“My one little UKIP vote won’t do any harm” thought a lot of people. “It’s just a protest vote after all.” Unheeded went the words of comedian Stewart Lee when he pointed out that voting UKIP as a protest was a bit like “Protesting against room service in a hotel by shitting in your bed and then having to sleep in it.”
So today we all wake up with 24 UKIP MEP’s representing Britain in the European Parliament. That’s quite a large sum of money we’ve just donated to UKIP funds. And that’s before they’ll pick up their expenses. Which they will. Farage himself admitted that by 2009 he had personally taken £2m of taxpayers money in expenses and allowances. So well done those of you who thought that was a bright idea. I mean it’s not as if UKIP didn’t already have masses of financial bankers to fund their election campaigns but now they’ve got a couple of million quid more to toss into the election kitty.
Who have we elected exactly??
And who even knows who they’ve elected?? If William Dartmouth walked into your local now would you even recognise him? Yet oddly, the Eton educated William Legge, 10th Earl of Dartmouth, has been UKIP MEP for South West England since 2009 . This member of the ‘People’s army’ and ‘fighter against the establishment’ was of course a Tory peer in the House of Lords until the last Labour Government got rid of (most) hereditary peers. So well done all those of you who thought by voting UKIP you were fighting the ‘establishment’ and the ‘political class’ . There’s the fighter you already had and er, still have.
Now it has been mentioned a few times that UKIP are in fact really just a bunch of Tories and that it probably isn’t in the interests of the working class to bring back Thatcherism, as Farage would dearly love, but we seem to be heading that way. Although UKIP was founded as a non sectarian, non racist, mildly Eurosceptic cross party idea back in the early 90’s, things certainly changed when Tory Public Schoolboy Farage took over the reigns. Original founder Alan Sked said “They got rid of all that after I left. They took out the stuff about no prejudices against lawful minorities.” In an article in the Guardian Sked claims that Farage wanted ‘ex National Front’ candidates to run for UKIP saying “There’s no need to worry about the nigger vote, the nig nogs will never vote for us.” Farage denies this but Sked also claims that ex NF organisers are now working for UKIP. Sked said “That’s the kind of person people are voting for when they vote UKIP. Why does anyone have time for this creature? He’s a dim-witted racist.” But of course, this is exactly what we appear to have voted for.
So that’s what we’ve got. That’s what democracy gave us. Now we have a year to put it right.
Today Labour leader Ed Miliband stood up in Thurrock, Essex, the heart of this murky new political landscape and launched Labour’s campaign for the 2015 elections. Under strong pressure from Party members not to give any ground to the UKIP message of division, the socialist son of immigrants, laid out his case saying:-“I am not here simply to tell you Labour can win but to tell you why we must.”
Miliband’s well publicised speech set out the political position today not in the context of the last 3 weeks of frenzied media Ukippery but looked back over the last three decades explaining the big changes that have happened to Britain economically, socially and politically and why millions of people feel that “The country does not work for them, politics does not listen to them and cannot answer them.”
In a pledge to go out into the country to address these concerns he said “If Labour’s going to change things, we have to be in communities all over Britain talking about the issues that matter. And that’s why I am here. I want to start by talking about some people I met here. Because they tell us so much about Britain today.”
He spoke of people with good college qualifications only able to find part time work, people with low paid jobs unable to afford their own home and of course people uneasy with the changes brought about by immigration and who feel left behind by what has happened. “People who in years gone by would have been Labour till they die.Their parents certainly were.Their grandparents too. So how have we got to this point? And what do we do about it?”
Blaming Foreigners is NOT the answer.
The key was of course to get the economy right and to rebuild communities pointing to “The need for secure jobs with good prospects “
He spoke up for the last Labour government which he said “Did great things: rescuing our NHS, investing in schools and supporting working families with tax credits.” But said that “They were not enough by themselves because ordinary working people, people who weren’t rich, felt life was getting harder.” And he went on to defend Labour’s policies by saying “Looking to the future, openness, concern for the poorest and a belief in the modern economy were not wrong.They were right. But it was not enough.That’s why there is no future for Labour saying we should simply pick up from where we left off in 2010.Labour was founded on standing up for working people. But for too many that link was lost.”
UKIP had of course sought to exploit this alienation. “They provide a simple explanation of the cause of our country’s problems: Europe and foreigners. And they have an apparently simple solution: to get out of the European Union. I have to say: this is not the answer for our country. This will never be Labour’s mission or policy under my leadership. Our future lies in looking outward to the world.Some people will tell you that closing ourselves off from the world will deliver for working people. It won’t. It will harm working people. Think of all the jobs here that still rely on trade. That’s why our future lies in the European Union.”
Immigrants benefit the country as a whole
Tackling immigration head on he said “I am the son of immigrants.I am proud of the contribution my parents made to this country.I believe immigration benefits our country as a whole. But it needs to be properly managed. It is not prejudiced to worry about immigration, it is understandable.”
