Nigel in The Guardian

We'll only have British jobs for British workers when we have a Britain run by Britons

"British jobs for British workers" simply cannot happen while we're still in the prison of nations that is the European Union. For we've signed away, without any consultation with the British people or, whisper it if you dare, any vote or referendum on the subject, our right as a country to decide who comes to this country or who works in this country.

We can all pore over the provisions of the Posted Workers Directive if we choose, agree with the Lindsey workers or not as we wish, but the basic fact is that the government, Acas, unions and hundreds or thousands of angry workers cannot have any effect upon the situation. For it is the law, confirmed by the highest court that applies to us, the European Court of Justice (ECJ), that this is so. The Laval and Viking cases are simply confirmation of how the unions themselves were sadly hoodwinked by Jacques Delors. He promised them a "social Europe" and they thought that was what they wanted. What's come back to bite them is that the Europe on offer is not what they thought. The absolute free movement of labour is what is on offer and there's no way of changing that without leaving the EU itself.

The ECJ rulings are not mistakes: they are the aim, the purpose. To stop any country, any nation, from deciding who may live or work in that country or nation. We must all be Europeans now and any dissent, any action that might change or threaten that has been made illegal.

This point is a great deal more important than those few hundreds of jobs that have brought thousands out on wildcat strikes. You may have noticed that there are huge infrastructure spending plans in the works. Tens of billions of pounds, possibly hundreds of billions, for a Severn Barrage, windmills on every mountain top, the insulation of every house, the Olympics. At least half of the argument for these spending plans is that they will mitigate, even end, the recession, that millions of jobs will be created for the willing British worker to do. But given our EU membership we cannot in fact ensure this. We must tender such contracts out right across the union, we cannot even prefer our own companies or people, let alone insist that our tax money should be spent on our own. When the very point of a fiscal stimulus is to provide an alternative to rotting on the dole it beggars belief that we'll be spending British taxes on foreigners' jobs. As we will be, for we already know that one third of those working on the Olympic sites are indeed foreigners.

There are those who say that to raise these points is xenophobia, that there's some heinous sin of protectionism being committed in simply pointing out the truth. But even that apostle of free markets and opponent of protectionism for either goods or labour, Milton Friedman, pointed out that you cannot simply open the floodgates one bright and sunny day. Huge changes like this require time, a certain management, otherwise society itself will fracture under the stress. Which is why we in Ukip call for two things. Firstly, a cap on the total number of inward migrants. How many can we absorb in: not that people cannot come here to work, but how many can we as a society cope with coming? The second is that there be a system of work permits. Again, we don't want to either stop or dissuade those whose skills we desire, we just want to be able to make sure that it is those with the skills that we desire and need who come.

Neither of these things are possible while we remain in the European Union, so they are both simply two of the many reasons we argue that we must leave. Reform from within is not going to be possible. They didn't listen to the Dutch or the French on their referendums, they're not listening to the Irish now and they'll not listen to anything that we say while we stay in. Only by leaving can we control our own destiny once again.

There are of course those who say that there is nothing wrong here. Like Lord Mandelson: well, he would say that wouldn't he?

Instead, Mandelson declared that he received a ministerial salary and a transitional £78,000 a year EU allowance following his decision to quit the trade commissioner's job and return to the cabinet.

Not only is he getting that £78,000 a year, he's also due a conditional pension, the whole package being worth £1m. To get that cash he's got to continue to uphold his oath as a commissioner: that he'll continue to support the aims and the objectives of the European Union. Thus the "move along now, nothing to see here" nature of his remarks on the issue. They would rather we didn't see that we've lost control not just of our own country but of our own fate.

While this is satire the basic point holds. There'll be some fudge, some symbolic act and victory will be declared. But the underlying reality, that we've parcelled up our right to govern ourselves and posted it to Brussels will remain. We're simply not in charge of our own country: all we're asked to do is pay for it without being able to influence what happens.

British jobs for British workers will only be a possibility when Britain is ruled by Britons again. When we leave the European Union and become a free and independent nation, when we who live here are able to decide what are the laws here, something that is the very essence of the democratic ideal.

Reminder Nigel will be on Question time tonight BBC1 at at 10.35pm