Pushing The Button

"The modern-day CND", Nigel Farage called the Lib Dems in one of his cheaper moments. If they really did hold the policy that he attributed to them, which they do not, then Nick Clegg would be the the modern-day Ronald Reagan, John G Diefenbaker, Anthony Head, Peter Thorneycroft, Nigel Birch, Aubrey Jones, George Jellicoe and, above all, Enoch Powell.

Reagan aside, when did UKIP cease to be a voice of High Toryism and of its affinity with, for example, the socially conservative rural populism that cherishes Canadian independence from the United States? When it came to be led by a groupie of Margaret Thatcher, presumably. Under him, nor would it have opposed the Iraq War or Blair's attacks on civil liberties.

That alleged genius, Ed Miliband, conflated China with Iran as nuclear threats. In his own terms, he was wrong. But he spoke truer than he was capable of knowing. China has nukes, whereas Iran has none, has no way of acquiring them, and openly does not want any. But each is exactly as much of a threat to Britain. Or, indeed, to anywhere else.