On June 4th the United Kingdom had local council elections all over the country and elections for members of the European Parliament. The results of those elections have once again confirmed that the British public are far from the the stiff upper lipped stereotype we once were.
In the midst of an economic downturn and an expenses scandal the British public has turned on its government. It is possible that had the expenses scandal happened at a time when the majority of Britain was not feeling the effects of a bad economy the reaction would not have been so passionate, but that is beside the point. The public has lost faith in its government and quite rightly so. Labour took over under the promise of making Britain better for the working and middle classes and have so far managed to broaden the gap between the rich and the poor even further.
My objection is not to the disenfranchisement of the Labour government but to the consequences of such a disenfranchisement. Instead of a radical overhaul of the frankly outdated Parliamentary system complete with political parties actually tailored to helping the people, the British public has simply switched its collective votes to the right wing parties. The Conservatives made huge gains in both the council and European elections, as did the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP, founded by the tangerine faced bigot Robert Kilroy Silk) and even the overtly racist British National Party who gained two seats in the European Parliament.
This will not solve the problems. Running to the racist right of the country only underscores the complete lack of options in the British system. Labour has moved so far to the right that it is unrecognizable from its borderline socialist origins. Britain is so caught up in the idea of change from the election of Barack Obama that they seem to have forgotten that the party calling for change in Britain is the party that almost ruined Britain for eighteen years before Labour's 1997 electoral victory.
When the next general election is called, it will be the end of the Labour government and the start of the next Conservative one (barring some drastic change in the national psyche). I just hope that by the time this occurs I will be living in (or at least on my way to) the United States.
In the midst of an economic downturn and an expenses scandal the British public has turned on its government. It is possible that had the expenses scandal happened at a time when the majority of Britain was not feeling the effects of a bad economy the reaction would not have been so passionate, but that is beside the point. The public has lost faith in its government and quite rightly so. Labour took over under the promise of making Britain better for the working and middle classes and have so far managed to broaden the gap between the rich and the poor even further.
My objection is not to the disenfranchisement of the Labour government but to the consequences of such a disenfranchisement. Instead of a radical overhaul of the frankly outdated Parliamentary system complete with political parties actually tailored to helping the people, the British public has simply switched its collective votes to the right wing parties. The Conservatives made huge gains in both the council and European elections, as did the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP, founded by the tangerine faced bigot Robert Kilroy Silk) and even the overtly racist British National Party who gained two seats in the European Parliament.
This will not solve the problems. Running to the racist right of the country only underscores the complete lack of options in the British system. Labour has moved so far to the right that it is unrecognizable from its borderline socialist origins. Britain is so caught up in the idea of change from the election of Barack Obama that they seem to have forgotten that the party calling for change in Britain is the party that almost ruined Britain for eighteen years before Labour's 1997 electoral victory.
When the next general election is called, it will be the end of the Labour government and the start of the next Conservative one (barring some drastic change in the national psyche). I just hope that by the time this occurs I will be living in (or at least on my way to) the United States.
No comments:
Post a Comment