Ukip gains second MP in Rochester by-election
| Nigel Farage with Mark Reckless |
The career politicians of
all parties from the Westminster “old boys club”, still do not
understand what is happening in British politics today. Already, less
than 12 hours after the result was declared, our television screens
have been filled with politicians from the two main parties each
seeking to outbid the others in their almost dismissive attitudes
towards UKIP and their election win in Rochester and Strood. Within
hours of the result, leading political figures, television pundits
and the media, were dismissing the result with comments such as “well
everyone knew that they were going to win” or “It is only a
protest vote which is usual for a by election” or perhaps the most
smugly preposterous comment of all that,” they did not do as well
as they expected as their majority was very much lower than they were
predicting”.
It is this arrogant and
patronising attitude of the Westminster politicians, echoed by
television presenters and repeated in the wider media, that has
brought us to where we are today. It is clear that the British public
have become completely disillusioned with the existing political
classes and the way in which government has become distanced from the
people generally. This has been evidenced with continually falling
numbers of people belonging to or supporting any of the political
parties. It is further reflected by the numbers of people voting in
elections falling on each polling day.
Whatever we may think
about UKIP and its leader Nigel Farage, we cannot escape the fact
that this party has struck some kind of chord with large sections of
the British electorate, drawing support from all sides of the
political spectrum. It is all too easy to dismiss any by-election
result where a party other than Conservative, Labour or Liberal
Democrat top the poll as a protest vote. This may have been the case
some 20 or 30 years ago, but it it would be very naive to believe
that the results in Clacton and in Rochester and Strood, was simply a
protest against the status quo of Westminster politics.
With the next general
election now less than six months away attention will inevitably be
drawn towards the prospect of UKIP having a significant number of
seats in the next Parliament. There will inevitably be months of
negative campaigning by the main political parties in order to
prevent or at least alleviate voters turning to UKIP as a viable
political party.
Already the
Conservatives are saying that they are the only party that offer a
renegotiation of the European union terms, and a vote for UKIP means
that the British people will have Ed Milliband in 10 Downing Street
following the next general election. The “Vote UKIP get Milliband”
catchphrase is already scripted into any standard response from the
Conservative party spokespersons being paraded in front of any
passing journalist or television camera.
Grant Schapps and William
Hague repeated this catchphrase within minutes of each other and
pleaded for the return of a Conservative government in order to
continue with the policies which they argue, is delivering “the
recovery” to the British economy. As for the Labour party, Douglas
Alexander was again wheeled out to face the cameras and repeat the
now discredited two-year old distortion that UKIP, intend to make the
NHS subject to insurance cover for patients thus paving the way for
privatising the service. In last night question Time and again today
on the Sky News morning program, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, the
“Independent” journalist, repeated this smear. Clearly, this is
the shape of things to come.
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| Yasmin Alibhai-Brown |
| Douglas Alexander |
British politicians have
failed to grasp the simple truth. It is the patronising arrogance of
politicians generally, and their collective belief that nothing
exists outside the bubble of Westminster. People have become
completely disillusioned with the old status quo where Labour and
Conservatives have rotated government between them, based on a series
of promises and pledges which have been discarded and forgotten the
day after polling day.
The people of Rochester
and Strood, have delivered a verdict similar to that delivered in
Clacton only a few weeks previously, that British politics is now a
very different place from what it was only five years ago. The career
politicians in Westminster would be best advised to forget cliché,
sound bite and empty promises, remove their heads from the sand and
respond to the change in voting attitudes and intentions amongst the
people of this country. They should not assume that the rise in
voting for UKIP, will be restricted to the south-east corner of
United Kingdom. The votes cast in the last European elections
indicate that support for this party is widespread across the country
and indications are that this support will continue to grow.
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