Outside Right

Why are UKIP's Members of the European Parliament campaigning to ensure continued public funding of a Europarty of which the main affiliates are the BNP, the Front National and Jobbik? So much for the lower-middlebrow standby that those are somehow parties of the Left. Unless UKIP is. Is it?

Godfrey Bloom's argument is that this is about democracy, pluralism, and freedom of speech. UKIP fears being next on the hit list. "First, they came for the Nazis," and all that. Quite what it says about UKIP's sense of self, that it fears being next on the hit list after that lot, it is perhaps politest not to speculate.

But, although that is a very valid argument, it is only half the story. UKIP is the Outside Right of British politics, the very rightmost point of the acceptable spectrum, the most right-wing force with the representatives of which everyone else would share a platform or a panel.

That gives it an organising role in anchoring the Right while engaging fully in the battle of ideas at every level of cultural life and of the education system, and while co-ordinating broad-based and inclusive campaigns on issues of common interest, all the while acting as a friendly critic and a critical friend of the Conservative Party.

Sometimes, that means protecting the funding of the BNP, in order to ensure that it was still there when the wider Right needed it for whatever purpose. That is what UKIP is doing at the moment. Of course.

Happy Holocaust Day

If you find the title of this post offensive, then so you should. But what else is one supposed to say? The whole thing is as ridiculous as it is revolting.

For one thing, why is it on 27th January, the day Auschwitz exchanged mass-murdering Nazi tyranny for mass-murdering Soviet tyranny?

Why not 15th April, the day Belsen really was liberated, and that by the British? In some years, that would even coincide usefully with Easter.

Salus Populi Suprema Lex

As they say round Lewisham way.

National implications, indeed.

I love London, really.

Bulwarks To That

Which privatisation did the EU prevent?

Which dock, factory, shipyard, steelworks or mine did it save?

Well, there you are, then.

I cannot see what the people who accrue to UKIP have against the EU.

Happy Australia Day

And yes, it certainly still is.

It is to the Head of the Commonwealth of Australia and of each of that Commonwealth's States severally.

God Save The Queen.

As Usual

A comment on one of yesterday's posts suggests that my social conservatism is not the "usual" definition of the Left? Really? "Usual" where, exactly?

Not within the post-Blairite Labour Party, for a start. It is quite apparent who has won in the end when Christian Concern, which used to be called Action for Biblical Witness to Our Nation, is linking approvingly to the latest speech by Diane Abbott, and is sharing it via Facebook and Twitter. Abbott is a Shadow Minister, unlike plenty of people whom one could mention.

I have just been followed on Twitter by Andrew Jordan, the President of Arthur Scargill's Socialist Labour Party, which beats the BNP and the English Democrats whenever it fights the same ward as either or both, and which beats the BNP in the elections to the Scottish and Welsh devolved bodies, all the while holding the line squarely against the EU and all its works.

On his Twitter profile, before mentioning that he is "Marxist in political ideology" (we'll have to work on him), he describes himself as "Catholic in faith". But first of all, he points out that he is 24 years old. That is four years younger than even Owen Jones.

We are the future.

All Aboard The Triple Dip

Whereas there was no recession at all in the United Kingdom on the day of the 2010 General Election. The IMF is knocking at the door of the worst Chancellor ever. Ever, ever, ever.

But hope is at hand. Ed Balls on The World at One sounded like Peter Shore, joining with the unions to exhort the listeners to "Buy British".

If there were a conservative, Tory party, then it would be saying the same thing. Perhaps there is? There is certainly a party for which conservative, Tory people can, should, and in huge numbers increasingly do vote.

One Nation, indeed.