As Nigel Farage remarked at a press conference on Sunday evening, the only surprise is that it didn’t happen earlier.
Warm congratulations to all UKIP members, supporters and voters. Your efforts have resulted in a watershed in British and European history. Fed up with the business-as-usual refrain from the three main parties, which resemble one another more closely with every passing year, Britons have voted to take their homeland back, make their own laws once more and trade with the world as they see fit, not how they are told to by a foreign overlord.
Looking through the election results, quite a few surprises have emerged. The most startling thing to me is the degree to which UKIP have taken votes in Labour’s traditional heartlands of the northern English counties, Wales and Scotland. No longer can UKIP be dismissed as a mere refuge of disaffected Conservative voters. Their support base now spans the traditional Left vote as well as the Right. In Wales, UKIP have come within a few thousand votes of defeating Labour; in Yorkshire and the Humber, they have won outright. To achieve ten percent of the vote in Scotland, at a time when the Scots are considering outright independence from the UK, is nothing short of astonishing. As I remarked over at Breitbart, this expansion of support base has implications for UKIP’s policy platform. How this may play out over the next year is currently a bit of a question mark.
How will this result translate to next year’s general election? Yesterday’s turnout of just 33% of eligible voters may mean we need to view these results with some degree of scepticism: I look forward to the views of British readers on this. But from where I’m standing, it looks as though Nige had better get his interior decorators scoping out the inside of No. 10 Downing Street; he may be spending rather a lot of time there shortly.
Be Responsible - Be Free! 
And the MSM still don’t get it.
Here’s one early story – in the Murdoch press, no less – that uses the term far-right four times, seemingly without embarrassment, followed by a lot of tired “waaaaacist” twittering.
Parallel universes, all right – we need some journalists who live in this one.
Good post Ozboy! One small cross from voters, one large leap towards freedom.
I don’t think Nigel needs to think about No. 10 just yet, it’s certainly a big step forward but he needs to get some MP’s into Parliament first. His support might just fade away before the next general election so he needs to keep the momentum going. A few coherent policies would be good too.
The backlash against the EU and government by the unelected seems to be Europe-wide:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-eu-27577964
http://www.steynonline.com/5605/ukip-shakes-up-westminster
Mark Steyn’s view of Nigel and the UK political bubble……Enjoy!
Exactamundo – thanks Mel – Oz
I must admit to feelings of great shame and disappointment at the success of UKIP. I know now what it is like to inhabit a country falling into nihilistic patriotism and jingoistic bigotry. Like Russia.
Luckily they are a one person, largely one issue protest party with no positive agenda, which is likely to fade rapidly when the fad for this idiocy is over. Jingoism and racial/ethnic bigotry are common when economic conditions threaten the assets of the middle class.
In the meantime I am ashamed to admit to being British.
OK. I expected that to be more or less your view and, as I’m sure it’s sincerely held, do not want to make fun of it.
Your point about UKIP being merely a protest party, however, no longer holds water. It was one of the boilerplate critiques put up against UKIP in their early days, but is now patently false. Protest parties do not have comprehensive policies on health, education, taxation, immigration, infrastructure, trade and foreign relations. They do not attract a support base from right across the political spectrum. They do not outpoll every other political party in the land – Oz
This is the grand totality of the UKIP ‘comprehensive’ policy on the health service.
• Open GP surgeries in the evening, for full-time workers, where there is demand.
• Locally-elected County Health Boards to inspect hospitals – to avoid another Stafford Hospital
Various people affiliated with the party have floated other ideas, such as charging for doctor appointments, all ideas that are dog-whistle flags for some but have no relation to the real problems and possible solutions that the health service face.
Protest party’s always garner support from all sides of theological divide, lots of people want to protest when they feel uncertainty about their economic situation. But that does not mean that a party that offers no more than populist slogans is going to be anything more than a protest against the status quo, not a move to a new political landscape.
