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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/28/ukip-labour-paul-nuttall-douglas-carswell
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| Labour’s heartlands will turn to Ukip, and we will not fail them | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| After various unforced errors in recent months, Ukip has a chance to press the reset button. I have not felt this gung-ho about the party’s chances since the Clacton and Rochester byelections two years ago. | After various unforced errors in recent months, Ukip has a chance to press the reset button. I have not felt this gung-ho about the party’s chances since the Clacton and Rochester byelections two years ago. |
| Having broken the UK’s political consensus over the European Union, we are now in with a realistic chance of breaking the political cartel in Westminster. With Paul Nuttall’s election as Ukip’s leader, many on the political left are at last waking up to the existential threat the party poses to Labour in its own backyard. | Having broken the UK’s political consensus over the European Union, we are now in with a realistic chance of breaking the political cartel in Westminster. With Paul Nuttall’s election as Ukip’s leader, many on the political left are at last waking up to the existential threat the party poses to Labour in its own backyard. |
| For years, Labour MPs scoffed at our determination to get Britain out of the EU. Many now realise we spoke for the majority of their own constituents. Labour strategists attempted to portray us as diehard Thatcherites. In reality, Ukip is often more in tune with the hopes and aspirations of ordinary Labour voters than their own party in Westminster. | For years, Labour MPs scoffed at our determination to get Britain out of the EU. Many now realise we spoke for the majority of their own constituents. Labour strategists attempted to portray us as diehard Thatcherites. In reality, Ukip is often more in tune with the hopes and aspirations of ordinary Labour voters than their own party in Westminster. |
| Ukip’s strategy is now to go after once-safe Labour seats with a new unity of purpose. To appreciate how vulnerable the Labour party is, take a step back and consider the bigger picture across the western world right now. | Ukip’s strategy is now to go after once-safe Labour seats with a new unity of purpose. To appreciate how vulnerable the Labour party is, take a step back and consider the bigger picture across the western world right now. |
| The century-old coalition – between blue-collar workers and left-leaning elites, politicians and opinion formers – that cemented centre-left parties is coming apart. | The century-old coalition – between blue-collar workers and left-leaning elites, politicians and opinion formers – that cemented centre-left parties is coming apart. |
| In America, working-class voters no longer turn out for the Democrats as they used to. In Britain, traditional Labour voting communities have little in common with the Islington Labour party and the Corbynistas. Not only are the leftist elites losing touch with their electoral base, they are starting to discover that traditional left-leaning voters might not be quite so leftwing any more. In that gap lies our opportunity. | In America, working-class voters no longer turn out for the Democrats as they used to. In Britain, traditional Labour voting communities have little in common with the Islington Labour party and the Corbynistas. Not only are the leftist elites losing touch with their electoral base, they are starting to discover that traditional left-leaning voters might not be quite so leftwing any more. In that gap lies our opportunity. |
| Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party might contain half a million members. But by corralling together the half a million people in Britain who still believe in socialism, they have more or less guaranteed that Labour will be rejected as unelectable by the rest of the electorate. | Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party might contain half a million members. But by corralling together the half a million people in Britain who still believe in socialism, they have more or less guaranteed that Labour will be rejected as unelectable by the rest of the electorate. |
| Many once solidly Labour-leaning communities want border controls, not uncontrolled immigration. They want more control over the things that matter to them and their families, not reheated Fabianism from the mid-20th century. Why? Because technology is transforming the relationship between the governed and the governing fundamentally. | Many once solidly Labour-leaning communities want border controls, not uncontrolled immigration. They want more control over the things that matter to them and their families, not reheated Fabianism from the mid-20th century. Why? Because technology is transforming the relationship between the governed and the governing fundamentally. |
| Back in the 19th century, the coming of the railways had a profound impact on politics. It allowed the mobilisation of organised labour as a political force, which allowed the emergence of a Labour party. That fundamentally changed the political landscape, forcing the two established parties to merge – and refining the role of the state in our lives. | Back in the 19th century, the coming of the railways had a profound impact on politics. It allowed the mobilisation of organised labour as a political force, which allowed the emergence of a Labour party. That fundamentally changed the political landscape, forcing the two established parties to merge – and refining the role of the state in our lives. |
| But today it is not the railway revolution that will redefine politics, but the coming of broadband and digital communication. | But today it is not the railway revolution that will redefine politics, but the coming of broadband and digital communication. |
| We are starting to see the emergence of a new class of citizen-consumer. And the last thing they aspire to is having small elites decide things for them. We live in a world in which Netflix and Spotify have made self-selection a cultural norm. Amazon and eBay allow us to get what we want, more or less when we want it. Yet Labour, with its one-size-fits-all promises for public services, acts as if we still inhabit a world of postwar rationing. | We are starting to see the emergence of a new class of citizen-consumer. And the last thing they aspire to is having small elites decide things for them. We live in a world in which Netflix and Spotify have made self-selection a cultural norm. Amazon and eBay allow us to get what we want, more or less when we want it. Yet Labour, with its one-size-fits-all promises for public services, acts as if we still inhabit a world of postwar rationing. |
| Traditional Labour-voting communities have little in common with the Islington Labour party and the Corbynistas | Traditional Labour-voting communities have little in common with the Islington Labour party and the Corbynistas |
| Over the past year Ukip’s parliamentary resource unit has been quietly fleshing out ideas on how we can ensure that ordinary members of the public have control over public services. We want to ensure that we have a properly funded NHS, where money follows the patient – rather than the patients expected to follow the money. When Keir Hardie founded the Labour party, he did so in order to champion the interests of ordinary working people against the elites and the oligarchy. A century on, the party he founded is on the side of the elite. Labour has backed handing more power to unelected EU commissioners in Brussels. It has sided with rich bankers, who have sacrificed the prosperity of millions of Greeks and Italians in pursuit of the folly of monetary union. | Over the past year Ukip’s parliamentary resource unit has been quietly fleshing out ideas on how we can ensure that ordinary members of the public have control over public services. We want to ensure that we have a properly funded NHS, where money follows the patient – rather than the patients expected to follow the money. When Keir Hardie founded the Labour party, he did so in order to champion the interests of ordinary working people against the elites and the oligarchy. A century on, the party he founded is on the side of the elite. Labour has backed handing more power to unelected EU commissioners in Brussels. It has sided with rich bankers, who have sacrificed the prosperity of millions of Greeks and Italians in pursuit of the folly of monetary union. |
| Let us leave Labour to its lobbyists, while we lead an anti-oligarch insurgency. It is Ukip that must become the heirs to the Chartists and the Levellers. As for Nigel Farage, he played a key role in ensuring we got an EU referendum, even if others played a key role in winning it. I wish him well, even if it is as a pundit on Fox News rather than as any sort of ambassador. | Let us leave Labour to its lobbyists, while we lead an anti-oligarch insurgency. It is Ukip that must become the heirs to the Chartists and the Levellers. As for Nigel Farage, he played a key role in ensuring we got an EU referendum, even if others played a key role in winning it. I wish him well, even if it is as a pundit on Fox News rather than as any sort of ambassador. |