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Nigel Farage argues that the EU is stoking Irish Nationalism

on 3 May 2017 , 10:41 am 57 | 2,954 views

The former UKIP Leader, Nigel Farage thinks that the EU is stoking Irish Nationalism

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  • Jim M

    Where do you begin?? Poor benighted Paddies, whipped up by the evil EU overlords? That’s what you’re saying, innit Nige?

  • So what is the case here. EU puts border (hard/soft) in three part starter pack. Except that the matter of hard/soft border is entirely one of whether there is a free trade deal or not. Free movement within the CTA is a matter of the 1949 Act, and that RoI is outside Schengen – no-one suggesting that is going to change. And the biggest border for the RoI is in any case the Southern and Easter ports of the UK. So unless the EU is actually going to stop any deal by insisting on something that is impossible to provide before substantive trade talks – or intending to restrict access – then it isn’t clear why the RoI is mentioned at all, except as something to throw away as an issue that no-one disagrees on. Can’t work it out at all. If the RoI thinks it is being clever it might wish it wasn’t in time. The substantial part of its trade remains the UK at least equal to rest of` EU. Perhaps it presumes the goodwill of the UK regardless of its attitude. Hard to say. It ought to be arguing for special status within the EU, but that will no doubt come in time.

  • lizmcneill

    Farage has a brass neck to talk about stoking nationalism like it’s a bad thing.

  • the rich get richer

    Northern Ireland will cause World War III…..Its written in the Stars…..

    Or Britain could Gift Northern Ireland to the EU as a parting Gift….

    Or there will be a lot of huffing and puffing and fook all will change as usual……..

  • Jag

    Yeah, right and UK isn’t stoking fears about Border, together with some false nostalgia about us being all in it together? But the UK is only doing it out of concern for poor likkle (sic) Ireland?

    Can we be honest about it all for just one minute.

    Ireland, Northern Ireland, Britain and each of the 26 other counties in the EU, are all out to jockey for advantage, to minimise cost and get better terms for national citizens. There is no minimum level to which we won’t sink, there is no fear or prejudice we won’t stoke to achieve our aims, there is no bulls**t we won’t spout. Look forward to cesspits worth of this language over the next two years.

  • Roger

    The words “Free trade” don’t capture the nature of the single market. Suggest you read a summary of the Casis de Dijon case.

    The 1949 statute you mention applies only to the U.K.; doesn’t mention a CTA and after it became law there was still customs and Immigration controls on Ireland-UK border.

  • Nordie Northsider

    No Nigel, they’re just repairing the gaping hole that’s been in the Good Friday Agreement since UK voters drove a horse and cart through it.

  • Jim M

    Having actually listened to the video…How is what the EU said much different to what David Davis said in his letter to Eastwood?

  • Obelisk

    Britain getting shot of Northern Ireland without the agreement of it’s population isn’t going to happen.

    Having said that, does anyone truly doubt that in the heart of hearts of the Conservative leadership, they sorely wish they could do just that with honour and not have to deal with it complicating their Brexit negotiations?

  • ulidian

    HMG could simply slash NI’s budget.

  • Fear Éireannach

    Exactly, neither the EU nor Irish nationalists started the present chain of events, that is entirely down to the likes of Farage.

  • Obelisk

    Wouldn’t work. Those who support the Union have already made clear they’d be willing to suffer any economic indignity (Nelson McCausland stating he didn’t care what happened to us so long as we are out of Europe as part of the UK springs to mind) to remain within it. It’s why this state continues despite being so poor.

  • Neil

    “Look what I did! This is your fault, you didn’t stop me.”

    Nigel Farage

  • Barney

    Now that the complexities of Brexit are getting an airing Is it possible that this could be the start of operation blame the EU for screwing it up.

  • Fear Éireannach

    It is perfectly clear why the ROI is mentioned. The EU wishes to preserve the ability of businesses to do conduct business in their locality without interference by ridiculous harassment by customs and the like. It is ridiculous to pretend that this is not an issue of importance.

  • murdockp

    Nelson with his guaranteed pension, Brexit means he has noting to worry about.

    Hard to believe that man went to oxford university.

    Entrance criteria must have been were low then I guess.

    You don’t see him celebrated as an alumni particularly by the LGBT community.

  • erasmus

    Farage had no problem stoking Irish nationalism when the first NIce referendum went his way.

  • Nordie Northsider

    Actually, the more I think about what Farage is saying here, the more it reveals a bizarre mindset among the Brexiteers. All through his career he has been shouting that EU membership has more downsides than advantages and that no one in their right mind would touch it. Then he goes on to argue ‘How dare they entice people into supporting Irish Unity with the allure of assured EU membership?’ It’s confusing, really.

  • Enda

    I’m glad that Nigel seems very upset about this, I can only hope that the EU makes life appalling for the UK.

  • Trasna

    Nigel, you don’t know what the rest of us know, you’re a spent force left howling at the moon.

  • Trasna

    Perhaps ROI will leave The Common Travel Area and join Schengen? Something I fully support.

  • Dan

    Farage is entirely correct…..and the fun will really start when the EU play awkward with the UK over the border,
    The twisting and turning of nationalism in an attempt to blame the Brits will be epic.

  • The 49 Act gives effect to the CTA providing Irish citizens full rights (more than Crown Dependencies such as Channel Islands) other than in some elections. That gave effect to free movement unless there’s more. This has been added to with subsequent actions by the two governments, the most recent being this http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/ireland-and-britain-share-passenger-data-in-response-to-europe-attacks-391624.html Free movement still is just that. Free Trade is about goods, and increasingly services – though there is no EU single market in services. The CTA is a convention underscored by Parliament and actions.