I have not looked into it closely, but I think there may be a similar bit of political froth going on in Australia with the Palmer party? A group dominated by one personality which is an opposition party, not a governing organisation.
Totally different situation with Palmer. UKIP has a policy platform, whether you care to recognize it or not. The Palmer United Party doesn’t – or at any rate, it appears to change from week to week. And the “racist” and “jingo” epithets are starting to wear thin. UKIP has as many non-Anglo-Saxon members and candidates as any of the major parties.
The clue is in the respective names; I don’t see a “Farage Party” – Oz
@- “UKIP has a policy platform, whether you care to recognize it or not.”
I freely admit I have examined UKIP as little as possible and may have missed their extensive, or comprehensive policy platform, but a quick google reveals little substantive. There is certainly little to nothing on their main website. Perhaps those who are more invested in this political froth are able to link to this body of policy?
As for it not being the Farage party, can anyone name another member, other than those thrown out for racist comments or suggesting that the way to respond to impacts from climate change is to repeal gay marriage?
Quite a few UKIP candidates are former Conservative politicians who, presumably, bring a Thatcherite agenda with them. Given their breadth of support, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Labour defector or two. How that will play out into a policy mix will be interesting.
As to the fine print of their domestic policy (as opposed to their policy on Europe, which everyone knows and which they took to last week’s poll), I would agree they need it publicized well before the general election. If they don’t, then they don’t merit the British peoples’ vote next year. Simple as that. If you want to be in government, you must publicize policy detail well ahead of time. Till now, UKIP have been no chance in domestic elections and policy principles, well-developed as they were, were sufficient. Next year they will need much more.
I don’t know this for sure, but I suspect the UKIP executive were waiting for the outcome of the European elections before going to the next step of selling their policy. Good news for you in that: if they wish to have any chance of holding on to their new left-of-centre support, they will need policy detail and direction that reflects their needs and aspirations. And health policy will need to be one of the main items on the list – Oz
Can I make fun of Izens view?…… (Especially if it’s sincerely held.)
Fire when ready – Oz
Larry Pickering today delivers the most succinct summary on Australian politics that I’ve seen in quite a while.
They say if you’ve never been a socialist before the age of 25, you don’t have a heart. And if you’re still a socialist after 30, you don’t have a brain…
Ain’t no fool like an old fool, eh?
You’re working hard on this Izen, I don’t know why.
UKIP has the only sensible energy policy of all the parties, drawn up by Roger Helmer MEP, another name for you of course. Popular MEP in the East Midlands and now running for MP in Newark. I’ve argued with him many times, and wish him well despite his solar panels.
UKIP does not have a shortage of MEP’s in fact, because the mood of the nation towards the EU is either lethargy or for out. And most of Britain is now coloured purple as a result. Unlike the LibDems who are still enthusiastic for the EU, and now have only one MEP as a result. This is surely clear enough, even for you?
The LibDems do have some more recognisable names associated with their party though of course, but they are mostly famous for corruption, sexual perversion, or even accusations of murder. The nation is thoroughly pissed off with politicians that can be named in the mainstream parties because of the reasons they can be named for. This is really not in their favour.
However, being out of step with events is your speciality, and so, I would expect you to be as ashamed as others are encouraged. The existing mire that we call parliament is clearly much more to your liking, as well as the autocratic rule of Brussels.
Ashamed?…….. Really. You should be ashamed of your analogies though, as you are clearly at the limit of your imagination.
So if you’ll excuse me I’ll put my fur hat on and go for another bottle of vodka.
Bravo Fen.
As an antipodean colonial, my views on British politics are those of an engaged outsider. Coming from you, they carry far more weight – Oz
On the subject of familiar names from the Lib dems, or any of the other lamestream parties, It does no harm to tick off what we know about them against the reference of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist,
For the Scottish ones, it’s worth remembering that Hare PCL(R) scores as low as 25 have counted as a diagnosis of psychopath in Scotland (no Scot I’ve ever met (I used to live there) has the least trace of “glib superficial charm” and as for “uninviting behaviour under the influence of alcohol”…).
