Nigel Farage

Nigel Farage’s diary: How I survived Dry January

Plus: What’s next for Greece, and why I’m glad to see the back of Amjad Bashir

Dry January is tougher than it sounds. Well, for me anyway. It’s now been some 28 days since I’ve had a drink, and you should see what that means for my campaigning strategy. ‘Ginger beer? Lemonade?’ Pub-goers around the country can’t believe it when I walk in and whisper my order over the bar. The fact is they don’t believe I’m really doing it. ‘I’m not all spin and bluster like those other lads,’ I usually reply. ‘If I promise I’m going to do something, I’ll bloody well do it.’ Still, I can’t say it’s never going to tempt me again. Especially not given the week I’ve had.

It all started in Milan. We jumped on the easyJet from Gatwick on Monday morning for a lunch meeting with the Casaleggios, the geniuses behind Italian comedian-turned-politician Beppe Grillo, who got eight million votes at the last Italian general election. It was nothing short of fascinating. The Five Star movement is basically a wholly online political party. It has a culture of transparency and openness around it that really makes you think about where politics is headed, and how politics is changing in the Mediterranean specifically. Which takes us straight to Greece — the election results of which were, as I see it, a cry for help. Here’s a country that has been ravaged by the euro — and now wants an end to austerity to try another way of alleviating its euro-inflicted debt crisis. What follows now is surely an incredible game of poker against Mrs Merkel. The European Central Bank of course, grits its teeth nervously as it observes.

On Monday afternoon, I went back to Brussels. I still have to lead the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy group in the European Parliament, on top of being an MEP, a Parliamentary candidate, and leader of Ukip.

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