The Case for Brexit

IN 1991, BEFORE British prime minister John Major signed the Maastricht treaty, I formed a new political party. It was called the Anti-Federalist League. Two years later it changed its named to the UK Independence Party. I led it until 1997. It was a moderate party with a membership form that stated that it held no prejudices against foreigners or lawful minorities of any kind and would send representatives only to the British parliament. After I stepped down to return to academic life, however, the party came under control of a preposterous mountebank named Nigel Farage, who reoriented it to the far right. The clause about a lack of prejudices was abolished and all sorts of nasty statements were made against blacks, Muslims and gays. Former members of the National Front were allowed to work for the party or become candidates. The party itself has deliquesced into a cult around Farage, whose electoral failure in 2015 has made him an object of scorn in the media and prompted his financial backers to desert him. Farage has become a convenient figure with which to frighten moderate voters about the consequences of fulfilling my party’s original mission—withdrawal from the European Union. But that mission remains imperative. The upcoming referendum promised by Prime Minister David Cameron offers an opportunity for concerned and intelligent citizens to fulfill it.