Ever since President Obama’s first day when he removed the bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office I have wondered: Just how anti-British is Obama?

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico illustrated his contempt for our country with his repeated references and heavy emphasis to British Petroleum. But he’s gone one better this week. His Trade Envoy Michael Froman said, and was endlessly quoted by the BBC, that the USA would not seek a bilateral trade deal with the UK if we left the European Union (EU).

This is all bizarre. The USA has a trade deal with Oman, so why on Earth would it not want one with its greatest friend in the world? 

It is clear that Obama supports supranational government and the new global order. And I must congratulate Breitbart London for exposing the fact that both Froman and his wife had previously worked for the European Commission. 

Jeb Bush has provided the first counter-punch by making it clear that of course America would favour such a trade deal if the UK were to leave the EU.

I was struck on my last trip to Washington, D.C. just how little American politicians know about the EU. I’m keen to go back in the new year to get some more alternative voices. A UK voting to Remain will before long cease to be able to be the USA’s greatest ally. We cannot allow Obama and now the Bank of America Merrill Lynch to skew the UK debate. 

I want to rally the rational voices.

Oldham By-Election

Six months into this Parliament and the first by-election. The death of left-wing Michael Meacher who had been the MP since 1970 and despite Labour’s weakness had a 14,000 majority, has prompted the first parliamentary battle of this term. 

UKIP had several applicants, some quite high-profile, but we decided that Mancunian John Bickley, who came so agonisingly close in Heywood and Middleton, losing by just 600 votes, should be our candidate again in a constituency that directly neighbours Heywood.

John is a first rate candidate. A real straight talker and a hard worker. 

I’m in no doubt that the battle for this seat is the toughest that we have faced in a northern by-election in recent times. But I’m not downhearted by this, and indeed have visited the constituency twice this week. 

This by-election represents the first real test of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. The Labour Party’s choice of an able but Blairite candidate puts their dilemma into focus. 

However weak or strong a local candidate may be, we increasingly vote under the First Past the Post system in a presidential style. The leader mattering far more than the local candidate. And the leader is now Jeremy Corbyn. 

The question that I want to ask the people of Oldham West and Royton is a fundamental one. 

Does this man represent the interests of our national security and long-term viability of our country?

Mr. C has spent decades cosying up to the IRA. He wants to unilaterally abolish Trident, our nuclear defence system. He thinks the Falkland Islands should be surrendered to Argentina. He would like to abolish the British Army. And he thinks the First World War is not worth commemorating. 

For most patriotic old Labour voters, this particular diet is anathema. The traditional northern working class vote are very patriotic. Over the course of the next few weeks we will be asking those questions. 

On the other hand UKIP has been somewhat becalmed over the course of the summer. We now have an opportunity to campaign in a by-election when our key issues now top the national debate. The announcement yesterday by the European Commission that we can expect 3 million more migrants next year demonstrates once again why we must leave the EU and restore proper border controls. On fundamental issues such as this I believe UKIP to be more in tune with public opinion than Corbyn’s Labour. 

In May of this year we beat the Tories and came second in this seat. I am confident that we will give the incumbent Labour Party a serious run for their money. 

Bedfordshire Speed Cameras Go Up A Gear

I hate speed cameras. They exercise no discretion at all. I was done a few years ago doing 36 miles per hour in a 30 mph speed zone at 1:30am in the morning. I was certainly posing no risk to human life but I may have endangered the odd badger, something British hedgehogs would cheer.

Now the head of Bedfordshire Police brazenly announces that he wants to start putting speed cameras to operate on his section of the M1 24 hours a day. He thinks it might raise another £1 million every year for the Bedfordshire police authority. So who will pay the bill? People who get up early in the morning and work late into the night. Small businesses, entrepreneurs, hard working Britons – all of whom would recognise that at the right time of the day and in proper weather conditions the 70 miles per hour speed limit is an anachronism. 

When will we get a police force that actually wants to do its job? I heard recently that the “protestors” who assaulted myself and my family earlier in the year in a local pub faced no further action. 

Nigel Farage MEP is the leader of the UK Independence Party