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an interesting item of journalism which does UKIP no favours in its brutal presentation of the rank amateur and ill mannered behaviour of the Farage leadership that has done so much harm to
EUroScepticism – That is not to say the primary aim was other than well meaning though now sadly corrupted by crass incompetence and lack of professionalism or PR of any competence whatsoever AGAIN!
You will find the article all too typical of the journalistic qualities bought by The EU which the behaviour of UKIP leadership so readily feeds in its crass incompetence!
Karen Coleman: Beware of No campaigners with agendas of their own
British MEP Nigel Farage of UKIP, which has spent around €200,000 on anti-treaty leaflets
By Karen Coleman
ONE of the more sinister aspects of the fiscal treaty campaign has been the involvement of Eurosceptic MEPs who’ve come over here to spout their anti-EU rhetoric. Their anti-treaty crusades have little to do with what’s best for Ireland but predominantly they are about the pursuit of their own anti-EU agendas.
The involvement of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) is particularly egregious. Its leader, Nigel Farage, is an English MEP who campaigned here against the Lisbon Treaty in 2009. Now he’s urging us to vote No to the fiscal treaty.
A slight, dapper man, Mr Farage regularly indulges his anti-EU sentiments in the European Parliament with his cutting and frequently entertaining digs at the EU and its officials. Mr Farage and the rest of UKIP’s members passionately believe Britain should leave the EU. When they sit in the European Parliament, they look like isolated little Englanders with their Union Jack flags sitting on their desks in a kind of childish defiance of European unity.
Now, there’s plenty wrong with the EU at the moment. As I have said before in this column, EU leaders are failing to tackle the enormous political and economic challenges we face. Their dithering and procrastination is endangering the stability of Europe. But a further fragmentation of the EU’s waning community spirit will not serve us well. UKIP’s jingoistic isolationism thrives on that fragmentation.
I personally experienced a more aggressive side of UKIP last Wednesday when I interviewed Mr Farage in his offices in the European Parliament.
When I knocked on his door, a man holding a pipe in his hand brought me into a room thick with the stench of tobacco smoke. The European Parliament has a strict no smoking policy, but that rule is apparently ignored in Mr Farage’s demesne.
Mr Farage himself was sitting at his desk with a pile of papers in front of him, which included a printout of the ‘Donegal Democrat’. I suspected it contained references to a statement made in the European Parliament the previous day by the Fianna Fail MEP Pat ‘the Cope’ Gallagher.
Mr Gallagher had declared that Mr Farage’s involvement in the anti-treaty campaign was a good thing for the Yes side. The Donegal MEP believes that Irish voters strongly dislike foreigners like Mr Farage telling them how to vote.
During our interview, one of UKIP’s fixers entered the room and sat down opposite us. He got aggressive when I pressed Mr Farage on the amount of money they were spending on their No campaign in Ireland.
The money topic came up after Mr Farage had boasted about how they were distributing their anti-treaty leaflets to every household in Ireland. When I asked him how much it was costing to print and distribute them, he inadvertently blurted out that it was around €200,000. I was shocked at the high figure and I pressed him further on it. At that stage, his fixer got aggressive and he threatened to pull the interview.
“Karen, if you continue on this f****** line we’ll just f****** wrap up and go, all right?” he warned me.
Then he started preaching to me about a reputation to keep, as if somehow I was compromising my journalistic integrity by legitimately enquiring about the amount of money they were spending on their anti-treaty campaign.
It was a nasty encounter.
The money for the Eurosceptics’ campaign comes from an EU information fund which can be legitimately accessed by the European Parliament’s political groups. UKIP is a member of the Eurosceptic Europe of Freedom and Democracy group, which has 34 members, including 10 from UKIP. Another nine come from Italy’s Northern League party, which has been clouded in controversy recently after its founder Umberto Bossi resigned amid allegations that he had used taxpayers’ money for perks for himself and his family. Mr Bossi has reportedly described the EU as a nest of communist bankers and freemasons. Another EFD member is the Finnish MEP Sampo Terho, who belongs to the populist right-wing True Finns party.
