FAO Old Man

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Very, very, VERY good post.

Ukip and the SNP have very different policies (right-wing populism for one, left-wing populism for the other), but I see them as a manifestation of the same phenomenon. Disenfranchisement of huge swathes of the population by an electoral system which is a corrupt, self-perpetuating joke and political parties who, to so many, look the same, sound the same and change precisely nothing for the better.

Many people within Ukip itself are racist, but many/most of their supporters aren't. Most of their supporters are just crying out for something different - and that's not their fault. It's the system's. I will always deplore it when the likes of Salmond or Farage wave cheap, emotive totems and offer simplistic, populist solutions which they know can't be delivered - but they gain such traction because our established parties are such a complete shower.

There is an irony in all this though. In that horribly unrepresentative electoral system I mentioned, the British people rejected socialism four times on the bounce - so Labour had to change. When it did, it won, three times in a row. Yet the same people who rejected socialism again and again, then voted for Blair again and again, now whine about 'lack of difference'. So much so that they fail to notice that Labour is now standing on a genuinely left of centre platform - because they assume the man ineptly communicating the message is an out-of-touch wet liberal.

If we want a different political system, more in tune with what the people want, we have to get away from the cult of leaders (whereby 'electability' seems to be defined on whether the leader seems a decent chap you might like to go for a pint with) and focus on the substance and the policy. But we don't. We demand simple answers ourselves, and expect politicians to work miracles when far more complex, powerful economic forces actually govern all of us nowadays.

In that sense, we get what we deserve. The main parties only give us what, at every election since 1979, we've repeatedly shown we wanted. And what we wanted included - because we kept voting for it - neo-liberalism, de-regulation and trickle down economics; and it never included significant tax rises. Any party which proposed those lost: leading to a farcical situation of the British people wanting quality public services but not being prepared to pay for them.

Posted By: thebigfeller on February 17th 2015 at 00:47:34

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