Deputy PM Nick Clegg challenges Ukip leader Nigel Farage to a public debate on the EU

[-:Undertaker:-]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/poli...ick-Clegg.html

Nigel Farage agrees to EU debate with Nick Clegg

Nigel Farage and Nick Clegg will go head-to-head in a debate on the European Union.

Nick Clegg has challenged Nigel Farage to a public debate on Britain’s membership of the European Union

Nigel Farage will take on Nick Clegg in a debate on the European Union after the Ukip leader accepted a challenge from the Deputy Prime Minister.

Mr Farage told LBC radio that he has “no choice” but to accept Mr Clegg’s challenge.

He said that he would rather take part in a debate that also included David Cameron, the Prime Minister, and Ed Miliband, the Labour leader.

“I have absolutely no choice,” Mr Farage said. “I’ve got to say yes because we need to have a national debate on what I think is the most important issue this country has faced.

“The answer is yes, I will do it with Nick Clegg, but the other two, I’d like to see them there as well.”

The debate could lead to renewed calls for Mr Farage to take part in any leaders’ debates ahead of the 2015 general election.

Mr Cameron’s senior advisers are said to be against Mr Farage taking part.

Mr Farage added: "I nearly choked on my bacon roll when I heard Nick Clegg say he wanted to have a debate about the big European question because this was the guy three years ago advocating an in/out referendum who now says there shouldn’t be a referendum, but now wants a debate so he’s all over the place.

“I’ve thought about this overnight and, do you know, the reason I got into politics – because I was working in the City, I was working in the commodities business – and I got involved in politics because I felt on this great question of who governs our country: our own Parliament, by the men and women we elect and send there, or the European Commission and the other institutions in Brussels? [I felt] that we weren’t having a proper talk about this.

“And I’ve battled on for 20 years. I’ve been laughed at, ridiculed, attacked, but at no point in the 15 years that I’ve now been an MEP, at no point have we ever had a full national debate about the merits or demerits of EU membership. And therefore, when the Deputy Prime Minister says he wants to go public and have a debate with me on this issue, I have absolutely no choice. I’ve got to say yes because we need to have a national debate on what I think is the most important issue this country has faced for hundreds of years in terms of our constitution.

“So the answer is yes, but with one small caveat. I do really want for the Labour party in the shape of Ed Miliband and the Conservative party in the shape of the Prime Minister to join this debate as well.”

Mr Clegg on Wednesday challenged Mr Farage to take part in a debate.

“I will challenge Nigel Farage to a public open debate about whether we should be in or out the European Union,” he said. “That is now the choice facing this country.

“He is the leader of the party of ‘out’. I am the leader of the party of ‘in’. It’s time we now have a proper public debate so the public can listen to the two sides of the argument and judge for themselves.”

It came after the president of the Liberal Democrats warned the party could be wiped out at the European elections.

Tim Farron MP said the party faces the “fight of our lives” and stands to risk its 12 MEPs.

In the council elections taking place on the same day, “we are defending our final foothold” he said.

“Our very presence in the European Parliament could be at stake,” he told The Times.

“It’s not just our party’s place in Europe that is at stake, it’s Britain’s too. We know Europe needs reform, and the best place to do that is from within. Only the Liberal Democrats are brave enough to make this argument and put British jobs and investment first.”

Woo hoo this is great news, Clegg really has nothing to lose because he can't possibly sink lower in the polls so I think the Liberal Democrat strategy is to hold on to one or two MEPs by having the minority pro-EU portion of the electorate vote for them. It's a pity though that Cameron and Miliband are too cowardly to debate with Farage.

You can read an analysis on why Clegg would want to debate Farage here: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/ti...medium=twitter

If this were a boxing match, it would be declared a non-contest. Farage, standing up for the rights of British people in the face of an unelected dictatorship, compared with Clegg, in thrall to a European gravy train that he hopes to be a passanger on as a European Commissioner once the students of Sheffield Hallam have dumped him as their MP in 2015. It feels a bit like visiting a Roman Coliseum, and I can't wait!

A last desperate roll of the dice for Clegg, and it is perhaps an open interview for his next job somewhere in Brussels.

I'm quite sure Dave and Miliband are quite happy (and knew this was coming) for Clegg to act upon their behalf, Why ? Clegg says the other two are "unclear" on their EU position, but if that was the case then he would have logically invited them to take part too. He's knows they're EUphiles just as much as he is which is why he hasn't.

Thoughts? Should Cameron and Miliband take part?

[-:Undertaker:-]

Here are the videos if people want to watch -

[Aiden]

It's like boxing for posh people.

[Inseriousity.]

Should be interesting, people were surprised at the public debates during the General Election because it appeared to work in the party's favour. Despite that, it will be a proper debate because they both believe strongly for/against rather than being moderates. I do believe we need to hear more from the 'in' side of the argument.

PS. Anyone find Farage's attempts to be 'normal' weird? Was he really eating a bacon roll I wonder as if he says that then we think 'wow this guy eats bacon rolls, im gonna vote for him, he understands us' lmao

[-:Undertaker:-]

PS. Anyone find Farage's attempts to be 'normal' weird? Was he really eating a bacon roll I wonder as if he says that then we think 'wow this guy eats bacon rolls, im gonna vote for him, he understands us' lmao

He is normal though. When I asked him for a photo he was standing outside the venue having a smoke with normal party members and went and put his ciggy out for me. He is after all the only one of the main party leaders who will hold public meetings where anybody can attend and will take unscripted questions from the audience. It's the same when I attended a debate at Univeristy with MPs and Godfrey Bloom - Bloom came the pub afterwards with the students whereas the MPs simply drove off and he [Bloom] left £30 or £40 quid on the table for everyone to buy drinks with... and he didn't even want to talk politics.

I remember a while back he held a public meeting in the same town that David Cameron was attending in the same week - Farage held a meeting open to the public and took unscripted questions... Cameron on the other hand held a meeting that was closed to the public and was only open to the local Tory Association. Says a lot.

[Inseriousity.]

I think when you have to emphasise how normal you are though it means you're not. Like we all cringed at Osborne's attempt to appear normal when he released a picture of himself eating a burger and now it just looks like Farage needs to emphasise how much he enjoys the pub and eating bacon rolls.

[-:Undertaker:-]

I think when you have to emphasise how normal you are though it means you're not. Like we all cringed at Osborne's attempt to appear normal when he released a picture of himself eating a burger and now it just looks like Farage needs to emphasise how much he enjoys the pub and eating bacon rolls.

Oh yes, well you can tell when it's put on - like when the Eton lads like Osborne and Cameron talk about eating pasties and all that... I haven't got anything against 'toffs' either, just its bad taste when they put on an act. It's like Clement Attlee when he drove in his modest little car to Buckingham Palace to meet King George VI compared with the very posh mannierisms of the upper-class Harold MacMillan - both were genuine because that was how they were in person. Farage though, at least to me and what I know of him, comes across as a normalish bloke kind of like John Major when Major campaigned in the 1992 election on his soapbox in the street. Major could pull it off because Major was from the working/middle classes and that was the real him.

[Kardan]

RIP Clegg. He's going to be eaten alive.

[Mark]

Don't know where Clegg's logic is behind this because as said above, he's going to be eaten alive. I'd like to see Miliband and Cameron involved in the debate also.
Anyone know when this is scheduled for?

[Chippiewill]

Clegg's an experienced debater and won big at the last elections from the debates, Farage is probably going to lose on the facts and fall back on his populist 'average joe' anecdotal arguments.