Welcome to the political circus and what a circus it has been over the last few months with speeding Lib Dems, a Labour leader who will not admit that he intends to borrow more if wins the next General Election and a Prime Minister who is at risk of losing control of the Conservative party.
But, in the midst of the usual suspects there has been a “Political earthquake” in the rise of UKIP. Nigel Farage is not a man I would admit to being someone I would sit and discuss economic or fiscal policy, but it has to be said that this man does not seem to be going away anytime soon.
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| A fruitcake or a political genius? |
How wrong you would be because as the morning of Friday 2nd May came and walking into the Number 4 Milbank came a man not dejected and beaten from a Conservative smear campaign, but a man who had laid the foundations for the emergence of the fourth mainstream political party in the United Kingdom.
By the end of the day, UKIP had amassed 23% of the popular vote, had gained 147 councillors from a base of 8 seats they were defending. This may have only been a county council election, but the ramifications for the next year’s European elections and the General Election in 2015 could be dire for all three main political parties.
But, for what has been seen by many as a protest vote it has to be said that any protest vote that can split the vote this much can only be seen as political suicide. The Conservatives are panicking because the loyal right of the party is moving away from the tory line and defecting their vote to UKIP.
Even David Cameron’s own Eurosceptic backbenchers are threatening to move to campaign on a joint Conservative-UKIP ticket in 2015. At the front of the queue of rebels is one Nadine Dorries who was only let back into the Conservative party at the beginning of May, but is already stirring the pot by suggesting that a tory-UKIP alliance is “the only way to beat Labour.”
But, if this is the case then there is one major obstacle to overcome before any mention of a Conservative-UKIP coalition could even be thought about; Europe.
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| Is Cameron losing touch with his own MP's? |
The on-going tussle for power and authority in the Conservative party is the fact that many tory backbenchers wants to have a in-out referendum guarantee before the next General Election in 2015, not in 2017 when David Cameron has promised.
This combined with the clampdown on immigration and returning powers from the EU to Britain has cause a roadblock in David Cameron’s pledge of having a united Conservative party. But at the moment one that he has split right down the middle with rebellion after rebellion over pension reform and gay marriage.
But, where there is scraps to pick up could it be UKIP who can do this because the very issues that are splitting the Conservative party right down the middle is the core of UKIP’s message. They want to cut immigration and take Britain out of the EU completely.
Surely if the Conservatives want to keep hold of the voters who have stayed loyal to them since the days of Heath and Thatcher it needs to base its core message and values of what the electorate want and not what they think they need. If people that vote for UKIP are “fruitcakes” and “closet racists”, then does that mean we have nearly a quarter of all voters that voted a fortnight ago who are fascist and racists?
No. The issue is that people are sick and tired with the same old stories from the same old politicians who are seen to have done nothing or not done enough to keep the electorate happy. But, also you have to take into account that Nigel Farage has something Boris about him because he can say and do things that no one over politician can say and somehow get away with it.
Would Cameron, Clegg or Miliband get away with going into a Stringfellows on a Wednesday night after PMQ’s? No there would be a national scandal and they would surely have to resign are leader of their party.
That is the thing that draws people to Nigel Farage, he is a character and it has been characters that have defined the change of British Politics over the last 40 years. It was Thatcher as the first female Prime Minister in the 70’s, the rise of the SDP and the Liberal alliance in the 1980’s and Tony Blair and “New Labour” in the 90’s.
It has been over a decade since there was such a character that changed the foundations of British politics, but after the results of May 2 2013, the United Kingdom Independence Party have laid the foundations for a new political movement in Great Britain. But, in the political jungle only
It will be interesting to see what colour 10 Downing Street will be painted in May 2015. One shade of Blue or Red, or will it be shared by a Purple or Yellow blend?
The jury is still out on this one at the moment, but the word coalition is sounding more likely by the day.
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| What colour paint will Downing Street officials by buying from B & Q in 2015?
Word Count: 979
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