Gregg Beaman (fellow libertarian Ukipper) asks, in the context of the Nulab rout in Henley:
As in 1997, when Blair trounced Major, and 1979 when Thatcher trounced Callaghan, there seems to be a fundamental change of mood in the country with the Conservatives benefitting. Are we destined to be stuck in a two party rotating dictatorship for good?
Probably yes. But that is not the point. If everybody who cared about anything just threw in the towel, or indeed threw in their hand with Nulab or Blulab, then we can say goodbye to democracy for good.
I see the two large parties as ships (albeit big, stupid, corrupt ships) that have to be guided and goaded into 'harbour' by smaller, more nimble vessels. The Greens, despite their relative lack of electoral success, have managed to brainwash everybody - Dave The Chameleon included - into this whole MMGW nonsense; quite what they gain from this is not clear to me, once it becomes clear that the whole thing is a scam. The BNP might be despicable, but the people who vote for them are not - the BNP primarily get the 'anti-politics' vote and, hopefully, as soon as Nulab-Blulab get the message that unlimited immigration and pandering to minority groups is not the answer (to whatever the question was) the BNP will fade from the scene.
And UKIP? We are chipping and kicking away at the EU. That the EU will one day implode is beyond dispute (I say this with neither glee nor sorrow), our job is to hasten that day. Whether UKIP will be able to benefit from the 'first mover advantage' when this happens is another topic. But no doubt Nulab-Blulab will divvy up all our brilliant policies between themselves and recapture the 'central ground'.
Ah well. Such is life.
* I can't be bothered thinking of an analogy for the LibDems, as they appear to have achieved the square root of f*** all for the past century or so. And LPUK are not on the public radar yet. Plus they have no sense of humour.
Are you all set?
1 hour ago
8 comments:
"Plus they have no sense of humour"
Ouch!
So what you are saying is that we are destined for a 2 party system whose policies are shaped by effective single issue groups?
I know the others you mention claim to have a broad range of policies but their names give that impression to the general public which is, by and large, not interested in the detail of policies.
As for Lib Dems they are, in my view, the real opportunist chameleons, saying whatever it needs to get elected, relying on the ignorance of Joe Public. (I was in a train queue one day when they were campaigning for EU elections. Their stance was they would offer a referendum on EU if elected. When I loudly pointed out this wouldn't be in their control they scuttled off with their tales between their legs)
GS, that seems to be the pattern, doesn't it?
The real shame with the Greens is that I agree with a lot of their non-MMGW policies (citizen's income, land value tax, legalise cannabis etc) but not with the rest (it's all high taxes, high regulation stuff), and it's the good bits that they won't be remembered for.
Mark,
Nobody hears the Greens or UKIP messages because as soon as they appear we all swith-off because we (think)know what they are going to say - single issue. This is why the MSM leaves them alone as well.
Short of some simulatenous political disaster to both main parties 1 week beore a GE it will probably remains so.
I like your ship metaphor, Mark. I take a similar logic but as one of the crew on a big ship trying to nudge the capstan a little in a particular direction.
To illustrate the powerful influence that the green lobby have exerted, one of my students, a bright 13 year old, suggested that the world would be better off without science because of all the technology wrecking the world. Global warming and its attendant problems are apparently now worse than the combined risks of death, disease, starvation and exposure that we through technological and economic advance have largely left behind us. Now that, my friends, is influence.
The Greens have been tactically smart by playing the long game. They go for the National Curriculum, more than they go for national office.
I should probably have said nudge the wheel but I had a mental image of slackening or tightening ropes to stall or accelerate the party's progress and direction and then I realised I hadn't bothered to clearly outline it.
Sir, I assure you I am amazingly jovial.
"To illustrate the powerful influence that the green lobby have exerted, one of my students, a bright 13 year old, suggested that the world would be better off without science because of all the technology wrecking the world."
This view is dismayingly common, even among adults. Some of them even have a name for themselves, 'primitivists'.
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