malf
Member
Nigel Farage was always a one trick pony. He was the vocal catalyst for longstanding misgivings in the major parties about Europe, but was defined by what he was against, not what he represented by way of alternatives. UKIP were a protest party for a disaffected Labour voting working class, and the far right, and their occasional glimpses of good sense should not be taken as representative of their ideology, which was the usual mixture of misplaced nostalgia and bigotry.
I listened to Peter Hitchens saying something very similar to this:What we have are two centrist tendencies defined as Blairism that transcend party boundaries, and an increasingly marginalised socialist left and conservative right. In reality there's nothing between the con-lab middle in politics, ideology or social background, and far more in common between traditional conservatism and conservative socialism than they seem prepared to admit.
The logical thing to do would be to abandon party sentiment and allow the new liberal democratic (con-lab) and conservative (trad-social) parties to take shape, once again giving voters more than a notional choice. Until such a coalescence takes place UK politics will be marked by murky expediency adrift on the tide of events, with its cut throat opportunism, surrounded by fragmented siren voices on its inevitable destination.
I am 90% confident :)
David
... it seems that no one wants to pick up the baton for the final exit. From the horses mouth:
Absent from the entire Remain repertory, before as well as after the vote, was any sense that the question of continued EU membership for Britain involved substantive issues about which it was possible to have reasoned disagreement. It should have been obvious that telling people that their concerns don’t matter, and berating them with schoolyard insults when they demur, was not going to convince them to change their vote. That this was not obvious to the pro-EU camp, and shows little evidence of becoming any more obvious even in the wake of defeat, hints that the issues in question are things that the pro-EU camp is utterly unwilling to see discussed at all.
I suggest that this is exactly what’s going on, and a glance back across the last century or so of British political history may help point out the unspoken realities behind the shouting.
Well done, Lisa! :)Also interesting, in Lisa's video, when she points out that most of the UK PMs, and the contenders in the last election, were Cardinal signs (Capricorn, Libra, Aries, Cancer)... and (c. 4-5 minutes) "Boris Johnson, he's Gemini, but his chart his not looking good for the leadership, but keep your eye on Theresa May because she's another Libra and she may be in there as a future leader". :)
Just weeks after the UK voted to leave the European Union, researchers are losing grants.
BBC News has spoken to several research groups and small businesses who say they will soon have to scale down operations and lay off staff.
To tag everyone who voted out as xenophobic or racist would indeed be wrong. I hope I didn't give that impression. What I intended to get across was the impression I had that xenophobia played a part in the victory, though how big a part I could not be sure. I saw naked racism first hand and I have friends who were targeted so there is no point in denying that it happens. With such a small margin between the two sides of the vote, I was merely speculating on whether the extremist faction might have made the difference.
Additionally, I found the rhetoric of Farage offensive. That is my personal opinion of the man and his triumphalist "You're not laughing now" speech at the EU after the vote confirmed that opinion.
The main difference was between the have's and have not's. Those who were content with the status quo, middle class home owning people in employment, and the rest. The first category, including the political classes, have talked for years about the disadvantaged while doing nothing practical to help them, mainly because their wealth was based at least in part on EU membership. An open door policy on immigration may meet ideals of equality, but does little for your wage packet if you're in the food processing industry in the Fens, or a roofer competing with people who'll do the same job for half the price. The remain campaign have depicted Brexiteers as stupid, and no doubt some are. On the other hand if you have nothing, you have nothing to lose, and a sufficient number found themselves in that position to swing the vote.Ironically, I've had some quite pointed comments suggesting that people like me (Baby Boomers) were at fault for the leave result. While that may be true for my age group in general it was certainly not the case for me personally. I usually point out that the young might have got the result they wanted if they had been bothered to vote.