In another Groundhog Day moment, the British government has been forced to concede and admit that the UK will in fact be contesting the upcoming European Parliamentary elections. The establishment has been trying to clamber together before a Brexit "deal" to avoid this. Well, they've ballsed it up again.
We shouldn't be in this position, having voted to leave the EU almost three years ago.
The repeated rhetoric of the cabinet and parliament has been exhausted. The Prime Minister's European Union (EU) negotiating counterparts must think she is completely insane. Repeatedly begging Brussels for more thin gruel like Oliver Twist.
We shouldn't be in this position, having voted to leave the EU almost three years ago.
But both the Conservative and Labour parties have failed to accept the shift in national opinion over the past decade, and even less so over the past few years.
The British public, whether leave or remain voters, want the government to get on with it. The deluded attempts to keep the United Kingdom in a "customs union" and label it as Brexit isn’t being bought. Mostly because it is wholly unsaleable, and partly because we don't like stitch ups.
Not even the allure of a deal being fast tracked by the House of Commons to maintain two party political dominance gained any traction, right or left. We're increasingly interested in smaller, or "other" parties. Strong governments are undesirable if they're strong and incompetent, or if they act with malice.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn couldn’t even whip his own party into agreement let alone make a deal with the Prime Minister.
For a taste of where we're heading, look to the result of the 2005 French Referendum which was ignored by then-President Jacques Chirac. With a turn out of 69 per cent, 55 per cent of voters said they did not approve the bill recognizing the establishment of a European Constitution.
This led to the rise of populism in France, handing a major platform to Marine Le Pen and her Front National (now Rassemblement National). There’s increasing demand for a second 'Frexit' vote. Even Emmamuel Macron recognized this when asked by interviewer if the French would have voted to leave like the British: "Yes. Probably, in a similar context," he said.
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Marine Le Pen (Image by TV Patriotes, CC)[/caption]
In the background, Brexiteer-in-Chief Nigel Farage has been co-ordinating himself and his newly formed Brexit Party to hedge against such a contention in the European elections. A bet that paid off for the former London Metal Exchange broker.
In an interview with Sky News Farage said: “We’ve been running the party like a company”. This is what British politics needs. A complete shake up of the two party system.
For Farage it looks to have been a success so far. In just over a four week period he is topping the polls at 30 per cent. His party has nearly 100,000 supporters paying £25 each for the pleasure. True to his salesman form – he even pulled in £100,000 from one donor. Not bad business for the first one month of the trading year, and certainly significant numbers in terms of UK politics.
Money aside, support is coming from else where with a recent ConservativeHome poll showing 60 per cent of Conservative voters would vote for the Brexit Party on May 23rd. This base, coupled with Farage’s steam train of a party, means business will be booming and the political establishment will be left with their heads in their hands in less than three weeks time.
When Farage says “We want a radical transformation of British politics”. He speaking not just about upholding the Brexit vote, but a complete reorganization of the politics Britain has known since the end of the Second World War.
Rebuilding from the ground up with real people, with real life experience, to govern properly and honestly.
It is a bad time to be an Eton graduate.
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