Last
night the British deputy prime minister and leader of the Liberal
Democrats Nick Clegg and the leader of the United Kingdom
Independence Party (UKIP) Nigel Farage debated the U.K.’s
membership in the European Union. The “debate” was more of a
Q&A with the audience than an actual debate between the two
men, but despite its format the event did allow for Clegg and
Farage to make their cases and vent some frustration.
It’s unlikely that many people watching the debate will have had
their opinion on U.K. membership in the E.U. changed by the two
men’s arguments. Clegg offered the usual justifications for staying
in, while Farage rehearsed reasons for getting out.
The debate did highlight, however, that despite the E.U.’s
burdensome and undemocratic attributes, UKIP is not offering
solutions that should be welcomed by libertarians. This is
important to note given that the party’s constitution (apparently
removed from the party’s website as part of a recent redesign) does
describe the party as “libertarian.” The party has been described
as having “a
strong libertarian flavour (sic)” and
Farage himself has reportedly claimed that the party is
libertarian.
Farage did make good points about the undemocratic state of the
E.U., and made it clear that he is sympathetic to trade without
interference from politicians and bureaucrats. “Trade is not
something created by politicians and bureaucrats,” he said. “Trade
is created by consumers who make a decision: ‘I like this product,
I’m prepared to pay its price.'”
However, Farage’s comments on immigration were less enlightened.
One of the E.U.’s few redeeming features is its open borders
policy, and it was this policy that sparked one of the most fiery
parts of the debate. Clegg argued “to pull up our drawbridge we
would destroy jobs for everybody in this country”. Farage argued
that open borders may have made sense when it applied to countries
with a standard of living comparable to the U.K.’s, but that now
that the policy applies to poorer countries which were once behind
the Iron Curtain the policy should be changed.
UKIP record on alarming predictions about immigration isn’t very
impressive. The quasi-libertarian party warned
of immigrants coming to the U.K. from Bulgaria and Romania, two
of the E.U.’s most recent members, ahead of migration controls
being lifted at the beginning of this year. Since those controls
were lifted Bulgarians and Romanians have not swarmed into the
U.K.
That Farage is so concerned about workers from poor European
countries coming to the U.K. and being willing to work for less
money than most Britons underscores the fact that if UKIP is more
interested in implementing populist policies that would give
advantages to British workers and British businesses than it is in
establishing a limited government tasked only with protecting
Britons’ liberties.
While I might not be a fan of UKIP’s immigration policy the
party is right to condemn the E.U.’s democratic deficit, which
Clegg and other fans of the E.U. should work quickly to address and
reform if they want to halt
UKIP’s increasing popularity.
Polling
from YouGov suggests that most Britons think Farage performed
better than Clegg. Watch the debate below and see if you agree:
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