In Britain the Fascist Ukip Party is Gaining Popularity

Economic Deprivation Almost Always Leads to This –

Why Won’t Policy Makers Ever Learn?

In Britain the Conservative Party took over the government and promptly instituted a program of austerity to attack the recession.  This of course was silly, stupid and wrong headed.  And while the U. S. took the opposite tack, andhas experienced a slow but steady recovery, in Britain the recovery was delayed by years and is just now gaining strength. 

The recovery in Britain is of course highly uneven.  If one has a job in the banking sector and owns property in London, it is great.  If one is a manufacturing worker or a lesser skilled job seeker, the recovery is non existent.  And when all of this happens ultra right wing fascist type parties gain popularity.  In Britain this is the Ukip Party, a group of Europe hating, immigrant hating, extreme right winger haters.

Ukip emerged as the most popular of all parties, with 27 per cent of voters saying they “liked” Ukip the best. Mr Farage won 22 per cent of support in the poll as most favoured leader, behind Mr Cameron with 27 per cent. Ed Miliband, the Labour leader polled 18 per cent with Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, trailing with 13 per cent.

And the electoral news is worse.

Downing Street is bracing itself for a Ukip surge in the elections, with swaths of their supporters indicating they will vote Ukip. More than a third of voters who supported David Cameron in the 2010 election said they were considering voting for Ukip.

The research by Lord Ashcroft, former Conservative party treasurer and pollster, found that 37 per cent of 2010 Tory voters – the “defectors” – would not support the Tories in an election tomorrow. Half of those said they would shift their support to Ukip.

The Conservative Party must now determine which way to go, adopt offensive right wing policies and rhetoric to appeal to potential Ukip voters, or stand for some principles.  And unlike their U. S. cousins, British Conservatives, at least some of them do have principles.

Lord Ashcroft has urged the party not to be distracted from the task of winning new voters, however.

“Pundits will be preoccupied by how well Ukip do, and at what cost to the Conservatives. But the Tories must keep their eye on the prize.

“Whatever tactical moves they make to minimise losses in an election that many people regard as inconsequential – and therefore an opportunity to cast a cost-free protest vote – must not be at the expense of building a coalition of voters that could give them a majority at Westminster.”

The end result could of course be a fascist government in Britain by the end of this decade.  The blame for such a thing, that austerity economic policy and failure to recognize that economic growth and recovery must benefit all the people, not just the wealthy, in order to promote a sustained recovery and political stability.