Brexit Party - Farage
Seeing Farage on Question Time last Thursday, and then on the Andrew Marr show on Sunday, I hope that his true colours are now clear for all to see.What struck me on Question Time was how he consistently shouted down the female guests or rolled his eyes saying "oh my god" when they were speaking. But noticeably, he didn't try the same with the male guests. He is just an old fashioned, common or garden misogynist (perhaps not so surprising).He also showed on Question Time that he was ignorant or outright deceitful about the WTO. And his inability / refusal to answer straightforward questions on the Andrew Marr show - and his readiness to lie, without any apparent embarrassment or shame when called out.Farage was insisting that if we pull out of the EU without a deal, the EU will come running, desperate begging us to do a deal. We have heard that before. Does anyone really fall for that?What we now know is:1 Farage is in favour of privatising the NHS;2 He doesn't like hearing people speaking foreign languages;3 He admires Putin;4 He is in favour of weakening gun control in the UK.I saw a Brexit Party campaign stand on Saturday, so thought I would have a chat about WTO rules, and how they thought that "WTO Rules" (or "WTO terms" or "WTO basis") would work for us in practice. Apparently I was lucky in coming across the party's "expert".When politely questioning his "facts" I was met initially with evasiveness, and then with outright hostility. He insisted that the UK could negotiate free trade deals in a matter of weeks (!); he discounted the fact that 80% of UK trade is with countries (inside the EU and outside the EU) with which we benefit either from free trade within the EU, or from EU trade agreements with the rest of the World (and deliberately or otherwise sought to confuse a "free trade" agreement with bilateral trade agreements generally); was not willing to address the fact that 80% of the UK economy is in services, not goods, or explain how he thought that would work under WTO rules; insisted that the UK could just adopt the EU WTO tariff schedules, without any other country's approval (which is wrong, and in any event then begs the question what the point of leaving the EU is at all); denied that any other countries had objected to the UK's proposed tariff schedules (despite the fact that 20 counties have reputedly done so — including, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Russia and the US).In short - the Brexit party is trying to take us for a ride. Why? Perhaps if we knew who is funding them we would have a better idea.And anyone who thinks that the UK will be able to negotiate better WTO terms on its own then as part of the EU is living in cloud cuckoo land. The US in particular will insist that their "health" companies must be allowed into the UK to take over NHS services (before we start on chlorinated chicken, hormone pumped beef, etc. etc.). So if and when you meet a Brexit canvasser I suggest that you ask them about the above points.
T P Howell ● 2725d199 Comments ● 1906d