Talk:Nigel Farage

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Was he really "threatened with arrest"? Under French law, whatever a MP says in a parliamentary speech, he cannot be legally attacked for it, even if it would constitute libel or slander otherwise. I do not know whether this extends to MEP. Furthermore, the EU parliament is in Belgium and probably has some kind of extraterritoriality attached to it.

I've Googled the info, and there does not seem to be any claim to this arrest threat except from UKIP, which we can validly suspect to enjoy theatrics. Therefore, I've removed the claim, until somebody can confirm it. David.Monniaux 23:16, 31 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I've also checked with French lawyers, who researched the topic: nothing in French law prevents you from saying that a person has been convicted, then amnistied, if it is really the case (otherwise, obviously, accusing people of being criminals exposes you to a libel lawsuit, just like in the UK). I do not know where Mr Farage fished that idea. David.Monniaux 08:02, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC)

The claim about it being illegal under French law to mention Barrot's conviction was made by (or repeated by?) the BBC in this news report: http://newswww.bbc.net.uk/2/hi/europe/4032113.stm The report says: "Mr Barrot, 67, a close ally of French President Jacques Chirac, received a suspended jail term in a party funding case in 2000, but it was automatically erased by a 1995 presidential amnesty. Under French law, no reference may be made to such a sentence, which carries no criminal record." I'll add this reference to the article. Twilde 12/4/05

The law is that no reference can be made to it in an administrative or judicial context (i.e. a judge cannot argue that somebody is a repeat offender on grounds of an amnistied conviction). David.Monniaux 09:38, 3 May 2005 (UTC)

This article about Mr Farage is nt very informative. It's just a diatribe against him. The bit about James Whale is far too long and in my opinion unnecessary.

I have removed the following paragraph on the grounds that it is untrue: "However, he has not improved the party's electoral performance. On May 3rd 2007, during the British local elections, UKIP was beaten not only by the Conservative Party and the Labour Party, but also by the BNP and Mebyon Kernow." While it is true that UKIP's performance in the 2007 local elections was unspectacular, and that they won fewer council seats nationwide than the BNP or mebyon Kernow, UKIP's performance was certainly better than in the previous three years, ie before Farage became leader. Therefore it is not true to say "he has not improved the party's electoral performance." Therefore I've deleted the first sentence. However, the sole point if the second sentence was to justify the first (which it fails to do), so I've deleted that too. Twilde 18:29, 27 September 2007 (UTC)