Nigel Farage Quotes
I think that politics needs a bit of spicing up.
We seek an amicable divorce from the European Union and its replacement with a genuine free-trade agreement, which is what my parents' generation thought we'd signed up for in the first place.
I have been called a great many things in my time - that's politics.
When people stand up and talk about the great success that the EU has been, I'm not sure anybody saying it really believes it themselves anymore.
Basically, Herman Van Rompuy wants the European Union to become a debt union, which may be acceptable to some of the southern countries who are effectively bust. To the northern countries, it is not.
The EU is mired in deep structural crisis. Greece, Portugal and Ireland cannot survive inside the Euro.
And what is the reaction of the British political class? Well the Lib Dems, still think that the Euro is a success! I don't quiet think where Cleggy gets this from, I don't know. Perhaps he is considering an alternative career, as a stand up comedian, once he's out of politics.
The Euro Titanic has now hit the iceberg - and there simply aren't enough lifeboats to go round.
If we are just going to have a fudged referendum on 'do we stay in or go further?' then that's not good enough.
We wouldn't want to be like the Swiss, would we? That would be awful! We'd be rich!
Once again, I challenge the Prime Minister to have an open debate with me on why he believes we must stay part of this failing, corrupt EU. The future of our nation is at stake. Mr Cameron, you have my phone number.
Rather than bring peace and harmony, the EU will cause insurgency and violence.
I'm not for sale, neither is UKIP.
In scores of our cities and market towns, this country, in a short space of time, has frankly become unrecognisable.
[on gay marriage] It is the Conservative Party's support that will suffer most from this proposal. It wasn't in Cameron's manifesto, there was no public call to do this and yet he is pursuing headlong a policy that is going to enormously damage and split his own party, particularly in the Shires, and I think gay marriage is one of those issues where attitudes in the big metropolitan centres, compared to the Shires, are very, very sharply different.
We're the only party in British politics who actually forbid former members of the British National Party or extreme organizations from even becoming members.
We have had, out of our 1,700 candidates, a handful that have embarrassed us.
The advantage UKIP has is we are not made up of people who are part of the career political class. Nearly all of us have actually had jobs in the real world and that is a very marked contrast to what I see on the front benches at Westminster today.
[on grammar schools] The seven per cent of people that go to the private schools in this country are now dominating politics, the media and sport in a way they haven't done for a hundred years. What is wrong with being a party that says we want bright kids from poor backgrounds to have the best opportunity?
We currently have a Romanian-led crime epidemic in London and we've just got to get a grip.
The Conservative Party used to talk about success, business, enterprise, ambition, and now it talks about gay marriage, wind turbines and upping the amount of money we spend on foreign aid.
The reason the Tory Party are doing badly is they've got a leader who doesn't speak or sound like a Conservative. Frankly, they've become another brand of simple social democracy.
I think, in the end, what is going to break up the Eurozone is going to be violence on a very large scale.
The UKIP fox is in the Westminster hen house.
[on hearing foreign languages being spoken by immigrants on British trains] It was not until we got past Grove Park that I could hear English being audibly spoken in the carriage. Does that make me feel slightly awkward? Yes it does. I don't understand them. I don't feel very comfortable in that situation and I don't think the majority of British people do.
Somebody said I'm
David Cameron's worst nightmare. Well, that's not good enough. I want to be
Ed Miliband's worst nightmare, too.
[on the Scotland Independence Vote] This is not about Independence, this is about breaking free from England.
I think it is very interesting that, when Mr Silvester was saying [that the country was being flooded by God because of legalisation of homosexual marriage] in 2012 and 2013 as a Conservative town councillor in Henley, it was not a news story. But suddenly, he switches to UKIP and continues the same thing and gets on the national news. I think that shows you and tells you all you need to know... The establishment, the status quo, the big businesses, the big Eurocrats and our three so-called main political parties are scared witless by what UKIP is doing because we are striking a chord not just for ordinary people but for many elements in the business community as well. They will try to do whatever they can to shoot us down... If you accept defectors from the Conservative party, you will always have embarrassments... Mr Silvester joined us from the Conservatives very recently. He said exactly the same things when he was in the Conservative party; now he is UKIP, you are interested.
[on breastfeeding in public] I'm not particularly bothered about it, but I know a lot of people do feel very uncomfortable, and look, this is just a matter of common sense, isn't it? I think that, given that some people feel very embarrassed by it, it isn't too difficult to breastfeed a baby in a way that's not openly ostentatious... Frankly, that's up to Claridge's, and I very much take the view that if you're running an establishment you should have rules... Or perhaps sit in the corner, or whatever it might be - that's up to Claridge's. It's not an issue that I get terribly hung up about, but I know particularly people of the older generation feel awkward and embarrassed by it.
Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the EU, has all the charisma of a damp rag and the appearance of a low-grade bank clerk.
