Right. Looking at the pattern across Europe, it seems to me that - TopicsExpress



          

Right. Looking at the pattern across Europe, it seems to me that people have voted against the European Union, and in that sense, Britain has been in tune with mainstream European opinion, which as well as being anti EU has been anti establishment Parties. In Greece, the anti establishment party is resolutely and obviously anti-austerity and left wing, and elsewhere there seems to be a perception that freedom from the EU would equate to freedom form austerity. In Britain, the BNP vote has shifted to UKIP, not to Britain First - and the irony of this is that -as Nigel Griffiths himself says - is that the BNP is a Party which is pledged to fight for the (white) working class, whilst UKIP is anti working class, but is perceived to be less racist, and more nationalist, and of course, more respectable and less extreme. There is no doubt in my mind that the level of publicity given to UKIP, and the media platform afforded to the persona of Nigel Farage has had an impact on the level of the vote for UKIP in Scotland in comparison to the Greens, but it should not be forgotten that the Greens, like Labour, the Tories, the SNP, and most of all the Lib Dems, are pro European. And already, I think many of my friends are going down the dangerous line of blaming the split between the SNP and Labour, blaming the non SNP left fr voting Green, blaming the SNP for dividing Scotlnd and failing to recognise and addressing racism in Scotland. Last night I was myself blaming Labour for not ignoring swathes of its former heartlands, and concentrating on the aspiring lower middle class. It has - but I dont think that is what last nights results were about, and i dont think last nights Scottish result was about the referendum on Scottish Independence either. But today - I think what it would be more useful to consider why people believe the EU has got it so wrong that they will ignore the things UKIP really stands for to use an EU Election as a referendum on the EU. And for mainstream political parties to start considering a little more deeply their position on the structures, governance, and democracy of the EU, and how it impacts on the lives of working people.
Posted on: Mon, 26 May 2014 06:06:27 +0000

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