If you want to know why millions of United Kingdom voters decided to leave the European Union (EU), then you need to watch this video. You need to see how EU’s unaccountable politicians respond to the British decision to leave the EU. Watch Nigel Farage, the British politician and former trader widely characterized as the architect of the Brexit referendum, eviscerate the EU bureaucrats on their home court.
Watch and listen to the utter derision they have for British voters, for Farage, and for the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), the British political party which Farage leads.
Farage’s speech is no ordinary victory lap. It’s not a simple spiking of the football.
This speech is another thing entirely, as it channels the anger and resentment of the British people towards the so-called European elites who tried to hard to run everyone else’s lives without any accountability whatsoever:
Nigel Farage deserves to spike the football. https://t.co/cUJypLbAG9
Michael B Dougherty (@michaelbd) June 28, 2016
“Funny, isn’t it?” Farage asked his fellow members of the EU parliament in Brussels on Tuesday, to boos and jeers. “Thank you very much for that very warm welcome.”
“When I came here 17 years ago and I said that I wanted to lead a campaign to get Britain to leave the European Union, you all laughed at me,” he noted. “Well I have to say, you’re not laughing now, are you?”
“And the reason you’re so upset, the reason you’re so angry has been perfectly clear from all the angry exchanges this morning,” Farage continued. “You, as a political project, are in denial.”
“You’re in denial that your currency is failing,” Farage said to even more loud boos.
“Just look at the Mediterranean. As a policy to impose poverty on Greece and the rest of the Mediterranean, you’ve done very well,” Farage deadpanned. “And you’re in denial over Mrs. Merkel’s call last year for as many people as possible to cross the Mediterranean into the European Union [which] has led to massive divisions between countries and within countries.”
“But the biggest problem you’ve got. And the reason, the main reason the United Kingdom voted the way that it did is you have by stealth, by deception, without ever telling the truth to the British or the rest of the peoples of Europe, you have imposed upon them a political union,” he continued. “You imposed upon them a political union. And when the people in 2005 in the Netherlands and France voted against that political union, when they rejected the Constitution, you simply ignored them and brought the Lisbon Treaty in through the back door.”
“What happened last Thursday was a remarkable result. It was indeed a seismic result. Not just for British politics, for European politics, but perhaps even for global politics, too. Because what the little people did, what the ordinary people did, what the people who’ve been oppressed over the last few years and seen their living standards go down, they rejected the multinationals. They rejected the merchant banks. They rejected big politics. And they said, ‘Actually, we want our country back. We want our fishing waters back. We want our borders back. We want to be an independent, self-governing, normal nation.’ And that is what we have done, and that is what must happen,” Farage said.’
“And in doing so, we now offer a beacon of hope to democrats across the rest of the European continent. I’ll make one prediction this morning: the United Kingdom will not be the last member state to leave the European Union.”
Farage then transitioned to what should happen next between the British and the EU and how its relationship should be structured going forward.
“Now what I would like to see is a grown-up, sensible attitude to how we negotiate a different relationship,” he said.
“Now 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,” Farage declared. “But listen. Just listen.”
That elicited even more loud boos from the assembled members of the EU parliament, leading the chair of the proceedings to interject and establish order. And how did he do so? He directly insulted and denigrated UKIP by comparing the parliament’s own antics to those of the British political party. Farage took it all in stride, though.
“You’re quite right,” Farage responded. “UKIP used to protest against the establishment, and now the establishment protests against UKIP.”
You can watch his full remarks here.