Regular readers of this blog will be aware that our attitudes towards our modern political parties oscillate between extreme scepticism to involuntary hilarity. We have a similar range of reactions to the Commentariat--that loose federation of social powers that support modern political parties in the sense that they want to engage with them and influence them--unions, media, schools and universities, bureaucracies, "big" business (that is, businesses of sufficient size to donate to politicians and political parties), and the chardonnay-swilling hoi-polloi, who fastidiously read the dailies in the desperate attempt to see photographs of themselves.
This cluster of the self-adulating has one thing in common: if any nascent plebeian political party--well beyond the pale of respectability--would dare lift its head above the parapet and venture beyond that pale, the vented outrage of the Commentariat and all "respectable" political parties will be heard as far as Timbuktu. All of which is exceedingly diverting and amusing.
Which brings us to Ukip--the UK Independence Party. Sean Thomas has written a piece documenting the discombobulation and outrage of the establishment at this horrid little party--which has left us chuckling with great mirth. We hope you similarly enjoy it.
Our political masters are horrified by Ukip. Trouble is, the voters aren’t
The Daily Telegraph
You can almost hear the screams from Westminster, can’t you? Every time Nigel Farage opens his mouth, the combined political classes of Primrose Hill and Holland Park react like a chorus of flashed spinsters, exposed to the hairy buttocks of a drunken navvy. Oh my word, he’s done it again! Someone stop him! Help!
But it’s a funny thing, this metropolitan fainting fit induced by anything connected to Ukip. To me it seems overdone; to me it suggests there are deeper psychological forces at work. After all, Ukip have yet to win a single MP at Westminster. So why do they invoke all these bladder-bursting conniptions in the chatterati?
Opinion formers would have it that Ukip’s opinions are the problem; i.e. the party is a bunch of crypto-fascists, the BNP with polished brogues, a bus-load of “loonies, fruitcakes and closet racists” (according to the PM). Therefore these barely concealed bigotries need to be exposed, by the scandalised elite, so the proles can react with proper aversion, and go back to dutifully voting Lib, Lab and Con.
But what are these appalling Kipper opinions, polices and personalities which so affront the Top Ten Thousand?
First, the people. There’s no doubt that Ukip does attract a few crazies and extremists. But then, all political parties do that, indeed I’d suggest that, for most citizens, the mere act of joining a political party – any party – is the act of a dubious nerd with narcissism issues, so Ukip are hardly unique. Furthermore, Ukip – as Farage ably put it – do not have a monopoly on oddballs. Or extremists.
Here, for instance, is a list of Labour Party notables who used to be communists or Marxist fellow-travellers: Alistair Darling, Jim Murphy, Jack Straw, Peter Hain, John Reid, Peter Mandelson. Now, whatever you think of Nigel Farage or Paul Nuttall, as far as I know they have not called for the overthrow of bourgeois democracy, so let’s toss out that canard about Ukip being uniquely “full of extremists”.
How about their policies then? One Kipper position that Ukipphobes love to cite is their apparent desire to reintroduce the death penalty. And on the face of it that does seem quite “out there”. No EU nation uses the death penalty (it is forbidden by quasi-EU law), virtually no western nations use the death penalty. So this policy is indeed a fringe position, right? Wrong. On the latest polls about 50 per cent of Britons support the death penalty. Half the country. And until Ukip came along, the views of half the country, on this issue, were entirely unrepresented in mainstream politics.
Then what about Europe? You probably know what I’m going to say here but it’s worth saying anyway. All three mainstream parties are intent on remaining within the EU (after some pantomime renegotiation if you are a Tory). That means that the 30-50 per cent of the country that expressly wants to leave the EU has been wholly unrepresented in politics. Until the rise of Ukip.
Then what about immigration? Ukip’s policy is to severely restrict immigration. Again this seems pretty radical, until you look at the polls. Sixty-nine per cent of people actually want zero net immigration. In other words, most Brits, when it comes to immigration, are even further to the right than Ukip.
And so on, and so forth. Ukip are against HS2 (the only party with that position). So are 48 per cent of the British people. Ukip have considered a policy to ban the burqa (the only party to consider that position) – this is a policy supported by 61 per cent of British voters. Ukip want to cut foreign aid (the only party with that position) – this is a policy supported by 55 per cent of the British people.
Now personally, I’m not a Ukip supporter, but I can damn well read Ukip’s polling numbers. And what they tell me is that virtually all of these “cranky”, “fruitcake”, “loonytoon” positions adopted by Ukip turn out to be opinions shared by large minorities, or outright majorities, of the British electorate. They are also opinions that have, until recently, been ignored and repressed by the liberal elite.
This then, is why the political classes are horrified by Ukip. It’s not because they believe Ukip are really crazy. It’s because they are worried Ukip might be really popular.
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