Saturday 9 February 2019

Farage Sale?

Just how many attempts at a party to the right of the Conservatives have there been in the last 20 years? And here comes another one.

Complete with Nigel Farage, as if some pop singer who had been much publicised by his mates in the media during the first half of the decade, but who had never sold very many records, were now to attempt a comeback.

Notice that even Farage does not believe that the United Kingdom will leave the European Union at the end of next month. Say it, and the point is made: the end of next month. Don't be silly.

But beyond that, the Brexit Party wants to privatise the NHS, raising the question of why it would therefore want to leave the EU.

And not only is NHS privatisation favoured and promoted by the EU, but it is also the signature policy of New Labour.

The entire concept did not exist for 49 years until the NHS fell into the hands of Tony Blair, Alan Milburn and Paul Corrigan. It certainly never seems to have occurred to Margaret Thatcher.

A Blairite party without the Labour brand name might get a quarter of the vote here and there, but it would never be the First Past the Post anywhere.

And a party to the right of the Conservatives would now lose its deposit everywhere. Not that it would ever have done particularly well. That is not conjecture. It is repeatedly established fact. Just ask Nigel Farage.

1 comment:

  1. Diane Abbott's 2017 majority is bigger than the sum total of every vote that Nigel Farage has ever managed across seven parliamentary elections: 35,139 vs 33,146.

    ReplyDelete