To think Nigel Farage is the most damaging political figure we have had for decades?

[Zadig]

This man made it his entire life's ambition to exit the UK from the EU. He has campaigned on this issue for decades and achieved his goal by becoming the "pied piper" to the disaffected and tapping into the insidious racism that lurks beneath our society. Ugly stuff.
Then, on achieving his life's ambition, what does he do? He resigns.
Yes we were all glad to see the back of him obviously, but AIBU to feel he should have been forced to head up and deal with the shit show that is Brexit, rather than running away from the train wreck he set in motion? Of all politicians, I find his hypocrisy totally staggering.

So yes...

YABU, that accolade should go to Blair. Seriously op, google him. Farage is insignificant by comparison.

Yes I do blame Cameron for calling the election. He only did it to appease UKIP sympathisers / defectors in his party though and to win votes.

We were due an election, we have elections every 5 years - 2015 was an election year. Cameron had no option but to call an election.

May misjudged and called the last election 3 years early. We weren't due until 2020

Thatcher and then Blair a very close second. Farage didn't give us the referendum Cameron did.

We were due an election, we have elections every 5 years - 2015 was an election year. Cameron had no option but to call an election.

I think the pp is referring to the referendum, which took place in 2016. And the law about having an election every 5 years was only brought in in 2010, so we don't 'have elections every 5 years' as a long-running thing.

Why so many people are naming TB I have no idea. Yes it may well be true that some of his policies exacerbated problems in some sections of society and he/Labour took their eye off that particular ball, but the referendum would never have happened with the result we have had he been in power. He would not have called it in a pathetic bid to keep his party together and appease UKIP and, even if he had, he would certainly not have run such an utterly shit campaign.

I think the accolade should go to DC. His actions were so irresponsible it is a crime imo. He has now swanned off and doesn't give a flying shit. I can just imagine him telling anecdotes in the future about how he got to be PM and got into a bit of a scrape about the EU, ha ha...

TM is also a contender. She is hell bent on clinging to power at all costs, even though she's shit at it, and doesn't give a fuck what she does to the country as a result.

Murdoch and Dacre, surely.

A lot of the time the media take what he says out of context.

Every time he raises a valid point on now the mass immigration is affecting our NHS, benefit system and social housing, everyone comes back with he's racist

It is interesting hat a lot of MN derides NF but supports a more fundamentalist view of the world that accepts Corbyn.

Very surreal.

Cameron was responsible for the Brexit vote. He did nothing but complain about migrants and the EU for years leading up to then giving us a vote in the referendum and only AFTER he had poisoned us against the EU.

He is responsible because we voted him in. Farage was NOT our leader. He is not to blame. Cameron was supposed to be our leader. He led us into a Brexit with the propaganda he spread and allowed to be spread

However, this outcome is best for the EU. Long live the EU. Eventually, the UK might come to its senses and beg its way back in. De Gaulle had a point, no?

It is interesting hat a lot of MN derides NF but supports a more fundamentalist view of the world that accepts Corbyn.

Whose done that then

Whose done that then
the people of the UK done that.

Cameron, Blair, Farage, May are all Murdoch / Dacre's creatures. Check out PMs meetings and published memoirs. Only leader to properly stand up to them is Corbyn.

@Zadig

Exactly. And if David Milliband had come back we would have had a sensible Labour government already.

Both major political parties are split on the EU. And both flirted dangerously with referenda to paper over their own internal divisions. Brown promised a referendum on the Constitutional Treaty and there was a palpable sigh of relief when the Dutch and French rejected it and he was let of the hook arguing that the Lisbon Treaty was so different it no longer required one.

Corbyn has always been a Brexiteer. He was invisible during the referendum campaign and has managed to keep his views under wraps until now. Nobody asking him how he would vote in another referendum.

Parliament know this is not in the national interest. But they are all trotting towards the precipice regardless.

Fionnbharr Corbyn has said he would remain as reported in the newspapers late last night.

