UK Independence Party (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This is an excellent editorial in the UK’s Guardian/Observer. It’s well worth a read. Check it out!
The article explores the implications of the UK Independent Party’s strong performance in the local elections last week. The article examines the results from the perspective of the three main political parties. The conclusion is that the leadership of the three main parties is out of touch with ordinary people and an urgent re-connect is required.
Clearly, back-bench Tory MPs are fearful of losing their seats in parliament at the the next general election, so they will increase pressure on Prime Minister, David Cameron.
Any thoughts?
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Many, many thoughts, Alf. we see throughout the EU a democratic deficiency. People, here in the UK and in other member states, feel that they no longer have any real say in matters governmental and this was firmly on display on Thursday.
I did not vote on Thursday. I could not see a single candidate who, in my opinion, was likely to prove a worthwhile Councillor. I read everything I could find: the Conservative, Labour and Green Party all delivered leaflets; I read the UKIP website policy pages; there was nothing available about the Lib Dem (may be excused for feeling that the LD’s have as many policies as they have candidates and so consulting their web site would have been a waste of time). How can I register protest other than by voting for UKIP? Precisely. However, that would be to encourage a party that has little to offer other than rhetoric and that I would not do.
Either there has been a sea change or nothing much will happen. I have a feeling that it will be the latter but I could be wrong. I cannot see that UKIP in local authorities will be able to offer any real advantages to those who voted for them and that this will become quickly apparent. Then there is the matter of UKIP policies. If they are as uncosted and random as they are today, unthinking voters might support them at a general election: if they pull themselves together and produce sensible policies suited to the UK in the 21st century, they will look no different from the other parties,
What it has done is to highlight the paucity of leadership in politics at the moment but we knew that anyway.
Incidentally, I do wish that politicians would understand that a list of aspirations is not a policy statement but a wish list. Those three leaflets all fell into that category. Sure I want a society where everyone in the UK is happy, wealthy and healthy so vote for me even though, like you and a million others, I have no idea how to set about creating it.
PS Sorry for the long absence – have had a few health problems.
Dear Rodney,
Thank you very much for sharing your views which are always welcome.
Firstly, I wish you well and and a full recovery from your health problems.
I have read your views carefully and can very much relate to them. I am not currently in the UK so did not have the opportunity to vote.
Sadly, democracy seems to have been relegated in today World and we live in a world of powerful, un-elected institutions, like the IMF. Also much of the EU decision-making process seems undemocratic and exposed to political bullying. I have enormous respect for modern Germany and how sensibly and prudently Germany is managed but when Germany takes decisions that are not in the interests of other countries surely democracy has failed.
I am still pro-EU but a lighter more trade focused deal, along the lines of the 1970s model.