If you said to me, would I like to see over the next ten years a further five million people come in to Britain and if that happened we'd all be slightly richer, I'd say 'Actually, do you know what, I'd rather we weren't slightly richer and I'd rather we had communities that felt more united and I'd rather have a situation where young, unemployed British people had a realistic chance of getting a job'... So, yes, I do think the social side of this matters more than pure market economics... Let's be flexible on work permits, let's recognise that we do have some skills shortages in the British economy - which is very much a failure of our education system... But in terms of immigration, in terms of people coming to settle, I would suggest that for up to a five-year period we don't have people coming to settle until we sort out the mess.
In many cases, women make different choices in life to the ones that men make simply for biological reasons... If a woman with a client base has a child and takes two or three years off work, she is worth far less to the employer when she comes back than when she goes away because her client base cannot be stuck rigidly to her... Young, able women who are prepared to sacrifice a family life and stick with their careers do as well, if not better, than men... I do not believe there is any discrimination against women at all in the big banks, brokerage houses, Lloyds of London and everyone else in the City... [Is this situation fair?] I can't change biology.
[a woman at the back of the Question Time TV audience is yelling that Nigel Farage is an elitist and a racist.] You've got some voters here [Russell Brand], you ought to stand, these are your voters. They're lovely people, aren't they?
[on first hearing of his Party's trouncing in 2015, looking terrified] As to the next chapter in the History of UKIP, it will be a different one.
When it comes to entertainment, the BBC should be proud of its 'crown jewels' such as
Strictly Come Dancing (2004) and dramas such as
Doctor Who (2005). They have become valuable global brands as well as programmes hugely appreciated by British audiences. Should the BBC feel it has to come up with its own version of every commercial TV genre, from dating formats to home makeover shows? I don't think so.
[Would you like to be Prime Minister?] I don't think that's my role in life, I don't think I'd be very good at it, either.
[Radio phone-in show] We have to stand up for our Judeo-Christian Traditions. We have to say: You can't come here and expect us to change to accommodate you.
[phone in]I think our compassion, the EU interpretation of compassion, could be a very real threat to our security.
[phone in]Over the centuries we've had refugees from different religions come to Britain... The Jewish Community have privately observed their Faith without seeking to change, let's say the Church of England, the established Faith of this Country, that is a very good example of coexistence and I'm quite sure [caller] that the vast majority of Muslims worshipers are exactly the same. However, there are a number of people from the extremes of Islam who seem to think their Mission in Britain is to do away with us as a Christian Country and convert us to Islam or Sharia Law or whatever it may be. And I just think when you look at Australia, Australia says to people we welcome all of you we don't care where you come from, we don't care what your religion is, we don't care what your color is, but if you come here just recognize you're joining our Society. And I hope that satisfies your fears.
[Could a British person do your Secretary's job just as well?] Nobody else could do that job, not unless they were married to me.
[Radio Interview, answering "Why is it Romanians in particular that would make you uncomfortable if they moved in next door? What's the difference?"] Oh, I think you know.
The reason we've got more expensive holidays is David and George and Carbon Taxes.
[There are more people over 65 than under 16 in Britain so why not use immigration to fix the fiscal gap like other countries? What's your alternative?] Well, there is one slight problem with the argument that if you have an aging population you need to have mass immigration to re-balance it, the problem is that immigrants get old too! So actually, if you follow the logic of that argument, goodness knows where we will be.
It's not about skin color it's about Nationality.
[You want to enable discrimination in your manifesto, not employing immigrants if we don't want to?] What I said was, that small companies should be able to presume in favor of employing British people without fearing the Law, that's all. [Discrimination, then?] I don't think there's anything wrong with saying we should try to look after British workers first, if we possibly can, I think that's a very sensible, rational thing to say.
The apparatchiks of Vote Leave don't want to work with me. So be it.
[You've mentioned scrapping tuition fees for Science and Engineering, is my Linguistics "not Valuable"?] Of course not, no one is suggesting that degrees in all sorts of things is not valuable. What I am suggesting is that we are sending too many people to University. What I am suggesting is that we have downplayed the learning of trades and skills in this country through a bizarre form of snobbery, it's as if: "Oh, how awful, my son or daughter wants to learn an actual skill! No, no! They must go to University!" So I'd like to see fewer people go to University, but what we have said is this, in the short term, there is a chronic shortage, we talked about STEM subjects earlier on today, and when I go to meet Engineering Companies, Metal Production Companies..[Chairman: Why is Science, Medicine, Technology, Engineering and Maths superior to learning about what, Linguistics?] Because as we've discussed and debated on this program already, we don't have enough Engineers... [Chairman: What about Historians, to learn when the Battle of Waterloo was?] we haven't got enough Nurses in our Hospitals, so where there are skills shortages we would want to get rid of tuition fees. So if it does help to close a chronic skills gap, that's a good thing.