  • Karl

    The UK is going to get massively burned. The border will be at Cairnryan. Unionist apoplexy will be monumental.
    You obviously havent been reading the runes. May is going to get a kicking and 800,000 non voters (for her party) arent going to figure when it comes to securing jobs in car factories in the north east.

  • Enda

    It’ll be primarily the Brits to blame. They wanted an EU referendum, they got one, they voted out, Irish Nationalists wanted none of it, so we’ll be entirely within our rights to blame the Brits for any f**kups at the border.

  • grumpy oul man

    Oh dear, England votes to leave the EU, without understanding what will happen, and when the lack of a realistic plan and any real foresight comes back and bites it in the Ass then of course it’s somebody else’s fault.
    Interesting concept, cause and effect changed around.

  • Fear Éireannach

    Not only did we not want it and say so, but many responsible people from John Major to George Mitchell clearly pointed out the dangers. The blame here lies with one party and one party alone: the British government and their unionist sidekicks.

  • Enda

    Yip, pretty much.

    The truth will be hard for Unionism to swallow when it’s choking on its pride.

  • Enda

    The CTA was in place when both the UK and Ireland were inside and outside the bloc at the same time. It may need to bee looked at again when it’s one in one out.

  • AntrimGael

    It will thankfully. The EU is intent on hammering Britain to the Nth degree.

  • AntrimGael

    Yeah Nigel as if Irish Nationalism didn’t exist before Brexit!!! Those Paddy Irishmen were happy house slaves until the EU got involved. How deluded is this individual?

  • Lex.Butler

    One of quaint aspects of Europe is the anomalies. The Channel Islands, I of M, Andorra, Liechtenstein et al. It is beginning to dawn on the knuckleheads that NI is going to end up another anomaly, with no EU border and probably become a very porous route around Fortress Britain. Most citizens of NI will be able to remain citizens of the EU and be British and Irish. And since nobody realistically is going to undermine GFA (and the EU looks as if it will insist on no border), part of the UK will remain effectively in the EU. That’s not a United Ireland. Think Andorra.

  • Enda

    And the scaremongering from Theresa has started, accusing the EU of trying to sway the upcoming GE. Although Brussels could do well to try and tap into the large remain contingent that exists in Britain.

  • hollandia

    Nigel seems to have missed the bit where most nationalists pre-brexit, tolerated the status quo precisely because the UK and ROI were both in the EU, and that the border was essentially nothing more than a line on a map in practical terms. And then he went and got that changed. And is somewhat surprised to find that Irish nationalists are just a teensy bit upset by this turn of events. Most likely why he has never been elected to Westminster. Seems utterly incapable of understanding cause and effect.

  • Dan

    They’ll be more upset in Eire when the increased bills start arriving to make up the shortfall in our contribution to the EU.
    Then the fun will really begin.
    See how the devotion to the Brussels politburo pans out

  • NotNowJohnny

    The thing is that most Brits didn’t really want an EU referendum. They were given one whether they wanted it or not.

  • Fear Éireannach

    Nicola Sturgeon wants to move it to Gretna.

  • Surveyor

    How’s that extra 350 million quid a week shaping up Dan?

  • NotNowJohnny

    The stoker of nationalism complains about ….. the stoking of nationalism. You couldn’t make it up.

  • Dan

    You’re pinning that on Farage?
    Really?

  • Tuskar Rock

    Well, it certainly is the case that good ol’ Nige has some very relevant experience in the Stoking Nationalism Department including a useful talent for Jingoistic Rubbish Production. Is this intervention of his a desperate attempt to shoulder his way back into the political action?

  • Surveyor

    He’s still drawing his MEP salary and expenses isn’t he? Talk about a hypocrite.

  • Surveyor

    You haven’t answered my question Dan.

  • Jeff Bozo

    Ireland was dominated, hammered, starved by the Brits for 850 years, pay back time draws near as they see they are no longer a power to demand anything.

  • Jeff Bozo

    Farage is the typical ignorant expert on everything while never having studied anything related .

  • Jeff Bozo

    loads of nasty anti Irish bile allowed in the comment section of the Express and other right wing media

  • Oggins

    I listened to him on Matt Cooper on today FM, and I have to say it made me smile listening to the man. Eeeeeejjjjjit

  • Oggins

    Dan,

    You have to admire the irony…

    Yes we are pinning the 350 on good old Nigel, and fellow brexiters. Why wouldn’t we?

  • Oggins

    He has moved on to radio now. He is obviously working the celebrity angle now

  • technopolitics

    Who?

  • AntrimGael

    Indeed. If anything, Brexit has stirred up xenophobic, right wing English Nationalism. This colonial, supremacist mindset has reawoke and as usual Ireland and Irish people are in the firing line. The sooner the island of Ireland is free of English rule the better for all of us. Never as an Irish citizen have I felt so strongly in favour of reunification.

  • Dan

    ..because he didn’t make that claim.

  • Oggins
  • hollandia

    Well… There are going to be increased bills for everyone. In particular in the UK with the Govt. having to fork out somewhere between £50-100m – and that’s before tariffs are imposed on UK exports and imports from the rest of the EU. I think “Eire” will be just fine, given they’ve managed (so far) to survive one of the biggest financial slumps in history.

  • grumpy oul man
  • Am Ghobsmacht

    But only if we had known that Irish nationalism would have had been placed at an advantage in the event of Brexit!!!!

    Oh, wait…..

  • Zorin001

    I think Nigel has bigger problems to worry about this morning