Dear Nigel
Believe it or not, I’ve been your defender. I’ve often told Americans, ‘Sure, he comes across as a fop. But listen to what he actually says. He’s smarter than you think.’ OK, you have an affect problem. I’ve seen through the clowning. I bet you’ve never been that camp off-camera, and lately you’ve cut the buffoonery well back.
It’s thanks to you that the 2016 referendum ever happened. Those who style themselves as your betters dismiss David Cameron’s electoral stunt as a cynical bid to end Tory infighting over Europe. Yet the vote revealed a profound division in the country itself far more deserving of resolution than internecine squabbles among MPs. Absent Ukip, nationwide popular disquiet over Britain’s subjugation to the EU would have remained forever stifled. You’ve devoted yourself to the UK’s rescue from a contemptuous power-hungry bureaucracy for 25 years, and for most of that time you were derided as a crackpot.
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