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The triumphant pigeons of bigotry.

ELECTION RESULTS PROVIDE great entertainment for cynics and winners alike. In last week’s parliamentary by-elections, for instance, Banksy’s grey pigeons of bigotry elected Britain’s first Ukip MP (as predicted); but in another seat, Heywood and Middleton, Ukip very nearly unseated the squatting Labour candidate, losing by a mere 600 votes. That was not expected by anyone.

The Tories knew they were going to lose, so the shock has not been so great for them. Labour, on the other hand, thought they could rely on their proles in the whippet-and-flat-cap brigade to turn out for them in sufficient numbers to keep their seat. They did, but only just. It’s now apparent that the plebs of the deindustrialised “tracksuit-and-trainers” north are finding more in common with the “all-our-yesterdays” south (as Matthew Parris might have it) than Labour’s smug nomenklatura realise.

The problem for Labour is twofold. Firstly, they don’t understand why this is happening. Secondly, they don’t know how to counter it. Labour’s obsession with political correctness, its obeisance to the EU, its interfering authoritarianism and its unbalanced emphasis on welfare rather than wealth creation and individual aspiration have severed its connection with what used to be its natural constituency, “the working class”. And that old “working class” itself no longer exists. For Labour it’s been replaced by a dependency class and a rump of supporters who would vote for a monkey as long as it had a red rosette pinned to its chest.

In truth all three major parties realise that something is amiss but can’t work out what it is, so disconnected from the populace are they.

In truth all three major parties realise that something is amiss but can’t work out what it is, so disconnected from the populace are they. At least the Tories understand that getting the economy back on track is important. They also realise that immigration is a key issue. Since they’re as committed to mass immigration as both Labour and the LibDems, though, they don’t really want to do anything about it. Instead they have to pretend they will do something, and thus make empty statements the media are happy to repeat without examination. It’s not going to end well: like a Ponzi scheme of promises the whole thing will collapse about their ears.

In the meantime we have another by-election to look forward to, in Rochester and Strood, where the Tories may very well lose another seat to the Ukip insurgency. The drab, dull pigeons of bigotry may again be victorious.

Michael Blackburn.

 

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