UKIP leader Nigel Farage this week launched an outrageous attack on the integrity of new EU High Commissioner Baroness Ashton, implying links with Communists.
Nigel Farage, in his last week as UKIP leader, has launched a highly personal attack on the newly-appointed EU High Commissioner Cathy Ashton – accusing her of being in the pay of “enemies of the West”.
His behaviour, criticised by the President of the European Parliament as being “absolutely improper to the whole situation”, has unsurprisingly been lauded by Euro-sceptics – on the UKIP website and by the high-priest of Europhobia, Tory MEP Daniel Hannan in his blog.
Farage’s tactics – calling Baroness Ashton and Herman van Rompuy “political pygmies” and describing her appointment as “an embarrassment for Britain” – are just the latest in a series of personal attacks by increasingly desperate Right-wingers against prominent Labour figures, including members of the Cabinet.
Among those who challenged Farage in Brussels were Irish MEP Seán Kelly, who said:
“I think some of the comments made today unfortunately by Mr Farage were over the top, but at this stage I am becoming aware of the fact that Mr Farage is like a long-playing record. He keeps repeating the same political agenda, harking back to the days of Rule, Britannia! and nation fighting nation. Those days are over.
“The European Union is the greatest peace process ever known. It shall continue to do so and we parliamentarians must work hard to ensure that that is the way it is going to be from now on.”
And Hungarian MEP Edit Herczog told him:
“I would like to quote a Hungarian saying to you. It is good that you are here because, if the monkey goes up the tree, it is easier to see its backside!”
The new leader of UKIP will be announced later today.
Hat tip: Rupert Read
UPDATE 4:00
Lord Pearson is the new leader of UKIP, no doubt to Mr Farage’s relief; earlier this month he had described Pearson as the only “credible candidate” for leader, saying he was “head and shoulders above all the other candidates”.
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15 Responses to “Farage smears Ashton as being in the pocket of “enemies of the West””
Anon E Mouse
Hi Shamik – Thank you for the link to the whole document; your generosity knows no bounds and as much as I’d like to start reading the item immediately I have to temper my enthusiasm since I have to work tomorrow – can’t wait though. Thank you though.
Regarding Lord Pearson it’s true he wasn’t elected but then he only holds the office of Leader of UKIP which has no power.
Mind you Ashton only has the power of a toothless jellybaby so I suppose I can only concur with your opinion.
Which is good.
Have a good weekend Shamik and I’m sure our posts will cross again in the future.
Liz McShane
Anon – can i ask you when you were ever a Labour voter? It’s hard to believe from your posts that you were.
Anon E Mouse
Liz – I voted Labour in the last three elections, Greens once in the locals and Lib Dems twice. I don’t tell lies.
I’m old school Liz and believe that people should say what they mean and mean what they say. I think there should be an idealogical difference between Left and Right and clearly at the moment there isn’t.
It’s why the government can use our money to bail out the banks yet leave Woolies workers unemployed. It isn’t right.
I go along with Tony Benn on his weather vanes and wind socks thing and think that it should be applied in life as well as politics.
It is therefore unacceptable for a Labour MP to send their children to a private school or to be part of a “Tory Toffs” campaign when Harriet Harman, a countesses niece is Labour’s deputy leader.
It is hypocrisy and without then actually personally experiencing how useless comprehensive schools are then no REAL effort will have to be done to bring the worse schools up.
It’s John Prescott playing croquet(?) and then smearing the name of the woman he had the affair with so she lost her job. That’s not fair, simple as that.
The problem with Labour activists is, for some reason you not only support the unsupportable actions of this government, you actually try to defend them – to excuse them. You guys are so out of touch it hurts.
Did the government act on your behalf when they tried to refuse entry to the Gurkha’s to the UK, men that have fought and died for our country?
They didn’t act on mine Liz.
So here’s the thing for me. If something is wrong, it is wrong and the wrongdoers need to be told it is wrong. Excuses should not be made for it.
When people sit back and say things like “I’ve ended boom and bust” in a pompous, grandiose and arrogant manner and it goes without challenge by a critical friend, they will do it again. And again.
It’s Margret Becket on Question Time believing she has a RIGHT to steal tax payers money for her plant pots and getting the mood of the nation wrong.
And not one of the Left wing blogs is annoyed about any of it – the apathy is the reason Cameron will storm into government next year in a landslide.
If more people Labour supporters criticised this government, they might start to behave properly and then might actually become electable.
As an ex-Labour voter I can tell you they are deservedly unelectable. Now who will represent the poor people of our country Liz?
If readers of this blog think sitting around telling each other how great they are and how bad the Tories are, will win elections (and affect other peoples lives) they are sadly mistaken. You are inactive activists.
You need awkward twats like me who just keep banging on and on and on. That’s how you get a Labour government Liz. That’s how you can help less fortunate people in our society – you can do nothing in opposition.
I’m right about this Liz and readers of this blog are wrong as you’ll discover BIG TIME next year.
Oh and you Climate Cooling Deniers are wrong as well……
Will Straw
@Anon
“And not one of the Left wing blogs is annoyed about any of it”
Absolute rubbish. I was appalled by the expenses scandal – LFF just hadn’t been born yet. And i’m sure a host of other left-wing blogs could point to their coverage of the scandal too.
Anon E Mouse
Will – I bring up expenses just to illustrate a point about the state the Labour Party is in, not to make a point on expenses. Yet.
Labour looks like an opposition, it feels like an opposition in it’s responses to any question – even if it holds the moral high ground.
On Any Questions last week Harman was effectively asked if cabinet members should have hands free mobiles issued – it was a fun, light hearted and mischievous question and she should have answered as such.
But of course we got the “I can’t answer – I’ll answer the magistrates next year blah blah”. Firstly it isn’t true – she could have answered something like “Well I’d love to answer that but I’ll wait until my solicitor gets here” kind of thing.
But no, we got the “Ed Balls Drone On ‘Til They Can’t Take Anymore” answer. The audience let her know how they felt. Lighten up. Life’s fun.
You say you were appalled by the expenses well what about taking the vouchers parents use for child care issue? The massive debt the government is getting us into. Post Office closures… anything.
Will you should frequent the right wing blogs more, get your angle on their stories and batter both the Tories and Labour with it.
Alistar Campbell getting slapped down by Micheal Howard was a great Guido feature and that links back to media manipulation by Blair, McBride and Co which takes you onto the freedom and response times of the modern communication and hence this blog. Now that makes a much better story than “Grant Shaps ate porridge this morning” and is way less partisan.
“Jonah Brown the Prime Mentalist” is also a great Guido feature.
This is a great blog Will (I love it dude) but it seems too uncritical towards Labour and when the election is over next year a lot of people in the blogosphere will be looking for some where to go and this could be it.
Finally my point on Labour is that they are Reactive and need to be Proactive or just do LESS. Get off the TV Gordon Brown, people don’t like you, the polls show it and no one has the guts to tell you – well they should.