Lisbon Treaty and new Totalitarianism in European Union
"Dear Friends! I'm sorry I can't be here in person today, to join you in demonstrating, to the representatives of the Irish Government in Prague, that resistance to the will of the European Union's self-serving élites is not just the concern of the people of Ireland; but you may be sure that I am demonstrating this, to the peoples of the British Isles, in every way I can, on this very day.
"Your contribution to showing that Irish voters do not stand alone against the might of the governmental, political, big-business and lobbying interests, which assail them, is, however, of particular value. You are making it clear that, even in Central Europe, the Lisbon Treaty raises the same terrible fears, and the same will to resist, which it arouses in Ireland. This is something, which the Irish Government, and its co-conspirators of the European Union Council, have made a great effort to conceal from the people of Ireland, trying to make them believe that everyone else wants the Treaty and that only the Irish, out of wifulness and folly, are obstructing its glorious advent.
"We know that most people, in most of the EU's satellite-countries, are against the Lisbon Treaty, and the European Union Council knows this too: why else did they conspire to prevent every other nation having a referendum on it? Why else did they produce the Lisbon Treaty at all, when its simulacrum - the Constitutional Treaty - had already been defeated in popular polls, in France and Holland?
"My friends, we are faced with an implacable enemy with an inexorable will to power, which threatens the freedoms, democracy, prosperity, and, in its military ambitions, even the lives, of all of us.
"Apart from whatever probity or vigour may remain in the German Verfassungsgericht, only the brave resolution of your President, Vaclav Klaus, and the lively spirit of the Irish now stand in the way of this enemy and its frightful Treaty.
"We may well sense that a new dark age, comparable to that of Europe's twentieth century dictatorships, is about to descend upon us.
"Yet there is hope: last Tuesday, the 21st September - only two days ago - the most reliable of Ireland's polling-organisations, 'Gael Poll', published an opinion-poll of 1,500 voters from all over Ireland - one of the largest such polls ever carried out - and found that, after discounting the 'don't-knows', 59% of these voters intended to vote 'No!' - nearly 60%!
"Before the publication of this poll, all the opinion-polls had given the 'Yes'-side a commanding lead; but, in my view, these polls were lies - distorted to become self-fulfilling prophecies of the triumph of the Lisbon Treaty - but now reality is being allowed to appear, because, otherwise, it would destroy the credibility of the opinion-polls, and the media-organisations, which commissioned them, completely; and the establishment cannot risk that.
"In other words, it looks to me as though the Irish people - resisting everything the establishment could throw at them - are about to reject the Lisbon Treaty for a second time.
"If they do, it will be a great victory for them; but it will also be a triumph, in which we shall all share, and especially those of us, who, by every means at our disposal, have fought to defeat the European Union's attempt to acquire the constitution of an autocratic mega-state.
"I trust that, whether we are in Prague, in Brussels or in Dublin, on the week-end after next, we shall all be able to raise our glasses to the only nation, which will have succeeded in voting down a European Union Treaty, not just once, but twice.
"My best wishes to you, and good luck to us all!"
Nigel Farage