Nigel Farage - Euro Pants On Fire

[Update at end of post]

Already in trouble over his on-air claim that “Sweden have taken more young male migrants than any other country in Europe [not true] And there has been a dramatic rise in sexual crime in Sweden, so much so that Malmo is now the rape capital of Europe, and some argue, perhaps the rape capital of the world, and the Swedish media, frankly, just don’t report it”, former UKIP Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage is at it again.

Squeaky lying on air again finger up the bum time

Nige once again used the platform inexplicably given to him by broadcaster LBC to expound on his favourite prejudice, the EU, and in particular, Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty. He had decided that, as he believed Britain did not need to make any payments to the EU as part of the “divorce settlement”, there must be something in Article 50 to back him up. Sadly, there was not. So he made it up anyway.

This is Article 50 ...

Farage could be seen holding up a piece of paper, which did not bear the signature of himself or the German Chancellor. It bore the words “Article 50 … The rights and obligations deriving from the Treaties would therefore extinguish”. Here, he concluded, was his evidence that Britain would not have to pay anything to the EU after 2020. He Tweeted out “Even Article 50 claims we would have no obligation to pay anything to the EU after 2020”. Take that, cheese-eating surrender Europhiles!

... and this is NOT Article 50

But, as Captain Blackadder might have observed, there was only one thing wrong with this idea - it was bollocks. One, that wording does not come from Article 50 (no surprise there). Two, the wording, which comes from a February 2016 European Parliament briefing paper on Article 50, has been taken out of context. It actually reads “The rights and obligations deriving from the Treaties would therefore extinguish, at least to the extent agreed between the EU and the withdrawing state”. Subject to agreement.

So it was no surprise that Mr Thirsty later decided to delete the Tweet he had sent out, in which he held up the piece of paper with his fraudulent “Article 50” statement on it. Sadly for him, the assembled Twitterati were on the ball, and wasted no time in passing adverse comment on yet another pack of lies from the former head Kipper.

Davide Denti, over in Brussels, pointed out “1. That's not what [Article 50] says, you just made it up … 2. Nobody can see that piece of paper, Nigel, you're *on the radio*”. Minor point, eh? Nige probably saw the late Ian Paisley do something similar in the European Parliament once and thought it might be cool to emulate him.

Steve Peers was also on Nige’s case: “No such words in Article 50. Check for yourself” he replied, giving a link for Article 50, rather than a highly selective form of words from something that was not Article 50. He added “Put another way: he's lying to you (h/t @SebDance)”, tagging the Labour MEP who called out Farage in the European Parliament for lying. Which he seems to do rather a lot.

Do not take anything Nigel Farage says on Article 50, the EU more generally, or anything politics related as true unless you have a reliable second source to back it up. He’s an habitual liar and cannot be trusted any further than he could usefully be chucked.

[UPDATE 1435 hours: LBC has now come clean and effectively admitted that Farage had his trousers alight during his show yesterday evening.

Under the heading "Nigel Farage On Article 50: A Clarification", the excuse note tells "LBC can clarify that a comment made by Nigel Farage on his show last night was not accurate".

That's a most charitable way of putting it. But at least the broadcaster knows about Mr Thirsty's propensity to rank dishonesty now]