocate a vote either way in the June referendum. But Nigel would, according to his own example, have no problem if the President appeared at pro-EU events with David Cameron, dispensing advice, praising the EU, and supporting a Remain vote. Just so long as he doesn’t explicitly suggest any British people vote to Remain in the EU. Glad that’s clear.
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