His ludicrous Unite The Right, Country Before Party (or "CountryB4Party", for pity's sake), or whatever his next name for it is going to be, has been laughed out from one end of the Conservative Party to the other end of UKIP.
Anyone member of either who held public or party office could expect to lose party membership upon signing up to this thing. But like all media insiders, Young wildly exaggerates both the extent and the depth of Euroscepticism among Conservatives at any level.
Having been run out of New York because no one there had ever heard of his father, Young is used to having his every whim indulged by whichever politician might happen to be seated next to him at the smartest of London soirées.
The suggestible Michael Gove adopted wholesale Young's cranky schools policy, of which there has been barely any take-up, with two forced closures already, and with the recent concession of the need for a "middle tier", otherwise known as a Local Education Authority.
But Young has overreached himself this time. His jolly ruse to merge the Conservative Party and UKIP under himself is about to see him howled and snorted out of his second world city. To where will he run next?
Young plainly doesn't "exaggerate the extent of euroscepticism" among Tories.
ReplyDeletePolls confirm that over 80% of Tory members, over half of Tory MP's and all UKIP supporters want to either substantially repatriate powers or withdraw outright from the EU.
Almost nobody polled wants to continue the status quo.
A landmark four-nation Opinium survey for the Observer (taken in November 2013) shows British voters view the EU more negatively than any other major European nation-most would now vote to leave.
And Tory and UKIP supporters were more likely than Labour or Lib Dem voters to desire withdrawal.
Facts are facts, Lindsay.
The main British opposition to the EU comes from the Right.
Every poll proves it.
Well, they are not exactly flocking to this, er, "initiative". Nor do Conservative activists select many anti-EU candidates.
ReplyDeleteIn either main party, about 20 per cent of MPs are very anti-EU, about 40 per cent are very pro-EU, and about 40 per cent don't care.
Those in the first category don't often make the upper echelons of the Labour Party. But they are absolutely banned from the upper echelons of the Conservative Party.
Not that that is surprising. The Tory Eurosceptics could very politely be described as a colourful lot. Ministerial material, they are not. They weren't in the Nineties. They aren't now.