UK may vote to leave the European Union

It'll probably be pretty brief, but I'll let you know what he says.

 

I'd be happy to give you some talking points.

 

Say a lot of b-words like "bloody", "blimey", and "bollocks", to fit in better. And be sure to call him "gov'nuh", he'll appreciate that...

 

At least for me, January 16 will forever be known as Nigel Farage Day. I don't think I've had more fun in my life, and the experience dwarfed my highest expectations. Pardon the length of this post, but there's a lot to cover.

So my friend and i drove down to Strasbourg on Monday morning. I picked up some macaroons from this place and some fancy chocolate from this place, which are what Mrs. Deez wanted in return for watching Deez, Jr. all day. (I also threw in some Alsatian wine, but I'll consume more of that than she will.) We grabbed lunch and then headed to the European Parliament for our 3 p.m. meeting. (Side note - the European Parliament doesn't have a friggin' parking lot at it. What kind of crap is that? We had to go to a park-and-ride and take a tram.) We went through security, phoned Farage's office, and his chief of staff escorted us in.

Farage was still busy, so he took us into the cafeteria for coffee, and we talked European politics. He explained what's wrong with the EU (which was a lot) - arrogance, lack of accountability (especially in the European Commission), elitism, bad ideology, and delusion. He told us that the EU leadership has long believed that they are the only reason Europe hasn't had a major war since WWII and the only thing standing in the way of another major war. He said most of them will never admit that the US or the UK has played any role whatsoever, because they are socialistic (even the more conservative members) and simply won't accept giving any such credit to either. However, he said that it's ironic that the EU is probably the institution most likely to cause civil unrest and war in the modern era. What was cool is that he was saying this with a bunch of smug, candy-*** looking European Parliament staff and members sitting very closely and obviously in earshot - lots of eye-rolls, etc.

After about 20 minutes of talking to his chief of staff, he took us up to Farage's office. At this point, we're expecting a handshake, maybe a 5 minute conversation and that he'd then wish us well, and send us on his way. We sat down, and Farage started to talking to us. Within about two minutes, he pulled out a cigarette and asked if either of us smoked and if we minded if he did. We said we didn't smoke but didn't mind if he did, and he said with a laugh, "good, because I wouldn't give a f**k (his words) if you did mind." We all laughed, and from that moment on, we knew we weren't dealing with your average politician and that this was going to be fun.

He talked more about European politics and then shifted the discussion away from the Parliament and toward Trump, who had just announced that he wanted to do a trade deal with the UK within 90 days and that he wanted a nuclear arms reduction deal with Putin. He asked, "how can anybody have a problem with this?" His chief of staff (who's a lawyer) spoke up, "I'm being told that we can't because only the EU can negotiate trade deals." Nigel shoots back, "They can negotiate trade deals for the EU. We can negotiate trade deals for Britain. Besides, if we do it, what's the EU going to do? Kick us out???" We all cracked up.

Well, after about 30 minutes of shooting the bull, he says, "Alright chaps, I've got to head to the chamber for the announcement of presidential candidates (for president of the European Parliament)." We're assuming this means the meeting is over and that we're going to be leaving, so we start getting our coats. Not by long shot. He says, "here's my plan. Let's head down to the bar, have a drink, and then we'll go to the chamber. Then I need to shoot some promos for my radio show, come back here to prep for the show, and then go on at 8, and I figured you chaps can sit in for that if you like. When that's over, we've got dinner reservations for 10:00, if you don't mind eating late. Is that OK with you?" We accepted, of course, and we're friggin' shocked. Remember, we thought this would all be over within just a few minutes.

So we head to the members bar. My friend and I just ordered water, which got us teased a little because we wanted still water (rather than the fizzy stuff Europeans drink). Nigel starts talking about Trump some more and bouncing ideas off of us and his chief of staff and producer for the radio show. Then he heads to the chamber, and he has someone escort us to the gallery. The session only lasted about 20 minutes, and then we were escorted back to his office. He does more prep, and he introduces us to Beatrix von Storch (from the Alternative for Germany Party) who had shown up. She was cool.

After a while, he takes us down to the bar again. This time, we had booze, though just one drink each. At this point, he's getting into full "Nigel Mode" - lots of EU and Trump talk, etc. We hear a thick German accented guy at the next table start to trash talk Trump some but with chuckling. It's Elmar Brok, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. Nigel laughs and says, "the nation-state is making a comeback and your institution is dying. Wake up, Old Man." (See attached photo - that's my beer with Farage in the background while he's smack talking with Brok.) They both laugh, and Brok shakes his head a little. He says to us, "Elmar's so wrong about the European project, but unlike most, we can at least have a conversation."

So we go to the radio studio, and he does his show. That was awesome. We obviously didn't get to speak, but we got to watch from the control room and discuss the content and calls with his chief of staff. Here's a clip to his broadcast from that night. It was a good show, and we congratulated him on it.