Each parliamentary group is entitled to funding from the EU’s information budget for the likes of referendums, so there is nothing wrong with the EFD accessing that fund for their anti-treaty campaign in Ireland. The Irish MEPs are also using EU information money, through their parliamentary groups, for their own fiscal treaty campaigns. But there isn’t a single Irish MEP in the EFD group — and their €200,000 spend on their No campaign is significant.
And the bandwagon of anti-treaty Eurosceptics visiting Ireland continues. On Sunday, another British MEP begins a road trip here with a posse of some 20 followers and advisers. Nikki Sinclaire used to be with UKIP, but now she’s an Independent MEP representing the West Midlands. Last February she was arrested on suspicion of misusing European Parliamentary allowances and expenses. In an interview last week, Ms Sinclaire told me the allegations were completely unfounded and made by a disgruntled ex-employee.
She told me she plans to travel around Ireland in a people-carrier festooned with balloons and posters which have a big cartoon of Angela Merkel with a warning not to become her puppet. Ms Sinclaire will also distribute anti-treaty leaflets to Irish voters. Her road trip is also being funded by the EU.
Ironically, the involvement of the Eurosceptics in this referendum may do more harm than good to the No campaign. Pat ‘the Cope’ Gallagher has a point when he says that Irish voters don’t like foreigners coming here preaching to them about how they should vote.
Now, of course we’ve had droves of pro-treaty politicians and eurocrats who’ve descended on us over the years to encourage us to vote Yes to treaties such as Nice and Lisbon. But there’s something particularly disturbing about the involvement of UKIP in this referendum campaign.
As I said previously, their anti-treaty crusades have little to do with what’s best for Ireland. Their main agenda is to take Britain out of the EU. That would definitely not be good for Ireland.
– Karen Coleman
To view the original article CLICK HERE
To Which I commented:
Hi,
one has to wonder at the integrity of a journalist who puts only one sided propaganda forward as a view, an opinion or dare I say reporting!
Why is there no balance explaining how Erasmus Scholarships are extensively used to propagandise the young and indoctrinate them.
There is no comment about The EU multi €Billion propaganda budget to dupe people into the social experiment and central control of the largely undemocratic EU – A post democratic society ruled by unelected bureaucrats – I concede that the likes of Nigel Farage have their own position to maintain but it can not be de3nied that he opposes EU membership though it can be shown he has been perverted by the bribes available through The EU in abuse of the peoples for the gain of the political class.
Karen Coleman in taking her simplistic and propagandised stance overlooks, conveniently, the huge bribes and cushy position of journalists in the EU funded by expenses, free offices, unlimited travel and glossy entertainment – is it that she feels this is threatened by the truth of the evil of this new all consuming Empire, unsupported by its people but bought with their own money?
It can be claimed that Nigel Farage is acting in his own interest as something of a puppet to the Tory Party and it may be true but I think not – even if it were then perhaps Karen Coleman would care to explain the passion of the beliefs of Nikki Sinclaire and her supporters and staff who find themselves foul of the law seemingly framed for having dared speak out against the evil that is the EU.
It matters not whether one is British or claims to be Irish – YOU are NOTHING but pawns in the hands of the EU. Pawns in their great scam, tyheir great self interest and their utter indifference to all that is good in the freedoms of mankind that many of us and even more of our ancestors have risked their lives to obtain and defend.
Karen Coleman seems not to value the freedom of speech which was once the cornerstone of her chosen profession and has seemingly succumbed to the propaganda of The EU designed at a cost of €Billions to crush all that is or should I say was Irish.
May I take the liberty, yes liberty, of supporting the NO vote – where a Yes vote will be just another loss of liberty hard won.
I am after all these years unable to identify a single solitary benefit in EU membership, be it for Ireland or Britain that even begins to justify the horrors of the costs.
Good luck Ireland for you must decide yourselves whether you live on your knees having voted Yes or stand in dignity having excercised your fundamental human right of self determination – A Free Ireland rather than a vassal of an evil Empire.
Yes I believe both Nigel Farage & Nikki Sinclaire are acting for the liberation of Britain in their own chosen ways – ways chosen by the votes of their electorate, an old democratic concept but one that has stood the Western World in good stead increasingly for 2 Millenia before the restrictions of petty bureacrats were imagined with all the restrictions imposed by The EU’s central kontrol.
Regards,
Greg_L-W.
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Greg Lance - Watkins (Greg_L-W)
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