Nigel Farage (UKIP) what do we all think?

[Hamishbear]

Nigel Farage seems to knock the other leaders into a cocked hat. He's given an impressive performance on Question Time and elsewhere & seems to really know his stuff:

What do others think? Do you agree with what he says in the clip above?

NB: I have posted the link before on another thread but think this merits more discussion & exposure. Re: Euro bailouts the mindset seems to be moving towards the 'everything will be ok now' school of thought. How can it? Why are we all intent on burying our heads in the sand?

Farage has never done anything other than knock the EU project and, now it's experiencing difficulties, does nothing but 'I told you so'. What he never adequately outlines is an alternative and what he never explains is the downside of being outside the EU with no influence on its actions.

I think he's a good orator, witty and charismatic. He often makes others look like incompetent buffoons and I like the way he speaks his mind. He's also clearly intelligent and researches well:

He can speak his mind because, like the LDs & other minor parties before him, he has very little chance of having to put any of his thoughts into action. People that do nothing don't have to prove anything.

Hamishbear, I agree with you about his oratory. He is a brilliant performer and has facts at his fingertips, which often makes his opponents look unprepared and amateurish. He knows and believes in what he is talking about. Whether he is in fact right, is a different matter, but there is no doubt that he runs rings around most of his opponents.

Sorry, that should have been "runs rings around most of his opponents and all of his New Labour opponents".

I love the interchange between him & Dianne Abbott on Question Time - he exposes her lack of knowledge & understanding about 'the cuts'. It's actually frightening to me, the lack of knowledge & economic understanding some politicians seem to have.

Hello Nige nice to see you here on MN

Abbott doesn't lack knowledge and economic understanding IME. Like anyone else from the past government, she is simply highly selective about what she chooses to reveal.

LOL! :)

He makes excellent speeches. Why shouldn't he say "I told you so", when he was right all along?

His organisational and management skills leave a lot to be desired though. He should be converting his excellent "air war" into real seats on councils, the GLA, the devolved assemblies, and eventually Parliament. It just isn't good enough to do well only in EU elections. And the insider account of the shambolic UKIP London campaign makes for grim reading. Fresh Choice for London?????

Above all, I'm glad we have vocal voices on the right. The BBC will always promote minority left-wing parties (such as the Greens, Plaid, or the BNP) over minority right-wing ones such as UKIP - but nevertheless, Farage manages to do a reasonable job of shifting the Overton window in the Tory party.

He looks like a joke to me.

Why? Have you watched the clips? I think on the contrary he often makes others look like a joke who haven't done their research and lack understanding.

There's more about bailouts in the press today.

I refuse to be sucked in. I got conned by Clegg's brilliant oratory, and now look what happened

I think he's undeniably right that we have big problems on our hands - it's serious and the issues are not going away any time soon. It's not as if he's spouting total spin/BS.

I don't agree with a single thing he says but he came on here some time ago for a webchat and he was absolutely charming.

I listened to an interview with him on Test Match Special a couple of years ago. I thought he sounded like an interesting and intelligent man. I don't agree with his politics and was expecting him to be a bit of a loony but he was quite interesting.

I will be voting UKIP in the local elections next week.

He tends to use gratuitous insults as part of his oratorial style - probably plays well with the nutters in his party but does not look statesmanlike to everyone else. He does address issues that others would not and is good at exposing hypocrasy in the main parties.
IMO He is right on the Euro crisis and am glad that he constantly reminds the Eurocrats of their recent predictions and statements. The Euro is a politically motivated project which cannot work in its current form - the sooner this is realised by our governments the better - we can get the pain over and move on.
Having said all that, I would not vote for him.

He's right but you wouldn't vote for him? You'd rather vote for someone who's wrong but who's going to make 300 million people suffer for a failing political project?

I just don't get that mentality.

Yes, he is right on that one issue - but I would be uncomfortable with some of the other things that UKIP stand for.

Such as?

Farage is a slimy rabble-rousing twat who lies to the British public with each breath he draws.

And this idea that he is 'right' about what has happened in Europe is total bollocks. If a massive earthquake was about to fracture the earth's crust and herald an apocalypse, we wouldn't laud the nutter on the street with a "The End Of The World Is Nigh" sandwich board as being an expert geologist, would we?

So the Euro has been an unprecidented success has it Unimaginative? I think Farrage did warn about the scenario we are in before the single currency was formed. You may not like him but give him credit when credit is due.
IMO single currency is a politically motivated project that cannot work as it is. We will either need tighter integration between members (unified taxation systems etc., which is potentially undemocratic) or to bite the bullet and for the weaker economies to leave. One thing that strikes me about the debacle, that never seems to get raised, is that Germany benefits greatly from being in a currency with a lot of weaker economies because it makes its manufacturing exports a lot cheaper - no wonder Merkl doesn't want it to fail!

The problems facing the Euro are because of a world recession caused by an under-regulated financial services sector.

A sector that Farage worked within for many years, I may add. And interestingly has absolutely nothing to say about vis-a-vis our current circumstances.

The problems facing the Euro are unique and are because of the structure of the Euro. For instance, If Greece were in its own currency, the problems that the people of Greece (and the Euro) face would be far, far less. I'm not going to explain why that is - I haven't got time - but it should be obvious. The Euro project has failed - Farrage has been predicting this all along - so give him some credit instead of frothing at the mouth.