I think looking back we will find it was in the national interest to leave. Self amending treaties and QMV, and a drive towards more Europe, when the EU patently can't react to a crisis with any speed, doesn't fill me with confidence for the future of the EU, especially with the V4 beginning to dig their heels in.

fresh

I dont understand your post of 22:32

I can hate farage and Corbyn if i want to...hating farage doesnt mean I support Corbyn

Which is why i was querying which mumsnetters....badly i grant you

@Scary

• self amending treaties? Which ones are those?
• QMV - works well on most issues as unanimity is hard to achieve. But very few examples of the UK having to accept changes they really do not want.
• I am not uncritical of the EU response to crises.
• But there is no easy or rapid solution to the migration crisis which goes well beyond the EU - involving global foreign policy and climate change. And the UK may be partly favoured by its geography but cannot insulate itself indefinitely - especially if the French decide to end the agreement to stop migrants at the channel ports.
• There are problems with the Euro. But the ECB seem to have managed them the best they can. Most of the issues are attributable to the failure of the southern EU countries to re-structure their economies from 1999 onwards. Not the fault of the EU. The problems were exacerbated by the global financial crisis - but the UK suffered as much if not more than many EU countries due to the failure of successive governments to limit the size of the banking sector. That is why we have had to put up with a decade of austerity unlike the Germans, Dutch and Nordics who kept more balanced economies.
• Rise of the far right: Not limited to the V4. Again a global phenomenon as people struggle to adapt to changing economic realities. The UK is not immune.

It is disingenuous to attribute global problems to the “failure of the EU” of which the UK is still a part - and until the referendum a hugely influential part.

The drive towards more Europe has always been there and cannot happen without the unanimous agreement of the Member States. Juncker and Verhofstadt can spout all they want but most EU countries do not agree with them - so what they say will remain hot air. And one of the few things Cameron did achieve was an opt out on “ever closer union”.

You may think we will look back and decide it was in the national interest to leave. I think the likelihood is that we will see a weaker EU and a weaker UK as a result.

I can't decide whether Boris doesn't beat them all. He worked tirelessly for the out campaign to unseat Cameron knowing it was the wrong thing to do. He tells lie, after lie and took in those who can't bring themselves to align with Farage. The 350 million bus was all Boris.

Farage has told untold damage to the very fabric of society by using immigration as the scapegoat for all the UKs ills. The Tory government has polarised wealth and austerity has made people angry - but this has been twisted and perhaps the more gullible believes this is because 'we are full' or maybe they are simply racist and the whole UKIP agenda has made that more acceptable. Either way it's extremely damaging.

Meanwhile Farage continues to claim very significant amounts from the EU personally. He lives off the very organisation he decries so publicly- hypocrisy in extremis. His pension from EU will be more than most people live on.

I think johnson is a plonker as well

But its Gove all the way for me ....following his attampted destruction of the education system

Im not keen on whats happening to the NHS but i think there is masses that needs to be done and i dont think any one oerson is responsible

Oh, god yes: Gove and his swathe of destruction through education!

I get your point but I'd say Tony "blood in his hands" Blair takes some beating.

Farage is a fucking arsehole. He sang fascist songs at school, attends far right rallies in Germany, supports Trump and Marine Le Pen.
I’m glad that he’s constantly rejected in Westminster elections; look at the damage he’s done just by appearing on Question Time every third week, and by embarrassing us in the European Parliament. I’d hate to think what he’d do with any power.
I think pretty much the same about George Galloway. Nasty demagogues, the pair of them.

Farage is still an MEP. He is fighting for the UK from within the EU.

Is this a joke or serious?!

Has anyone mentioned Osbourne? He and Cameron were very transparent in their economic policy - austerity for the masses but big bucks for their mates. Disgusting ofboth of them.

I blame their austerity for creating the discontent that led to Brexit. Then they couldn't adequately defend the eu as it was their policies and cuts and not immgration/the eu that had led the hardships that a lot if the country was (is still) suffering. There are many reasons why people voted for Brexit, but for many (over the deciding 4% in my reckoning) the opportunity to stick it to the authorities for the shit state of things was a big factor.

NF would have been ignoreable if UK society was functioning properly for all.

I do wish people would remember that Farage doesn't hold any more power in Westminster than that bloke who ran for election dressed as a fishfinger. He couldn't sort the Brexit mess out even if he wanted to.

Just ignore him, and with any luck he'll go away.

saucy

I know he has no power and ive tried ignoring , honest i have

Although he was on some stupid filmed dinner date with rachel (is it?) johnson and she asked him would if consider have sex with a reman voter and he blushed and didnt know what to do with himself

It was very sweet...he is still a twat though

How many decades are we allowed? Because Thatcher fucked us all over way more than anyone else.