British elections dismay establishment leftists: Voters turning conservative all over Europe

American Thinker ^ | 05/24/2014 | Thomas Lifson

[SeekAndFind]

All over Europe, voters are turning in a conservative direction, and against the autocratic European Union and its big government enablers. New York Times reporters Steven Erlanger and Stephen Castle write a dripping-with-disdain account of local election results in the UK, which will be followed tomorrow by results for the European Parliament. To them, conservatgives are “right wingers” or “far-right” and those who object to EU takeover of sovereignty are “anti-Europe.”

Voters in Britain sent a forceful message of discontent to established political parties on Friday, as returns from local elections showed an even stronger following than expected for the anti-European Union, anti-immigration United Kingdom Independence Party.

The results had an immediate impact across the political spectrum, hurting the Labour Party as well as the partners in the governing coalition, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. The outcome is likely to increase the pressure on Prime Minister David Cameron to take an even harder line on reducing the powers of the European Union.

The local vote is expected to presage another strong showing for the Independence Party in elections for the European Parliament when those votes are counted late on Sunday. Some opinion polls showed the party with slightly more support than the other parties in the European voting, which took place on Thursday, the same day as the local balloting.

A larger trend is taking hold across Europe:

[SunkenCiv]

It’s all shaping up to be a backlash vote; the response of the pro-autocracy politicians will be to try to crush dissent. I don’t think they’ll succeed. I also don’t think the Euroskeptic ascendancy will continue for long.

[Daveinyork]

Either they are for bigger government, or smaller government and individual liberty. Most European “conservatives” are for bigger government. They are medievalists, no matter what they call themselves. Even so-called socialists are actually medievalists, believing in some sort of feudalism.