Free Republic

The Tory revolt over Europe took a dramatic turn last night after senior Conservative David Davis called on the Government to open talks with Brussels on quitting the EU. Former Tory chairman Mr. Davis tore into David Cameron, accusing him of making a mess of his pledge to win back powers from the EU. “Scaremongers” who said Britain would collapse if it decided to go it alone were talking nonsense, said Mr Davis. Quitting the EU would be like a “revolution” and would boost UK jobs, wages, world power, arts and prestige, he added. Significantly, his intervention comes days after...

In British law, race and religion are increasingly becoming deliberately confused for the purpose of accusing critics of Islam of racism. A soccer fan was recently arrested on suspicion of inciting racial hatred after allegedly ripping up pages of the Qur’an and throwing them at a match. While on bail, he was also banned from attending any football games, visiting St Andrew’s – the stadium of the incident -, and going to any city where his team Middlesbrough was playing.Insults against Islam are taken very seriously in Britain, and the world of soccer is particularly sensitive to them. After the...

The always humorous Nigel Farage blasted European council president Herman Van Rompuy along with José Barroso in European parliament today, mocking the alleged "breakthrough". Link if video does not play: Nigel Farage on Euro Breakdown Select Quotes: ESM is doomed before it starts Legal Challenges in Ireland and Germany Estonia Justice Says it will not fit their constitution Finns and Dutch have broken agreement made in the middle of the night Perhaps the little countries do not have a say at all anymore Crisis is insolvable Euro Crisis Breakthrough Breakdown - Nigel FarageFarage sarcastically commented to Herman Van Rompuy ......

Millions will remember Maureen Lipman’s TV character Beattie praising her grandson when he ‘got an ’ology’. But the TV advert from 1988 has been blamed by Ukip leader Nigel Farage for encouraging a generation to study for what he considers to be worthless degrees.

Video link - 4 minutes or so. This is how to handle an aggressive and biased interviewer. Politicians that are not fast on their feet don't last long in a parliamentary system. The reference to a "whopping 14%" in the last elections - that's up from 7% so, in fact, it's a dramatic increase, which could interpreted as 25% of Conservative supporters switching their allegiance to the UKIP.

A Tory Minister is involved in an extraordinary row over claims that taxpayers’ money was used to fund gay sex parties. The politician is said to have been in a feud with a senior party official accused of using dating app Grindr to invite gay MPs and activists to his suite at the Conservative Party conference. The £70,000-a-year official, who is not an MP, has also been accused of bullying staff and being drunk on duty. He was disciplined after a formal investigation. …

The fragile Tory truce over Europe disintegrated last night after it emerged that more than 100 Conservative MPs and candidates are set to defy David Cameron at the General Election next year by vowing to leave the EU. The Prime Minister has promised the Tory manifesto will spell out his pledge for a referendum by 2017 on Britain’s links with Europe after trying to win back key powers from Brussels. But Tory rebels will go further and make their own personal manifesto vows to campaign to withdraw from the EU—regardless of any concessions by Brussels. …

Britain took another step towards an in/out referendum on its membership of the EU on Friday (5 July) after MPs unanimously backed a bill guaranteeing a vote by the end of 2017. … In a boisterous debate dominated by Conservative euroskeptics, Foreign Secretary William Hague endorsed the bill which was, he said, “about giving people the power to decide one of the greatest questions facing Britain.” …

An Audience With … Nigel Farage features a stage with only a table, a chair, and a bottle of wine as props. Farage thinks it will give him a chance to “explain who I am” and, crucially, to “reach a new audience”. … “We need a much more muscular defense of our Judeo-Christian heritage. Yes, we’re open to different cultures, but we have to defend our values. That’s the message I want to hear from the Archbishop of Canterbury and from our politicians. Anything less is appeasement of the worst kind.” Yet he speaks not as a defender of the...

The often stale British political system is being rocked by its very own Tea Party. The UK Independence Party (UKIP), formed in 1993 opposing Britain’s entry into the European Union, failed to make an electoral dent for a long time. However UKIP has built up steam in recent years and is spearheading a seismic shift in the British political spectrum. In this year’s local elections – the British version of midterms -- UKIP took a stunning 23 percent of the vote, up from the 3.1 percent they won in the 2010 national election. Their leader, Nigel Farage, is buoyed by...

