These are tough times for the world economy, tough times for the EU and very tough times for the British political system. Politicians of almost all stripes have acquitted themselves poorly in the recent expenses fiasco, and faith in Gordon Brown’s government, in freedom and the procedures through which we operate our politics is at what may be an all-time low.
You get fifty points if you finished reading the preceding paragraph with the thought ‘No shit, Sherlock’.
The problem with political crossroads like these, especially at election time, is the unpredictability of the outcome. People will find themselves at breakfast atbles across the UK, looking at the political collateral stuffed through their doors of an evening, and find themselves convinced by the simplest of arguments from the smaller parties.
“Give them all a bloody nose. Teach them a lesson. Vote for us. What’s the worst that can happen?”
In the case of the European elections, actually, a lot could go very badly indeed. In the European Parliament, the UKIP are seen as a ragtag group of lunatics, with very good reason. They are a ragtag group of lunatics, who achieve nothing whatsoever but the spending of a lot of EU money on their salaries and expenses. The idea of putting more members of the most dysfunctional party in Europe into the European Parliament to represent us is insane.
On the contrary, putting more members of the Conservative Party into the European Parliament, under the new regime for members of the party that David Cameron has recently introduced, stands an excellent chance of yeilding results for the UK. As Tim Montgomerie on ConservativeHome puts it:
Tory MEPs will leave the federalist EPP and form a new coalition within the European Parliament against the EU project and its doctrine of ever closer union. As Dan Hannan has written, that means, there will be a serious opposition force – properly resourced – within the European Parliament for the first time. That’s a big prize.
Putting members of Libertas, a political party with no record whatsoever and wildly differing political messages in its target constituencies into the European Parliament to represent us would be suicidal. It’s also utterly destined to political failure and embarrassment. Libertas doesn’t know if it’s pro or anti-EU, and is running on a manifesto of bizarre innuendo and offensively ignorant rhetoric. Libertas might be fine for Ireland, but the UK deserves better.
On a local level, putting members of the BNP into local authorities as a result of a protest vote against the main parties is so profoundly dangerous that it beggars belief people are actually suggesting it. Let me say it loud and clear, in order that people will understand the position of nábídána visá-vis the BNP:
The BNP are a racist, divisive and utterly corrupt, incompetent party full of criminals, paedophiles and certifiable nutjobs. Their vile policies around voluntary repatriation, their stunning comments on people like Johnson Beharry and their denial of big chunks of the holocaust make them entirely unacceptable. I would not vote for them if so doing saved the world.
David Cameron’s resolve is the guarantee that the British people demand that the troughing is over and will not go unpunished.
We can throw the baby out with the bath water and abandon mainstream politics, or we can fix what’s broken and get on with fixing our nation’s political ills.
