It is often said by those going into public life that they wish to make a difference. This requires an attachment to principle stronger than the wish for advancement. It is not common.

I recently interviewed a man who, successful in business, decided to go into public life to make a difference of international consequence. What he achieved was truly extraordinary. He did what most of those wanting Britain out of the EU had long concluded was impossible. Without him, Brexit would not have occurred. Britain would not have extricated herself from the EU, that model of distant technocratic control far beyond the influence of the ordinary Briton.

That man is the truly extraordinary Nigel Farage. He is in the tradition of British giants of the quality of Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, Benjamin Disraeli and Lord Wilberforce.

He was brought to Australia by entrepreneur Damien Costas for an event which, at the last minute, the NSW Police threatened to stop unless money were paid. Even when the money had been paid, the commissars still needed to show who is master by insisting that a so-called ‘contract’ be signed, or the event would be closed down.

Whatever ‘law’ purports to authorise such an abomination worthy of Beijing’s commissars, this is surely in breach of the freedom of political speech implied  in our constitution.

And as Alan Jones asked during the best Q&A I have ever witnessed, was that ‘law’ also applied to, say, BLM events?

The vast audience shook the very walls of the building by shouting a unanimous ‘No’.

These days in Australia you can detect a stirring of the people.

This recalls the Tea party and Donald Trump, Nigel Farage and Brexit. It is evidenced by those superb young people Jack Bulfin and jake Thrupp whose ADHTV streamed the  CPAC conference across the world watched by over 200,000 with over one million separate views.

The tired, bloated, neo-Marxist elites who think big political parties, big bureaucracy, big business and big education are perpetually under their thumb do not know what will hit them, just as they did not realise that Trump would win and  Brexit prevail, and in 1999, that a grassroots organisation would prevail against the media-declared inevitable politicians’ republic in a landslide, and that on the smell of an oily rag.

Nigel Farage was fascinated to know that the most difficult argument to answer during the referendum for a politicians’ republic was not constitutional. It was the more than justifiable sense of hurt that Australians, whose forebears had fought and too often died on the side of Britain in not one but two world wars and other hostilities, but who were treated at Heathrow like foreigners while they saw the citizens of former enemies whisked through. Farage recalled the same sensation when he saw the same appalling behavior handed out to an over-90-year-old bemedalled Canadian war veteran.

The fact is that if a government were so foolish as to hold their flaunted second referendum, constitutionalists will be thanking Nigel Farage that they no longer have to answer that (unanswerable) Heathrow question.

Nigel Farage then confirmed that joining and staying in the EU was something UK politicians and elites craved. To sell it they lied, claiming it was no more than a mere free-trade treaty rather than what it was  – the illicit and disgraceful takeover and control of their ancient kingdom, something Britain had always fought against. The dream of British elites that through this deceit they would share the leadership of Europe was never for a moment tolerated by either the French or German elites who together more than filled the European cockpit.

Given the energy disaster which will no doubt be faced in this coming northern winter, and putting aside a question on the fundamental difference between the continental and common law legal systems, I asked tongue-in-cheek whether future UK leaders should have to swear an oath. Similar to those against transubstantiation under the old Test Acts, this would ideally be against what Cardinal Pell recently called the ‘low-level and not too demanding pseudo-religion of the renamed climate change movement’.

What is needed, Farage suggests, is no more than real, open democratic debate. When he asked a prominent Briton why it was reasonable to load poor people’s energy bills to subsidise transnational corporations, wealthy landowners and Beijing communists, he said the man went red in the face, stood up shaking and, pointing accusingly at him, shrieked ‘Denier!’.

Noting that we had both supported the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Donald Trump, I asked whether he agreed that Trump was the most significant American president and leader of the free world since Ronald Reagan.

He agreed, recalling that when the president addressed the UN, he was highly critical of the Germans for becoming so foolishly energy-dependent on the Russians. The news cameras switched to the German delegation, who were rolling in the aisles. But as Farage says, ‘Guess who’s laughing now.’

My final question was whether he agreed with my conclusion that recent events demonstrated that the Westminster system had the edge over the US but that both needed a good dose of Swiss-style direct democracy to make the political class truly accountable. A strong supporter of the Crown and the Commonwealth, Farage particularly sees the advantage of American primaries which allowed Trump to run against the wishes of the Republican establishment.

While Australian Liberal party members are often disenfranchised even from local preselections, the UK Conservative party at least leaves the final say on the leadership to rank-and-file members.

But unlike the US, the UK rules ensure a person like Farage cannot stand without the support of the parliamentary party.

Even more than Britain, Australia needs US-style primaries to disenfranchise the cabals of powerbrokers who have a stranglehold on our major parties. Farage also supports, strongly,Swiss-style direct democracy, especially citizen-initiated referendums.

Farage is undoubtedly one of the best prime ministers the UK never had.

Or rather, not yet had.