Friday, June 18, 2004

UKIP - The Angry Party

I don't always agree with Matthew Parris on many issues, but I think that with his latest article in the Spectator (free registration required), he has probably hit the nail on the head as accurately as it can be hit at present.

In particular:

I’ve enjoyed the flutter in Tory, Labour and Liberal Democrat dovecotes provoked by the Ukip fox in last week’s elections. To watch feathers flying among the ranks of our classe politique is always a pleasure, and I happen to think an uncomplicatedly anti-EU party has every right to exist. This one is set to exercise an influence on the course of both Labour and Tory policy towards Europe. But a cool view should be taken of Ukip’s likely progress towards its declared destination: getting into Parliament, and getting out of Europe. There is, however, one issue on which it may find headway still to be made, an issue which should worry Michael Howard more than European integration: to this I shall return in a moment.

and, returning, to it:

I said at the outset that there was one issue on which Ukip might, however, find vacuum into which to expand. That issue is not Europe at all. It is immigration. ‘BNP in blazers’ was meant as a taunt, but I fear that the prospect would not be unwelcome to much of Britain. The challenge to our mainstream parties to find a non-racist voice which can discuss and respond to our national fear of overcrowding may be more urgent than they think. It is a voice which Ukip may shortly find. When the electorate speaks, isn’t ‘we must hold our nerve’ rather an insulting response from the political class?


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