[I'd like to vote UKIP but heard on social media you're going to repeal the foxhunting ban if successful, I could never vote for something so abhorrent? Reassure me?] We have no party policy, on foxhunting and certainly UKIP MPs in parliament would not be whipped, whether it's abortion or foxhunting, or any of these issues, they should be decided by conscience. If you look at our manifesto, you will see no commitment to repealing the foxhunting ban.
[You're quoted as saying "Parts of Britain are now unrecognizable and look like a foreign land", tell me about that?] Unrecognisable, I'd have to say, yeah. You take a Borough like Newham, yeah, where 80% of primary school pupils come from families in which English is not the first language. The first basic rule of people integrating together, regardless of their background or religion, but actually communities being together, is they've got to speak the same language.
[lead up to 2015 Election] The credibility of all the party leaders is on the line next year.
It's not bound by political correctness and people find that attractive
The manifesto was nonsense.
I want us to get our Country back, that's my motivation.
[Are there any circumstances in which you would have a pact with the Conservative Party, you rather suggested you might?] I rather suggested I'd do a deal with the Devil, if it got us back the independence of our country and our ability to run our own affairs! I'm not interested in this usual politics of trying to climb the greasy pole.
If there are people out there who are uncomfortable with, for example, gay marriage, they should be allowed to have that opinion without being utterly condemned. And I do think that if we believe in tolerance, that that has to be a two-way street. And we've rather lost sight of that. [Tolerate the people who are against it, but the people who are against it should tolerate it?] Tolerate the people who are against it, within reason. Sensibly, sensibly, and I'm certainly referring to the active Christian communities. And for that matter Muslim communities and all other Faiths. [Page 3? Your colleague Douglas Carswell was here and he was glad it looked like the end of Page 3. He didn't like it] In a political party we've all got different opinions and I haven't got a problem with Page 3. It's a free press for goodness sake! If you buy The Sun newspaper, and it's got Page 3, you know what you're getting.
It looks like Remain will edge it.
I unconcede.
Denmark could be next: Dexit. The Netherlands could be next: Nexit. Sweden could be next, which I suppose would be Sexit.
[addressing the European Parliament, 2016, on the British voters' decision to vacate the European Union] I know that virtually none of you have ever done a proper job in your lives, or worked in business, or worked in trade, or indeed ever created a job.[Schultz: The fact that you're claiming that nobody has done a decent job in their life, you can't really say that, sorry.] No, you're quite right Mr. Schultz, UKIP used to protest against the establishment and now the establishment protests against UKIP, so something has happened here.
The first brick in the European wall has fallen.
[Final Speech and Press Conference before the Vote] [You've been accused of poisoning the political debate with the "Breaking Point" poster and accusing the Remain Campaign of politically exploiting Jo Cox's death, are you proud of the way you and the Leave Campaign have conducted themselves?] Well I've been accused of doing all sorts of ghastly things since about 2004. I was condemned for suggesting we should have an Australian-style points system. I mean, that was considered monstrous. I was called something really nasty in 2004 by the Home Secretary of the day for daring to suggest that allowing poor, poor former Communist Countries into the European Union would lead to a big flow of people. So I am used to being roundly condemned. If you take on the Establishment and you challenge their assertions, that is what happens to you. But I believe, as I said at the start, when I spoke earlier, that we have forced the Referendum, we have changed the political agenda, we have even changed the language and debate in this Country. And I think that if we look back, I mean, obviously there's been this horrendous incident, but I think generally, I think, most of the unpleasantness in the Referendum, has been effectively a Civil War between various Conservative Individuals. And I think the conduct of the Referendum apart from that has, compared with the Scottish Referendum, actually been pretty measured and pretty sensible.
[Resignation Speech, 11 days after the Brexit Vote] During the Referendum Campaign I said "I want my Country Back!" And what I'm saying today is "I want my Life Back!" And it begins right now! Thank you!
[Victory Speech] We will have done it without having to fight, without a single bullet being fired.
[Is it actually going to happen or have the people who Voted Leave been sold a pup? And have been told they can control immigration when in fact they can't?] Well, we can control immigration, all we need is a Conservative Party Government with the will to do it.
[The £350m a week we send to the EU, which we no longer will send to the EU, can you guarantee that's going to go to the NHS?] No I can't, and I never would have made that claim, that was one of the mistakes that I think that the Vote Leave Campaign made. [Hang on a moment, that was one of your adverts.] Well, it wasn't one of my adverts, I can assure you.[Well, that was one of the Leave Campaign adverts] It was, it was [and that money was going to go to the NHS] And I think they made a mistake.[That's why people, many people have voted.] They made a mistake in doing that, but what I can tell you is that we have a nice feather-bed..[You're saying that after 17million people have Voted for "Leave"] Yep [based, I don't know how many people voted on the basis of that advert, but that was a huge part of the propaganda, you're now saying that's a mistake?]
[on the possibility of another Scottish Independence Referendum] Is Nicola Sturgeon really going to hold a Referendum against Independence? Because that's what she'd be doing.
[In the event of Remain 'edging it'] In a 52-48 referendum, this would be unfinished business by a long way.