I suspect that allegations of raping boys (of approximately 12 years of age, at a time when the gay age of consent wa 21 years) levelled at former cabinet ministers who “served” under Thatcher, may return in a form which is much harder to brush off than Cameron’s brush off of Schofield, or of David Steele’s “All he seems to have done is spanked a few bare bottoms” belittling of now confirmed allegations against morbidly obese, predatory, paedophile and sadist Cyril Smith.
Just looked him up: nasty piece of work (BTW: Sir Cyril to you) – Oz
Sheesh Izen. I’m allowed to be grumpy because it’s nearly the middle of winter here ; I’ll be better after the shortest day.
But it’s summer where you are.
@- fenbeagleblog
“The existing mire that we call parliament is clearly much more to your liking, as well as the autocratic rule of Brussels.”
A strong antipathy to UKIP does not logically infer any esteem for the present government or any great liking for the EU. Both are mature examples of regulatory capture.
My dislike of UKIP is not based on a preference for the present government over a UKIP administration because UKIP have no prospect of being a dominant political party, they are a classic extreme opposition.
Extreme greens/socialists gain a small foothold in politics by appealing to the fantasies some people harbour that societies could improve and progress, they target the better angels of our nature.
Extreme nationalists/free marketeers gain a small political influence by appealing to the fantasies some people have that society could be improved by imposing a national ethnic monoculture and returning to some mythic golden age (usually around the time of their grandparents youth) when in rose-tinted hindsight all the problems were avoided by by good British breeding…
Farage made a comment about travelling on a London train and not hearing any English spoken and how that made him feel uncomfortable in his own country. Its a classic bit of jingoism, appealing to the lower devils of our nature, the xenophobia and resentment that can all to easily be aroused .
The reality, as anybody knows who regularly travels in London trains, is that you only hear foreign language because the trains are noisy and you have to raise your voice to be heard, something no well-bred English person would do. So the English etiquette is to stay silent on trains. If two English people do speak they will sit close and lean in so they can converse without raising their voice to the point where others can hear it. That is just good (UK) manners! The predominance of foreign language that can be heard on a train says little about the ethnic ecology of the wider society.
The chauvinistic disquiet is also revealing. It makes the assumption that society would be better as a monoculture. Where the vast majority of the population share a common language, traditions and ethnicity. It is also the chauvinism of the Anglophone. Because English (or American!) is the default global language every person who is not a native English speaker has to learn it to gain access to the global culture rather than just their own local version. So it is likely that all of those foreign speakers on the train had mastery of two languages. an intellectual accomplishment that is grievously lacking in many Brits. I don’t know if Farage can converse in any language other than English ( I suspect he can but does not admit it!), but hearing people on a train speaking their second language should give any person regret that they are only fluent in one tongue.
Which has turned into a rather verbose way of saying I dislike the Farage/UKIP popularist invocation of jingoism and ahistorical ‘traditions’.
@-farmerbraun
” I’m allowed to be grumpy because it’s nearly the middle of winter here ; I’ll be better after the shortest day.”
Yes, at least seasonal affective disorder is limited by the physics of gravitation and orbital consistency. It may be summer here, but there is no perceptible spring in the winter of our political discontent.
But its not as bad as when Mrs T and Bliar took Britain to war in the Falklands and Iraq. This is a mild grumpiness compared to the deep shame and depression of having to admit your were a subject of the crown on those occasions.
{grin}
One could equally allege that your comments on English conversationalism and manners (with which I agree BTW) constitute jingoism and racism (and probably sexism, ageism, and who the hell knows what other “isms”).
What an easy game that is to play! Can I join in? Oz
@- Oz
“One could equally allege that your comments on English conversationalism and manners (with which I agree BTW) constitute jingoism and racism (and probably sexism, ageism, and who the hell knows what other “isms”).”
