In light of the hangover of the independence referendum, Ive become rather quiet on the political front lately. This is partly due to exhaustion from campaigning, blogging, dialoguing and raising awareness to my peers of the biggest political issues of an epoch. However, in light of UKIP gaining their first seat in the House of Commons via Tory defector Douglas Carswell, this has been the proverbial cattle prod to the balls which Ive needed to get me back on form, rejuvenated and energised. Political apathy gains nothing; weve already rejected full independence for Scotland, and with the General Election looming, we cannot sleepwalk into a Tory/UKIP coalition. Heres an article which I wrote back in May outlining my concerns regarding Nigel Farage and UKIP, slightly modified in order to respond to the referendum outcome and have more relevance today than 6 months ago. Douglas Carswell opposes The War Crimes Act, The Dangerous Dogs Act and equal rights for LGBT people. Furthermore, the new MP has written that he would like to remove legal protections that prevent employees from being fired by companies without following legal disciplinary procedures. He would also scrap rules giving part time workers the same rights to equal pensions and holiday as full time employees. Source - The Independent. Anyway, heres my article. Its a bit of a long read, but its researched and carefully written, so I hope you take the time to read or even share it; The popularity surge in UKIP and the cult of personality surrounding Nigel Farage is evident by the forthcoming election results, in which it appears that a significant number of Tory dissenters and frustrated former Labour voters have opted to cast their vote in favour of a more extreme, neoliberal version of the Conservatives. There are ample reasons to be concerned by this, but in not-so-typical fashion of me, Ill attempt to summarise these as briefly as possible; As if Tory cuts to the public sector wasnt enough, austerity for the poor and socialism for the rich - leading to over half a million people requiring the assistance of food banks within the past 12 months - has left large sections of the electorate disillusioned with the Conservatives. A lack of policy or direct action from the Opposition, particularly Ed Miliband, have in turn left even some of The Labour Partys most loyal hardliners feeling lost at sea. People want an alternative. The rhetoric of the political class has become nothing more than garble, hot air. David Cameron calls for permanent austerity, what do we hear from the Opposition bench? Not much. So, this man comes along, with his fedora hat, passionate speeches and charm (not to me, by the way.) He begins talking in a language that Joe Public on the street can understand; he dialogues with the people, shares a beer with them, puts himself into the public domain and taps into the mindset of fear. He plays on this; Its the fault of the EU that were in this mess, he says. Immigration is a major problem. If only those clowns in Parliament actually stood up to Brussels and to red tape, wed all be better off! This tactic is clearly evident to anyone with even scant political knowledge. Its populist in nature, which essentially means that it appeals to the more humble, easily swayed voter who isnt too sharp on current affairs. Its also reactionary; it scapegoats a particular group, demonises them, makes an invisible and unseen enemy of them, creates a Gölem, a bogeyman; The Romanians and Bulgarians are on their way and theyre coming for YOUR job! A quick scratch beneath the surface reveals a somewhat uglier side to their manifesto. Policies which are kept on the back burner compared to strong anti-EU and anti-immigrant rhetoric. These are where UKIPs more unsettling policies lie. These sort of policies arent the type that Nigel Farage and UKIP are prepared to have fully out in the open. Its Thatcherism on steroids and even the mere mention of the woman strikes anger and fear into the heart of working class communities everywhere, and they know it. Ive shared a good few of these before, but for the sake of clarity and refreshing ones memory, here are a mere handful of these policies again; Scrapping paid maternity leave. Raising income tax for the poorest 88% of Britons. Cancelling regulations to make banks safer. Cutting education spending in favour of the construction of 3 aircraft carriers. Cancelling all planned building of social housing. There was clearly a niche in the market for an alternative political party, and to the credit of UKIP and Nigel Farage, they appear to be filling that niche with a mixture of charm, allure, rhetoric, scaremongering, populism and reactionary scapegoating. According to a poll by YouGov from May 2012-2013, entitled Economic Policy, (I have the PDF if anyone requests it,) public opinion is in favour of the following policies; 56% of the public support a 75% rate of income tax on those who earn over a million pounds per year. They also want the 50% tax rate to kick in at £100,000, not £150,000. 60% of the public are in favour of a living wage implementation. 