Post European Elections

Counting Hall

The dust will have settled in the draughty counting halls across the UK and the results are in.And the polls are not good for the Conservative Party. They knew that would probably be the case. As I said in previous blogs the party had resigned itself to this showing but was eyeing the prize next year for the general election. 

So, despite my rather pathetic attempts to dissuade the popular vote in the UK, we have elected a swathe of MEP's into a chamber they don't actually want to be in. The UKIP party does not want the UK to be a part of the parliament and that is the only place they have any seats. A might bizarre but that is the way elections go. The turnout was not great but then it never is for Euro elections. I am not sure the nation realises how much the Parliament can affect our lives in the UK. 

The election is done and dusted. Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of our lives. A favourite saying of my Father. He used as a way of saying never mind what went before now we must deal with what we have.

And how will the political system in the UK deal with the evident support for UKIP? 

As you may or may not know I have little regard for UKIP as a party and as individual politicians. 

• It IS a single issue party. Nigel Farrage has admitted it is such when he is reported to have said his party manifesto was garbage from the 2010 election and has removed it from the website. I haven't checked it out recently but that is akin to saying I have no idea what I stand for. 
• Scratch the surface and you find some very interesting individuals in the party and running for office. Nigel Farrage is the only face you ever see in the media. And that is bad enough. There have been some very high profile cases demonstrating that they are barking mad, xenophobic and misogynistic.

I know Tony Blair is somewhat poor in political currency these days due to the whole Iraq war issue. (Shame he could have been perfect!) However he hit the nail on the head when he described UKIP as not having any answers. And it is true. They have nothing beyond leaving the EU. They have no policies at all. 

Tony Blair

I am not a supporter of Conservative party politics. Ever since Thatcher they have come across as a party that looks after those that have (money, land, power etc). In my opinion they like to step away from responsibility towards the people of this country by dressing it up as "choice".  It allows them to wash their hands of decision making.

I would be saddened though if the Conservatives do not fight the UKIP vote with rhetoric instead of pandering to it 

The UKIP votes may just be a protest vote. But it does expose a nasty side to life in the UK. There is a xenophobic trait in these isles. It is based on fear largely. London could not become the great Metropolis it is today without inward migration. Much as I dislike the power of London economics  it is what it is and largely pays the country's way. The days of the regions being economic power houses went the way of the Dodo from the sixties onwards. Globalization! 

I have no problem with migration. I do not feel my way of life is threatened and in any case I am not entirely comfortable with the way things were to want to preserve them. I don't have to look very far back in my memory to find a society that was patriarchal and had very rigid expectations of what women, for instance could hope for in life. 

On a news program this week a bloke called Billy Bragg (the interview is on his website) claimed that part of the UKIP vote was a vote against globalisation. I like Billy Bragg mostly, he is too left wing for my liking but always an interesting listen. He can't sing though. However globalisation is a fact of life. Like death and taxes. The job we should ask of our politicians is to find a way of navigating our way through it so that we come out on top. A lot to ask but you have to aim high.

The European Community has long been held in low esteem in the UK. That may be due in part to an island heritage. I am not a great supporter either. It is unaccountable in large parts. There is an elected parliament but there are level of bureaucracy that render it's accountability null and void. It wastes hand over fist. Indeed the whole EU agricultural policy was designed to prevent huge swathes of French farming society from moving into the cities.

However being involved in one of the biggest talking shops has bought nearly 70 years of peace and Prosperity and we should back away from that position with great caution.