I know, I was relishing irony as I typed.
{grin}
“What an easy game that is to play! Can I join in? Oz”
Of course! the rules are the same as for Climateball(TM), it is only the intention behind your arguments that matter.
I don’t get to sit on many London trains here Izen. Don’t get to sit on them much when I travel to London either….Who cares what language people are speaking when they have their elbow in your ear?
I do care what language they are speaking here though. In a few short years its gone from very slow English that competes with an Ent moot, to much faster Polish that I can’t understand a word of. Not that that matters because there’s no great effort to integrate either…..As if there was any great chance of that anyway. I’d rather they didn’t keep stealing the ducklings from the river though, we used to feed the ducks before. Now they are getting a bit thin in numbers.
Did you say anything else?…..Might as well have been Polish for all the sense I could make of it. My grandfathers were at the western front in trenches in their youth. One was gassed at the Somme. The other was not unaffected, I always thought…..What was golden about that?….Don’t talk down to me like a fool Izen.
Less integration makes for less chance of some oppen gobbed brit, grassing up a bunch of heroic Polish vodka distillers, then giving themselves a pat on the back for having “done the right thing”.
Looking at how well attended the monthly Snitch ‘n’ Bitch meeting in the local village hall is, I can’t blame anyone for not wanting to be a part of a present day British “community”.
I was at a sort of family dinner a few days back, at a local Italian resaurant, owned and run by the descendants of a young Italian captured and brought to the area as a POW. He put down roots and stayed.
I was sat beside a Chinese gentleman who was born in Guandong Province, and as a baby was smuggled into Hong Kong, away from the advancing communists. He’s been in Britain since the early 1960s. He said that a relation of his who runs a takeaway has a kitchen full of young Poles. They never thought they’d find people who were harder working than Chinese – and now they have.
To be fair, Ian, I think Fen’s point concerned the incivility of the newcomers, rather than their language.
In the Catholic school system in which I was raised, Poles were maybe 5% of the population. Completely integrated. Aside from their surnames, you’d only know their background as most of them could speak Polish, mostly so they could converse with their grandparents at home.
One of them was the economics lecturer I told you about some time ago. He was in the year above me at school. His dad fought in the Polish Underground, knew Father Karol Wojtilya (later Pope John Paul II), spoke half a dozen languages and briefly held the Australian record for the oldest university graduate. I revere his memory – Oz
http://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2014/06/05/at-the-end-of-the-day-472/
You’ve missed the point spectacularly Luton.
A local ‘heroic’ East European still, of the type advertised by Luton. Something every community would want…..
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/man-tells-of-illegal-vodka-factory-blast-in-lincolnshire-7788889.html
The old Polish grandfathers I mentioned used to have a backyard still, as well. They never bothered anyone and so the cops turned a blind eye.
Just to clarify, Fen: if your experience of Poles was a bit closer to mine, I’m assuming you’d have no problem with them? Oz
My own experience with Poles and immigrants is very good. ….Why would it not be?
….What difference does that make?……. That would be missing the point. I was more concerned about who and what was here before the invasion. This is about maths, not individuals.
Pinching all the ducks from the village pond doesn’t sound very polite to me. But I did see a clip of Nigel Farage the other day, making the point that the open-borders policy of the EU meant that there is a huge wave of migration from the poorer countries, mostly in eastern Europe, to the richer ones in the west, which unfortunately at the moment includes the UK. I can understand a lot of Britons (and Frenchmen, and Belgians, and Germans) looking around themselves and saying, “hang on – I didn’t vote for this” – Oz
Pinching the ducks isn’t particularly legal, and neither was eating the swans in Peterborough’s park. Or the drunken fights in the town centres, drinking cheap sub standard booze they swamp our markets with, when they aren’t blowing themselves up with it. Or stealing the bird scarer hawks, off our farmers fields to use the poles as fishing rods to remove all the fish from the rivers etc etc etc…….But that doesn’t mean I’ve had any trouble with them myself, or dislike them for themselves……… It’s just mathematics as I say….It’s mathematics that causes the sort of problems I’ve mentioned too.
