It is not only that no evidence is ever produced of UKIP's oft-alleged appeal to Labour voters.
There is the question of what, even in principle, that appeal could possibly be.
Already the party of Stuart Wheeler and of the cranky anarcho-capitalist libertarians who write its economic policies, UKIP is now also the party of Paul Sykes.
Whatever he likes about it, Labour voters will not, and very obviously do not.
They will stick, and they are sticking, with the party of John Mills.
What that appeal to Labour voters could be?
ReplyDeleteIt's a bad time to ask that question-a recent poll of Northern voters showed the vast majority agree with almost every UKIP policy-from restoring grammar schools to cutting taxes and freezing immigration.
What could its appeal be to Labour voters?
The answers are endless.
For a start, that it's the only party prepared to protect the poor from the mass immigration stealing their jobs, houses, schools and neighborhoods, and the only party prepared to punish criminals and thus protect them from the blizzard of crime that the police have today admitted systematically covering up.
That it's the only party that has consistently vowed to increase defence spending sufficiently to protect skilled British manufacturing jobs and to cut the taxes that hit the poor and working class hardest.
And, of course, the only party that would give the talented poor a ladder of opportunity by restoring the long-lost grammar schools that get a third more poor children into University in Northern Ireland than we do on the comprehensivised mainland.
UKIP's policies are far more pro-poor than any of the Parliamentary parties.
Even Labour pollsters like Peter Kellner now admit Labour voters are far more Right-wing than any of the Parliamentary parties, on issues ranging from welfare to prison and immigration.
ReplyDeletePeter Kellner analysed a year of survey data and says ""Big majorities in all parts of Britain share the view that welfare benefits generally should be reduced.""
"A majority-North and South- think more convicted criminals should be sent to prison"
It is not the Labour Party, so it has no appeal to Labour voters, who now account for almost everyone who votes at all in the North. Agreeing with specific policies is beside the point.
ReplyDeleteThat is how the Northern Labour vote (among several other Labour votes) works. It is not in any sense up for grabs, and on its territory it is massively dominant in a way that the Conservative vote just is not anywhere anymore, hence the existence of UKIP.
Even Labour pollsters like Peter Kellner now admit Labour voters are far more Right-wing than any of the Parliamentary parties, on issues ranging from welfare to prison and immigration.
ReplyDeleteBut they will still vote Labour. They still do vote Labour. Anything else would be a betrayal. It would be unconscionable.
That is the advantage with which Labour starts. No other party has people like that. Labour has almost enough of them to win on their votes alone.
Indeed.
ReplyDeleteThat is Peter Hitchens entire point, in a nutshell.
That the continued existence of this dead useless two-party regime (like a bindweed strangling our possibilities) prevents the people voting for something better.
The polls show many no longer vote at all-and that most of those who do still vote, do not agree with the policies of those that they vote for.
UKIP or its equivalent, as Hitchens rightly contends, couldn't stand a chance until and unless one of the Big Two collapses.
But the appetite for something better is clearly there-as the polls consistently show.
I agree many of them will vote Labour-whatever Labour does. Tribalism is completely irrational.
ReplyDeleteThat's why the continued existence of these parties is a complete roadblock to any meaningful reform.
No party is going to cease to exist while, simply by existing at all, it is guaranteed almost enough votes to win a General Election.
ReplyDeleteNo party is going to cease to exist while, simply by existing at all, it is guaranteed easily enough votes in the right places to deliver hundreds of safe seats.
And no party is going to cease to exist while, simply by existing at all, it is guaranteed thousands of councillors controlling scores of councils that dominate great swathes of the country.
The internal feud over the votes of Surrey pensioners is becoming boring.