The often stale British political system is being rocked by its very own Tea Party. The UK Independence Party (UKIP), formed in 1993 opposing Britain’s entry into the European Union, failed to make an electoral dent for a long time. However UKIP has built up steam in recent years and is spearheading a seismic shift in the British political spectrum. In this year’s local elections – the British version of midterms -- UKIP took a stunning 23 percent of the vote, up from the 3.1 percent they won in the 2010 national election. Their leader, Nigel Farage, is buoyed by...

Nick Clegg accused Nigel Farage of peddling "dangerous fantasies" in an ill-tempered BBC TV debate on Britain's future in Europe. Mr. Farage accused the Lib Dem leader of "willfully lying to the British people about Brussels' grip on UK laws. He also claimed EU immigration had hit the "white working class" the hardest. Instant polls said Mr. Farage had won by a bigger margin than he did in their debate last week.... The UKIP leader accused the Lib Den leader of being "hell bent on getting Britain involved in a war.... He said he did not want Britain to be...

Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage are set to debate the UK's place in the European Union live on radio. The deputy PM, who says his Liberal Democrats are the "party of in", challenged the UKIP leader, who wants the UK to leave the EU, to a debate in the run-up to the European elections. Mr Clegg argues that even threatening to leave the EU threatens British jobs. Mr Farage believes EU membership is "the most important issue this country has faced for hundreds of years". Following negotiations between the two party leaders and broadcasters, two one-hour debates have been arranged....

Ukip is to drop its opposition to gay marriage, party leader Nigel Farage revealed today. The move risks angering disaffected Tories who switched to Ukip after same sex weddings were legalised by the coalition, but Mr Farage insisted: ‘We have absolutely no problem with anybody.’ He said that as part of a review of Ukip’s manifesto, which he has dismissed as ‘drivel’, he would not campaign for gay weddings to be banned. Ukip previously said civil partnerships were a ‘common sense’ way for gay and lesbian couples to register their commitment ‘in a formal way’. But it warned: Gay marriage...

The UK Independence Party is on course to win the largest share of the vote in May's European Elections, according to a new poll. The party is currently on 30 percent, with Labour in second place on 28. The ComRes poll for the Independent on Sunday, which bases its European voting figures on the 38 percent of respondents who said they are "absolutely certain" to vote, is the first poll for some time to ask a question specifically about the European elections. The Conservatives, who maintain that they are the only party who can offer a referendum on the EU,...

ITV has been ordered to treat UKIP as a “major party” in the run-up to the European Parliament elections in May. In a landmark ruling, broadcasting regulator Ofcom last night said the anti-EU party’s success in previous Euro elections meant it should be put on a par with the other main parties. ITV and Channel 5, which are regulated by Ofcom, were ordered to grant UKIP “major party status” in the run-up to May’s elections, guaranteeing it increased coverage. …

Nigel Farage yesterday said he felt “awkward” when he could hear no English being spoken while on a train from London to Kent. The UKIP leader described how he was on his way home when he went several stops without hearing his native tongue. His comments followed a provocative speech in which he claimed some areas of Britain are being “taken over” by migrants, while others have become “frankly unrecognizable”. They came a day after figures showed a significant rise in net migration. …

Mass immigration has left Britain an "unrecognisable" country that many people would not want to leave to their children and grandchildren, Nigel Farage has said. In one of his strongest attacks on immigration policy, he said the arrival of migrants has some British people feeling that parts of the country are now alien to them. The UK Independence Party leader said parts of the country had been "taken over" by foreigners and told how he caught a recent commuter train from London to Kent and had to wait for several stops before he heard English being spoken.

Nigel Farage and Deputy Prime Minister Represent Opposite Ends of In/Out Argument LONDON— Nigel Farage, the leader of the small United Kingdom Independence Party, on Friday accepted a challenge from Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg to debate Britain's membership of the European Union, paving the way for the most ardent advocates of each side of the in/out argument to lock horns. Britain's future in the EU has become an increasingly open question after Prime Minister David Cameron pledged that if he wins a second term next year he will renegotiate Britain's ties with the bloc and then hold a national...

Ahead of May’s European Parliament election, with issues such as the economy and immigration to the fore, none of Britain’s three main parties are stealing a march on their rivals. The co-governing, right-of-center Conservative Party, also known as the Tories, led by Prime Minister David Cameron, is struggling. What remains of its traditional support base, including some MPs, often seems opposed to the modernizing, socially-liberal direction of its leadership. […] But viewing the UK's party-political landscape solely in terms of the traditional duopoly (plus the Lib Dems) misses the big political story, and what is likely to be the major...