Lincolnshire is one of the least populated areas in England and is 5,921 km2 making it a very large county. But Tasmania is 68,331 km2 and has a population of 507,626 people according to Wiki…..That’s less than even the small town Boston mentioned in that still explosion story above (636,479). There is, of course, no possibility for comparison in the situation.
They are coming to us from a less densely populated area of the world themselves, (that is now short of workers). Breaking up their own families and traditions To do our work, swamp our culture, destroy our way of lives, and give Luton Ian the chance to insult us for it. And Izen the chance to patronize in egotistical and uncomprehending fashion …..Of course I’m not best pleased with it, and I’m obviously not alone.
…That’s why we are turning purple. What good turning purple will do remains to be seen but it’s going to involve change.
Our experiences are all our own and unique Fen, and I don’t presume to judge yours. In your lifetime you’ve seen changes to your society, many of which you were never consulted on yet which you are now compelled, not only to accept, but to bankroll. UKIP propose to return some fairness and sanity back into the system; that’s why I believe they have such broad appeal in Britain – Oz
The last paragraph of the linked newspaper article sums up the point I alluded to:
To paraphrase,
Who are the wrong doers?
those who have to hide their productive activities?
or those who seek to forcibly extort a cut from the proceeds of productive activities, and the variously dumb or vindictive snitches who aid them?
From where I’m standing there appear to be a number of separate issues here, and if you don’t tease them apart you’ll generate only heat, never light.
The first one is illegal production of booze. As far as personal consumption is concerned, you all know where I stand – I’m currently finishing off a batch of Somerset Scrumpy whose recipe I’ve had in a dusty folder for years. Will let you know how it turns out, but at about 15% A/V it’s going to pack a punch.
The second issue is counterfeiting. The crew Fen linked to (and the story says they are Lithuanians, not Poles) were cooking up backyard hooch and slapping Stolichnaya or Smirnoff labels on them, and passing them off as the real thing in local stores. Now that’s an offense against property, and should be on any Libertarian’s black list. In this case, having blown themselves up and saved the public purse on court costs, you could say it’s a wash 😉
The third thing is anti-social behaviour. Drunken, noisy idiots out in the street after closing time, there have been since the Ice Age (more or less). Stealing ducks, harassing local farmers, all the rest of it, are behaviours Fen says have been brought into his small community by this tide of newcomers (on whose arrival his opinion was never sought), and there is no reason to doubt him. It’s hardly illiberal to assist the local bobbies in trying to stamp out these illegal and antisocial activities – they’re doing no more than keeping the peace – Oz
I’ll add some more, to make my point….
This one is more personal, involving a friends much loved close relative in Spalding who was killed as a result. The cause of the death was not illegally produced alcohol produced by East Europeans, but illegal cigarettes smuggled in from Russia. (We have a large Russian community too now, as well as the Poles, Latvians, and other Eastern Europeans. This also questions the idea that large numbers of immigrants can be useful to the existing community, boosting local business etc. What happens instead is they take our jobs, and then take that money out of the community as well, into their own black-market economy, which then does further damage to the existing business community labouring under the need to play by the rules. (I have an interest in the small business community as I’m heavily involved with the Federation of Small Businesses so clearly I would go much further than snitch. In fact I’m keen to stamp this out. As always I favour free enterprise, self determination, and a level playing field with fair and honest behaviour.)
One culture we do have in common here though is we are mostly not wealthy either, (less so now) and so cheap goods are difficult for the more vulnerable to resist. With these sort of results….
http://www.spaldingtoday.co.uk/news/latest-news/deaths-lead-to-checks-on-illegal-cigarettes-1-4157876