British Immigration Duel? Polish Prince Challenges UKIP Leader Nigel Farage To Sword Fight Before Election
Politicians in the United Kingdom could soon duel over immigration -- literally. In a YouTube video posted this past weekend, Polish prince Janek Żyliński challenged Nigel Farage, the leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), to a sword fight over his comments on immigrants.
The Independent reported that Żyliński is the son of Andrzej Żyliński, a calvary officer who saved the lives of 6,000 Jewish people when he liberated Kaluszyn, Poland from the Nazis in 1939. Żyliński said Polish people now experience discrimination when they come to the United Kingdom, with Farage even at one point blaming them for traffic jams. As Farage steps up his campaign promises to control immigration, the younger Żyliński said he needed to stand up in defense of his people.
"Enough is enough, Mr. Farage," Żyliński said in the video. "I would like us to meet in Hyde Park one morning, with our swords, and resolve this matter in the way that an 18th century Polish aristocrat and an English gentleman would traditionally do. Are you up for it, Mr. Farage?”
Immigration was sure to be a hot topic in the run-up to the U.K. general election set for May 7. The U.K. saw about 624,000 immigrants from 2013 to 2014, according to the BBC, and about 327,000 emigrants -- a net increase of about 297,000 people. Most of them were young workers or students and came from within the European Union.
Farage has proposed leaving the EU to restrict the "quantity and quality" of immigrants, according to the Telegraph. He previously said he wanted to cap migration at 50,000 people a year, but in early March he eased up on that target. "What we need to stop is the open door to unlimited numbers of unskilled migrants to coming to Britain, because that’s where the problem is," Farage said.
Żyliński asked for the chance to debate this policy. If Farage's sword is "a little rusty," he said, they could meet in a TV studio for a "duel of words." Farage's party declined to comment on Żyliński's challenge, according to the London Evening Standard.
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