I couldn’t face the TV news this morning. The gurning face of the tobacco stained man frog, Nigel Farage, would have been too much for a sane man to bear, never mind me. “We have topped the poll in a fairly dramatic style,” said Farage. All round shyster and liar Boris Johnson added that the public had delivered “a crushing rebuke” to both major parties for failing to deliver Brexit. A great night for Brexit, right? Wrong.
Putting together the Brexit vote, which is essentially Farage and Ukip, you end up with 34.9% of the vote. The remain parties, which are The Lib Dems, Greens, SNP, Plaid and Change UK, accumulated 40.4% of the vote. Add Labour votes to remain and the Tory vote to leave and it turns out that 54.5% voted for remain parties and 44% voted for leave parties.
It is undoubtedly concerning that over 31% of those who voted did so for a party with literally no policies beyond a hard Brexit, no structure, no membership and with no disclosure of where its money came from. But that’s the state we are in. What America does – and they elected Trump – we follow in doing soon afterwards and that’s Brexit.
Farage’s supporters complain in Trumpian style about ‘fake news’ and yet that’s what we are getting this morning, albeit not in the direction they choose. Farage swept up the votes lost by the Tories and Ukip and topped the poll. Granted the opposition was divided but that should not obscure the reality. The vast majority of people did not vote for Farage’s hard Brexit and Johnson is simply wrong to say the electorate delivered a crushing rebuke” on the parties for failing to deliver Brexit.
Enough facts. What about the future? The hard right has broken through in British politics and the next Tory leader will undoubtedly take the party even further to the right to attempt to see off Farage. The lessons of history prove that appeasement usually fails. Appeasing a cynical populist like Farage will only feed his enormous ego and encourage him to go further still.
The future, I fear, will take care of itself and not in a good way. English nationalism is on the rise and the absence of mainstream politicians with leaders of compassion and vision allows the far right to dominate the stage.
Our standing, influence and credibility throughout the world diminishes on a daily basis. And it’s entirely self-inflicted.
