Tim:
Hello, my name is Tim, and I was just asking … I want to know if you can just define the difference between nationalism and fascism, and how we in America can celebrate freedom and independence and being a sovereign state, as you say, without devolving into Germany in the 1940s and becoming a fascist state?
Nigel Farage:
It’s a good question, it’s a key question. So, whenever I’m asked, “Are you a nationalist, Mr. Farage?” I say no. I’m not a nationalist, I’m a nationist. I believe the nation state is the right and the essential building block. The attempt that is made by many on the left to equate nationism, or nationalism with fascism or extremism is clearly false in every single way. And it goes back, it goes right back to what they were thinking about France and Germany in that post 1945 period that I’ve talked about so extensively tonight.
Nigel Farage:
They thought the existence of nation states is what led to nationalism, and is what led to military expansionism, and is what led to war. They actually got it wrong, and here’s the point, it directly links to your question. Provided the nation state is a fully functioning democracy, it will not become fascist, it will not be militarily expansionist. And do you know something, and this is really interesting, there is not one single example of one functioning mature democracy going to war with another functioning democracy.
Nigel Farage:
So, if we want to be people who support peace, we want to be people who support good relations between neighboring countries, we should make sure that nation state democracy is strong, not surrender that democracy up the line to higher super national authorities. I feel very strongly about that, and it’s just outrageous, I mean frankly the real fascism these days, the real intolerance isn’t Matteo Salvini or Donald Trump, it’s those on the left who wish to shout down the other side and indeed on campuses like this, across America and across the whole of the UK, attempt to no platform speakers who’ve got ideas they don’t like. That’s the real modern fascism, the attempt to close down free speech.