David Banks
On Saturday night (or rather Sunday morning) I was doing the paper review on the Stephen Nolan’s Show on BBC Radio Five Live, alongside David Banks, a former editor of the Daily Mirror. David was obviously well known to Stephen, who addressed him familiarly as “Banksy”. Can this be the man who does all that wonderful graffiti art in his spare time, I asked myself?
Stephen raised the issue of David Davis’s big speech where he is calling, inter alia, for an orderly dismantling of the €uro, in preference to the disorderly breakdown which is otherwise inevitable. David (Banks) used this as a pretext for what sounded like a pre-cooked rant against “anti-Europeans”, and “Little Englanders”, and UKIP. Unfortunately we were cut off by the 12:30 a.m. news summary, so I had no opportunity to reply.
I don’t hear the phrase “Little Englander” very often these days. It represents such transparently shallow, sloppy, careless, lazy thinking that it’s self-defeating and self-evidently absurd. It’s so last-century. How does a belief in freedom, democracy and independence make one a “Little Englander”? Has Mr. Banks noticed that the Americans are also very keen on freedom, democracy and independence? Does this make them “Little Americans”?
But for what it’s worth, and in case Mr. Banks is interested, let me set out my qualifications as a “Little Englander”.
Before politics, I spent thirty-three years in international businesses. I travelled widely in the USA and Europe. I also spent a total of a dozen years living and working is several Asian countries. That included several years running a textile business in Malaysia where I was the only Westerner, and I spent a fair bit of my time trying to resolve ethnic animosities between my Malay and Chinese employees.
Since being elected in 1999 I have continued to travel widely in Europe and beyond. I have formed good working relationships and some close friendships with MEPs and staff from many countries. During my thirteen years in Brussels I have employed staff from several European countries — Germany, Belgium, Czech Republic, Moldova — plus more than one from America and from Australia. I had a Nigerian called Isaiah working with me for a year or so. He proved to be both efficient and agreeable, and a great favourite with the girls down the corridor. And right now I have a first-rate Italian Lawyer in my Brussels office.
In our corridor in Brussels we have one Argentinian-born Spanish UKIP MEP, Marta Andreasen, and a number of staff of other European nationalities, including our Group Secretary-General, who is French. And our Party Leader is married to a German.
Face it, David. We are the Internationalists now. We are the global free-traders. We have recognised that the EU is the only significant economic area in long-term relative decline, and that growth will come from the Americas, from the BRICS, from the Commonwealth — not Europe. And we’ve noticed that Commonwealth GDP has just overtaken eurozone GDP. We have recognised that an over-emphasis on Europe means that we’ve failed to realise our trade potential with the rest of the world, and we want to redress that.
We’ve noticed that the EU is, to a large extent, the author of its own troubles, with its ideological commitment to a deeply flawed monetary experiment, the €uro. We eurosceptics explained fifteen years ago why it could never work, and history has proved that we were utterly, overwhelmingly right. Yet with so much political capital committed to the project, European leaders find themselves unable to change course.
But it rather looks, David, from your comments, that you are not a Little Englander, but a Little European. You are wedded to a last-century vision of Europe that has utterly failed to materialise. You support a Europe which is protectionist, inward-looking, self-referential, bogged down by regulation and dogma and dysfunctionality, and increasingly irrelevant in the world. Time to wake up and smell the coffee. There’s a whole world out there beyond the confines of Little Europe.
Roger Helmer MEP 
Banksy was a radio presenter with Nick Ferrari he was the leftie of the partnership,
Today a friend sent me a link to a questionaire http://ec.europa.eu/yourvoice/ipm/forms/dispatch?form=EUCitizenship3&lang=en now I have heard nothing of this but they certainly got their answer , what I cannot figure out is why things like this are never heard of over here. mind you quite a few have heard of it now and enjoyed answering it . reminded me of the carry on films they don’t like it upem. bet they don’t publish any of them from this country. well none of my contacts anyway .
p’s Banksy was something to do with the press before that I believe.
Well i guess that I must be a ‘little Englander’ too as i have never seen a future for the euro, the European Union or laws appertaining to this country but set out with the help of some Austrian, Croat or other far removed nation. What i have seen however is an overwhelming influx of immigrants from all countries east which has saturated our economy as employment opportunities are decreasing yet the ‘workforce’ is increasing. Financial ruin is of course the only answer to this situation. I have also sat here watching the erosions of our freedoms as directives have flowed from Brussels like a bad rash. The EU is doomed but why drag this once great country down with it?
We once had the greatest goalkeeper in the world who played for Leicester City. His name was Gordon Banks (safe as the bank of England they used to say), unfortunately David Banks is a liability between the posts because he cannot see from which direction the next own goal is coming from!
Please as a personal favour, will you tell Marta Andreasen that she ought to be really proud of what she did when she had to audit the books of the EU. She is also a good, fearless and terse writer. There is not a hint of self pity in that marvellous book and she had enormous courage not only to write it but also to face up to the dreadful Kinnochs and others who so wickedly persecuted her for trying to perform the audit and do her duty.
What is it la Rochefoucauld says? Isn’t it something like “We always criticise in others what we are most concerned about in ourselves?” I am allowed to ask if that is at the basis of Mr Banks’ Globophobia.
Thanks Mike. I share your regard for Marta.
never heard of the man banks, where as Marta , Roger, and Nigel are household names!
Accidentally cut off before being able to reply to an obviously false attack on UKIP. I suppose still better than the “balanced – our Charter says so” BBC where they don’t bother even inviting anybody to reply when making a dishonest rant.
Thanks Neil. I think Five Live and Stephen Nolan should take credit for inviting a UKIP MEP on the show. A breakthrough, in a small way.
Roger, how did you not marry a Malay woman I ask you?
I started a business today, my first, it’s very exciting and with a Chinese business partner whom Ive lived with for a year, we plan to conquer China, since you were there how would you say it is getting on with no local dialect and how long does it take to grasp Mandarin?
Thanks.