Posted on 04/30/2013 3:37:33 AM PDT by markomalley
It was only a matter of time before the attack dogs were turned on Ukip, with the Conservatives apparently behind stories about some of the more eccentric Ukip candidates as evidence that the party is extremist and odd – or, in Kenneth Clarke’s words, that the party is full of “waifs and strays” who are “against” foreigners and immigrants.
Well, political people tend to be odd, and all parties attract their fair share of weird people. As for extremists, Liberal Democrats in local politics have been notoriously willing to talk immigration down the years, when it suits them, and the Labour Party still contains its fair share of ex-Communists.
Ukip’s vulnerability is that whereas in most cases parties are not defined by more extreme elements, they are when it comes to the issue of immigration. And immigration is by some distance the main issue driving Ukip’s support.
Earlier this month the Washington Post reported that the “UK Independence Party finds its voice amid growing anti-immigrant wave”, the American newspaper getting past our British reserve to explain what the rise of Britain’s anti-party party is really about – mass immigration, not Europe. And yet with Theresa May having some success at reducing numbers, why does Ukip continue to surge? Perhaps because the Tories have mistakenly tried to join a liberal consensus many of their supporters don’t agree with.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.telegraph.co.uk ...
He might as well have been talking about the TEA Party here. Fixed. We need more muscle and less Bush-like “I’m not fighting back because you won’t like me” attitude.
Spot on Mark, it is just another establishment government whose purpose is to divide and conquer rather than unite, for their own elitist, statist, corrupt, existence for power dominance over the serfs.
Just what I was thinking. Welcome to the club, Tory Conservatives.
Are we going to have third parties world wide?
THE BRITISH GOP!!!!!!!!!
LLS
And, its only going to get worse.
Like the Republicans, the best the Tories will do is slow down the march to socialism.
Aren’t the Brit Liberals equivalent (or close to) Conservatives back in the states?
I’ll second (or third) that emotion.
No, but they are not as socialist (at least relatively speaking) as the term would imply in the US. Labor is the truly left wing party - the Liberal Democrats (as they now are) have centrists through to the centre left - they try to occupy a middle ground between the conservatives and Labor.
(In Australia, where I live, the Liberal Party is the major conservative party and comes from the same tradition of British Liberalism as the Liberal Democrats in the US, but here, we've stayed closer to its roots, while in England, it's gradually shifted leftwards).
From my perspective, as a conservative (and I do have dual British/Australian citizenships), Labor are the enemy. The Liberal Democrats are people I'd be willing to work with against Labor - but knowing there are times they might be willing to work with Labor against us. And, to some extent, this reflects the current governmental situation in Britain with its coalition government - a Conservative/LibDem coalition is a better situation than a Labor/LibDem coalition and far better than an outright Labor government - but nowhere near as good as an outright Conservative government could be (if it let itself be itself and stopped pandering.)
I guess so, especially now that they are in coalition with the Conservatives. During the Blair era, though, some liberal politicians were further to the left than Labour on the lifestyle and social issues, if I'm not mistaken. They didn't have the baggage of the older working class labor unions that Labour had.
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