Farage is 'archaic and jingoistic' but right

The newish Euro webzine Next Europe is finding life pretty tough. It loves the EU but even it must admit that, well, not everything is rosy.

It is pantomime season in the UK and everyone’s favourite Eurosceptic panto villain, Nigel Farage, has been doing his very best to capitalise on the current crisis in the EU. In a recent address to the European Parliament, Farage continued his attack on EU President Herman Van Rompuy calling him the noisy assassin of nation-state democracy. Amongst his archaic and jingoistic rhetoric Farage managed to articulate one interesting point regarding the unelected nature of some European leaders and now national leaders in the case of Italy.

Interesting range of aggressive epithets towards Farage

Archaic: Of, relating to, or characteristic of a much earlier, often more primitive period.
Jingoistic: Extreme nationalism characterized especially by a belligerent foreign policy; chauvinistic patriotism.
Rhetoric: Language that is elaborate, pretentious, insincere, or intellectually vacuous

So it is pretty clear that Mr Farage isn't your favourite in the Parliament of Fools that is the Strasbourg assembly. But despite this you grudgingly accept that he has a point. The current actions of the European elite are indeed, or at least certainly look like an affront to representative democracy.

As a matter of interest, what is archaic about believing that governments should be chosen by their electorates? What is jingoistic about thinking that it is perfectly reasonable that a country decides how it governs itself and with whom it trades and interacts? (In UKIP's case we wish to trade and interact with the whole world and not be constrained by the EU). If you wish to see 'chauvanistic patriotism', then can I suggest you look at the words of the partisans of the European Union, who become daily more shrill and dogmatic in their belief that nothing, not referenda, not people, not government's not anybody or anything can stop the march to a single entity called Europe.

And rhetoric? It is otherwise called public speaking, or shall I say oratory - a less loaded word, and embarrasingly to those who wish him ill, Mr Farage seems to do it better than those he opposes in the European Parliament.

And as the archaic, no doubt jingoistic and rhetorical saying goes: If it looks like a duck, waddles like a duck and quacks like a duck - well it probably is a duck.

The words of the unelected Italian Defence Minister Giampaolo Di Paola that you highlight,

“The absence of political personalities in the government will help rather than hinder a solid base of support for the government in the parliament and political parties because it will remove one ground for disagreement,”

also smack of archaic rhetoric, rhetoric that would fit well into the mouth of a Mussolini or a Stalin.