He said “Labour would tackle the undercutting of wages, and ensure people in public services speak English and people need to earn their entitlements. But a Labour government won’t make false promises, or cut ourselves off from the rest of the world because it would be bad for Britain.”
He promised “A big change in our economy, so we make sure there are good jobs in successful businesses, which are properly paid, and not the insecurity that comes with zero-hours or short-hours that leaves people short-changed. “
He spoke of Labour’s other key policies ‘energy price freeze, policies on rents, policies on banks, and house building saying “To meet the challenges we face we need more change, not less. We will be showing how we can create the wealth of the future, ensure decent jobs, raise wages and have a better start in life for our young people.”
Well, don’t forget that in the Poll that mattered – the actual vote on the day – Labour beat the Tories in both local council elections and in the European elections. In this morning’s Populus poll there’s figures of CON 32%, LAB 37%, LDEM 10%, UKIP 13%. While that doesn’t look notable at first sight, Populus tend to show some of the lowest Labour leads, so five points is actually the largest they’ve shown since February. But your point is right in that Labour must not fall into UKIP’s lap by conceding their agenda. Labour has been making steady ground since losing office badly last time round but UKIP is a wild card that’s hitting buttons the other parties can’t hit. A lot of the struggle is to demistify to people what UKIP actually are – and that’s a bunch of Tories. Brian
Brian … Thank you for your comments … I just ask what was the Thurrock speech? It really struck me as to little to late and extremely vague on direction … Yes Miliband identified with disaffected voters by identifying with UKIP and their policies … UKIP having deprived Labour of control of the council … He was forced into a position where he had to say something … However if UKIP’s vote has based on, for example, Britian being independent of Europe … And we must remember that UKIP have recieved a massive vote … What did Miliband tell the voters? Basically Labour was going to go on in the same old way … Same old system, fiddled around the edges a bit, but no real changes … I simply ask are people likely to come over to the Labour Party en masse and vote for them?
Again I say, and I far from frightened to say, and as loud as I can, “The Labour Party has had years to prepare for this election coming, the opposition have punished the decent hard working people of Britian for a recession they did not cause, in fact they’ve made them pay for it, working people have seen decreases in earnings, food banks multiply, hard won institutions like the NHS stripped, and by the LibDems especially they have been lied to … Seen any bankers going without their bonuses? Seen the Inland Revenue seriously tackling tax evasion? Etc … In perhaps the worst recession there ever was where was the Labour Party? And we sit and wonder now why the vote has gone elsewhere”.
The truth of it is we can sit here and debate the ins and outs, many of us have an interest in politics, local and national, some have a passion for their party … On the inside we know some of the strengths, weaknesses and dangers … But to your average punter whose vote any party needs to attain power … Well that’s another thing … Because there you have to capture ‘Hearts and Minds’ … And that is what the mainstream political parties all failed to do recently.
The last time I looked at the polls before the recent elections Labour was trailing behind the Conservatives … Again I ask “after years of recession and opportunity why?” Is it perhaps they’re not really saying anything?
So in a sense Glen, you’re echoing what Miliband said in his Thurrock speech – that Labour isn’t being seen as representing what it’s traditional voters expect it to. And that’s fair comment and what many people in the party have said for a long time and so we’re all working to change that now . Milibands speech recognises that so he’s got 12 months to prove it. Hope you’re with us and we can all head in the right direction together, because if the UKIP ‘protest’ vote becomes a ‘vote of conviction’ this time next year we really have got a major problem that will need far more than a marginalised organised Labour movement in a Parliamentary context will be able to deal with……
I am a traditional trade unionist … Not some militant … But someone who believes in the trade union movement, ensuring that the ordinary decent hard working person has some protection, and is given a voice.
In our distant past people like myself fought for the installation of a party in Parliament called the “Labour Party”. The one that now appears to want to distance itself from people like me. Naturally it wants large donations, but in all the turmoil, slash and burn of the last 4 years, where has it been? In all our protests, and I’ve been on plenty, where was Labour? I’ve even had the BBC say to me during the teachers strike when 20000 of us protested on a March in Bristol ‘Your party leader doesn’t support you’ to which I replied ‘The party is not one man”.
And some years after that demonstration (and various others), with UKIP having picked up the votes, that Labour might have from a disgruntled electorate, but it hasn’t. Why? Might I be so bold as to suggest that many do not feel/ do not believe, that Labour represents them anymore … To people like myself and I’m a member, a traditionalist, with Miliband making it increasingly obvious that we’re an embarrassment, but keep sending the £millions, then even I would raise the question, ‘who are Labour representing?’.
At this point, when perhaps millions of others in Britain fell the same … Enter UKIP … Why are we so surprised at the poll results? Perhaps those results are all protest. But even then the protest didn’t come to Labour. What happens on that basis if the poll doesn’t come to them in the national elections?
Labour is going in the wrong direction … I’m not afraid to stand up and say that.