When we're done, Nigel, his chief of staff, and his producer take us down into the garage below the building, where we get into a van that takes us to the restaurant. I can't get into everything, but it got real. Awesome conversation, though we mostly just sat on the edge of our seats and listened. The restaurant was cool too - steak, plenty of wine (though I only had one glass since I had to drive home), dessert, and a staff that treated us like royalty. At around midnight, everybody went home, and we caught a cab back to our car. I drove back to the house - about 2 hours. Farage smokes like a chimney, so I stunk of cigarette odor and had to take a shower, but no big deal. Well worth it.

All I can say is that it was awesome and totally unexpected. Farage had only met my friend once and had never met me. Furthermore, we're not constituents of his and had nothing to offer him that would help him. Despite that, he treated us like we had all been friends for 20 years - no BS, bought our drinks, and was just all-around cool. Furthermore, though he had a lot to do and was very busy most of the afternoon, he basically let us "shadow" him the whole night and did talk to us as much as he could while doing his work. We were so grateful for their hospitality that we foot the bill for everybody's dinner (about 245 Euros and well worth it). I'll definitely be sending him a thank you card.

 

W O W !!!!!

 

That is just awesome. Lucky you but thanks for sharing with us.

 

Deez, you are my hero!

 

That was brilliant and thank you for sharing!

I knew Farage was a great guy ever since he told Belgium they were not a country.

 

That vote looks different than some press there portrayed it. There was some hope all the protests would change things.

And geez their pols represent fewer people each than ours do . The budget for Parliament must be huge relative to the total population.

 

There are a lot of members who publicly opposed Brexit but respected the people's choice enough to vote to invoke Art. 50 (which is what officially triggers Brexit proceedings), including the Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Some were surprised that Corbyn went along, because he's a rabid socialist in the Michael Moore mold. However, I theorize that he privately favored Brexit. And like Moore, he's an old school union/pro-worker guy who probably knew that the EU was a tool of European elites and unsympathetic to the plight of British workers. He was publicly pro-Remain, but he has gotten a lot of flack from the younger and more identity politics-oriented and globalist left, who accuse his support of being too tepid. Frankly, they're probably right. He never spoke particularly well of the EU, and his opposition to Brexit always seemed more obligatory than sincere. I think he dreams of a return to power of British unions, and that would never happen with them in the EU and importing massive numbers of laborers from the mainland.

 

So Corbyn is socialist FOR Brits, not necessarily for other countries?
Kinda like make Britain great again?

 

He's indifferent to other countries. He cares about workers in his own country. Until about 20 years ago, virtually all labor-oriented politicians were like that. They were pro-union, anti-immigration, and pro-tariff. We used to call that economic nationalism. It was your Third Way liberals (Tony Blair, Bill Clinton, etc.) who changed left wing politics from Corbyn's mentality (or Michael Moore's) into a globalist agenda driven by corporatism and identity politics. I have a lot more respect for the old school guys, because they at least in theory gave a crap about their country's workers.

 

@Mr. Deez Most important question...

Whiskey? Scotch? Neat or on the rocks? Or if in Brussels...a Belgian beer?

Did you sign him up for a HF account?

 

LOL. I should have pitched HF to him, but I blew it.

We did discuss booze a little. Of course, he's well known for drinking a pint of beer pretty regularly as well as whisky. However, when I ordered a beer at the bar, he scoffed that what I ordered wasn't real beer. (I ordered a Kronenbourg.) To him a real beer is an English Stout, and he told us he likes Young's quite a bit. I've had it before both in the UK and in the US, and I do like it. He said in Brussels, he'll pretty much drink whatever Belgian ale that's available.

Nevertheless, I had to laugh a little at his swipe at me for three reasons. First, 90 percent of my American friends think I'm a pretentious snob when it comes to beer, so to have my balls busted as though I ordered a Keystone Light was a bit humorous to me. Second, Kronenbourg was the only beer the bar had, so it wasn't as though I turned down some good English ale for it. Third, Kronenbourg isn't bad. It's an Alsatian lager that would remind you of a mediocre German beer like Bitburg. It's not a life-changing beer, but it's not rhinoceros piss either.

Since he couldn't get any "real beer," he ordered a glass of champagne, though I would assume it was actually an Alsatian Cremant. Since we all had steak for dinner, he drank red wine. It was just the table wine - not bad but nothing exotic or special. It complemented the steak reasonably well.

 

I'm surprised they are trusted as much as they are. The EU is a stupid idea in general, and nothing can make it workable as it's currently constituted and designed. There are too many turds in the punch bowl to make the punch drinkable. However, the Council and the Parliament are at least democratic (for the most part), so they can claim a degree of legitimacy, despite their flaws. The Commission has the most power, yet it has the least legitimacy, and no surprise, it's the biggest turd in the punch bowl. If you trust them, you're incredibly naive.

 

Hey, that's what Milton Friedman said as well!

 

UK PM May officially given power to trigger Article 50 - Parliament formally approves

 

Johnny Rotten is out of the closet
Backs Brexit (and Trump)

-- "The working class have spoken & I stand with them!"

http://www.itv.com/goodmorningbrita...x-pistol-johnny-rotten-backs-brexit-and-trump

 

Bloody good!

 

Populism is the new punk