56% of people support a complete ban on zero hour contracts, which allow employers to send a worker home without pay at any time. 68% of the public want the re-nationalisation of the energy companies, including a significant majority of Conservative voters. All major parties have a majority of voters who also wish for public ownership of the railways. 67% of those polled favour the re-nationalisation of the Royal Mail. 57% of the public oppose academies in favour of local authorities overseeing the running of schools. 74% of the public favour tighter controls over the monopolisation of the press by tycoons and oligarchs such as Rupert Murdoch. 45% of those polled were in favour of the State capping private sector rent rates. And finally, 51% of people would like to see a 0.05% tax on major corporate financial transactions with the taxation being used to fund public services. This begs the question: If such left-wing ideas and policies are so popular in Britain, why is the electorate deviating further to the right? The answer is disillusionment. As opposed to acknowledging who is fully responsible for the economic and social decline in the UK over the past several years, the working class are divided and conquered. They are left fighting amongst themselves, fuelled by scaremongering on immigration from the right and the demonisation of the unemployed, sick, disabled and chronically marginalised, largely carried out by the right-wing press. Anger is rife; the Conservatives have affirmed themselves as The Nasty Party much to the chagrin of the left, the right wing, on the other hand, are misplacing their frustrations on nationality, race and their own class, as opposed to properly venting their frustrations upwards towards a decadent and reckless ruling class who brought this country to its knees through greed, deregulation of the financial sector, privatisation and gross economic mismanagement, all within the neoliberal framework of a Thatcherite economic infrastructure. The actions of a disillusioned electorate - be it a deliberate protest vote or voting for something which they do not fully understand - have a few implications. These range from grave to somewhat positive depending on your political alignment. These are as follows; The mainstream political parties who have lost votes to UKIP analyse the situation and respond accordingly. Personally, I find this a grim outlook for this reason: A vote for UKIP is a vote towards the right. This signals to the mainstream political class that the main concerns of the public are immigration and the EU. The polls tell a different story; Rampant privatisation, the carving up of the NHS, wage repression, workers rights, social housing, poverty and the Education Ministers loopy-ideological education policies are the flavour of the month, and theyre leaving a bitter taste. Worst case scenario, the mainstream parties respond to UKIP votes by heading even further to the right of the spectrum in order to appease those dissenters and disillusioned. The main issues of the day are left neglected in favour of reactionary populism. Best case scenario; The Scottish electorate, who are already shamefully under-represented at a national level, see the harbingers of a Tory-UKIP coalition on the horizon and decide that enoughs enough. We push onwards towards the devolution promises from the Three Stooges, Cameron, Clegg and Miliband, and elect a pro-independence party into the Scottish Parliament, be it The SNP, The Scottish Greens or The Scottish Socialist Party, far removed from the corporate fascist tentacles of the Tory-UKIP monster and their propaganda vehicles such as the Daily Mail and the BBC. A message has been sent by UKIP: Theres new kids in town. Were here, people are listening to us, we will not be ignored. We are to be taken seriously. Im inclined to agree. The fact that UKIP have won control of one Council in the UK doesnt necessarily mean that they are to be shirked. To attempt to laugh them off does very little to stop their momentum. The only way to challenge such neo-fascist, anti-worker ideologies is to strike at the heart of UKIPs policies, to challenge them directly wherever they may rear their ugly head. Their two-pronged and one-dimensional policy strategy cannot and will not solve the main social evils which we are experiencing today. Britain is on the brink of tottering straight back into the return of the 5 social evils of The Beveridge Report of 1945, its a social and economic regression which can only be challenged from the left with a strong vanguard of the working class to hold those responsible for this stratification of our society to account. A paradigm shift towards the right is not only ineffective in tackling such issues, but also dangerous and has severe implications for every worker in this country. The first step to ensuring that UKIP never darken our doorway is to directly confront their ideals with vigour and gusto, and to slam the door shut in their faces by vehement activism, education and - if it comes to it - organised, civil disobedience. Wherever fascism rears its ugly head, resistance will come to crush it.
Posted on: Fri, 10 Oct 2014 13:55:39 +0000
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