Professor Doctor Alan Sked, who founded UKIP twenty years ago, has been interviewed by the Sunday Telegraph. He argues that the party really is full of headbangers, and goes on to speculate that a new, leftist anti-EU party is needed. This is my take on his argument:
The chances of a leftist UKIP being created are about nil, I should think. Given that the Liberals messed up the whole idea of electoral reform for at least another generation, that is probably no bad thing as any such party would get nowhere.
I accept Alan Sked's point that UKIP is in many ways the party of those sad arsed losers who dream that Mummie Maggie is going to return and make everything right for them. I found that out to my cost when I joined in the gloating at the old harridan's death and had my candidacy for the recent elections removed. So, yes, the party has to decide if if is a fan club for that creature, or a coalition that wants to get our country out of the EU.
If the former is the case then UKIP is doomed, because working class people on council estates are not going to vote for a Thatcherite party. If the latter becomes true then the party needs to start living up to its claimed belief in localism and leave local parties to fight local campaigns. The people of Surrey may very well love their privatised world, but Oldham never voted to lose its collectivist municipal services and would probably vote to have them back.
This amounts to having two parties, one working class and the other not, under one roof. As has been pointed out to me before now, that will not hold in the long run, but as I reply, in the long run we are all dead, anyway. If it holds long enough to force the referendum to be held on the EU, then UKIP will have served its purpose.
An investigation is currently being mounted by the party into my treatment. I shall await the outcome of that before deciding if UKIP really can become the electorally successful coalition that I want to see.
The chances of a leftist UKIP being created are about nil, I should think. Given that the Liberals messed up the whole idea of electoral reform for at least another generation, that is probably no bad thing as any such party would get nowhere.
I accept Alan Sked's point that UKIP is in many ways the party of those sad arsed losers who dream that Mummie Maggie is going to return and make everything right for them. I found that out to my cost when I joined in the gloating at the old harridan's death and had my candidacy for the recent elections removed. So, yes, the party has to decide if if is a fan club for that creature, or a coalition that wants to get our country out of the EU.
If the former is the case then UKIP is doomed, because working class people on council estates are not going to vote for a Thatcherite party. If the latter becomes true then the party needs to start living up to its claimed belief in localism and leave local parties to fight local campaigns. The people of Surrey may very well love their privatised world, but Oldham never voted to lose its collectivist municipal services and would probably vote to have them back.
This amounts to having two parties, one working class and the other not, under one roof. As has been pointed out to me before now, that will not hold in the long run, but as I reply, in the long run we are all dead, anyway. If it holds long enough to force the referendum to be held on the EU, then UKIP will have served its purpose.
An investigation is currently being mounted by the party into my treatment. I shall await the outcome of that before deciding if UKIP really can become the electorally successful coalition that I want to see.
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