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A vote for Ukip is neither radical nor anti-politics A vote for Ukip is neither radical nor anti-politics
(5 months later)
Marx, without question, was right on the important issues. Groucho, not Karl. He said: "Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it, misdiagnosing it, and then misapplying the wrong remedies." None of this has seemed more true than in the past few years, where a banking crisis caused by made-up equations to minimise risk led to the sub-prime catastrophe. In turn, banks were shored up by public money. The figures Osborne has been using have been proven wrong by all kinds of experts. Austerity isn't working, and even mad anarcho-syndicalists such as the IMF have been trying to tell this born-to-rule mob to change direction. Still, one definition of insanity is to continue to believe in stuff even when evidence proves you wrong. In politics, however, this is called conviction.Marx, without question, was right on the important issues. Groucho, not Karl. He said: "Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it, misdiagnosing it, and then misapplying the wrong remedies." None of this has seemed more true than in the past few years, where a banking crisis caused by made-up equations to minimise risk led to the sub-prime catastrophe. In turn, banks were shored up by public money. The figures Osborne has been using have been proven wrong by all kinds of experts. Austerity isn't working, and even mad anarcho-syndicalists such as the IMF have been trying to tell this born-to-rule mob to change direction. Still, one definition of insanity is to continue to believe in stuff even when evidence proves you wrong. In politics, however, this is called conviction.
This blather from out-of-their-depth public schoolboys really struck me this week. Maybe because I had been talking to some genuinely clever people – NHS consultants – who were both brilliant and humane. Also I managed to lose the remote control, so for a few days have been spared spurious debates on TV. Missing men squabbling, scoring points, buoyed up by a media that reinforces their self-importance, has not been the greatest loss.This blather from out-of-their-depth public schoolboys really struck me this week. Maybe because I had been talking to some genuinely clever people – NHS consultants – who were both brilliant and humane. Also I managed to lose the remote control, so for a few days have been spared spurious debates on TV. Missing men squabbling, scoring points, buoyed up by a media that reinforces their self-importance, has not been the greatest loss.
But I have read the regurgitated wisdom that the swing towards Ukip is somehow an "anti-politics" vote. What does this mean? Even in March a leader in the Observer read: "We must all meet the anti-politics challenge." Why me? When? Surely to be a proper Satanist you have to be a Christian in the first place; so to be anti-politics, you have to have had faith in politics to begin with.But I have read the regurgitated wisdom that the swing towards Ukip is somehow an "anti-politics" vote. What does this mean? Even in March a leader in the Observer read: "We must all meet the anti-politics challenge." Why me? When? Surely to be a proper Satanist you have to be a Christian in the first place; so to be anti-politics, you have to have had faith in politics to begin with.
Ukip members are not radicals. Like the BNP, once they have to do the boring business of local council meetings (less on removing Bulgarians, more on removing bin-bags) they will implode. They are not anti-politics, just antediluvian, yearning for a politics that has already failed.Ukip members are not radicals. Like the BNP, once they have to do the boring business of local council meetings (less on removing Bulgarians, more on removing bin-bags) they will implode. They are not anti-politics, just antediluvian, yearning for a politics that has already failed.
Blokey sub-Clarksons, without his dress sense, they are mostly getting on a bit and pessimistic. They are exactly the reason Cameron tried to modernise the Tories. Ukip supporters are white and probably not keen on gay marriage; most younger people are socially liberal and not much bothered about ethnicity.Blokey sub-Clarksons, without his dress sense, they are mostly getting on a bit and pessimistic. They are exactly the reason Cameron tried to modernise the Tories. Ukip supporters are white and probably not keen on gay marriage; most younger people are socially liberal and not much bothered about ethnicity.
So this fourth party is just more of the same old establishment: few women, extremely limited experience, and happy to substitute what they call "common sense", or what some others call common-or-garden prejudice, for intelligence.So this fourth party is just more of the same old establishment: few women, extremely limited experience, and happy to substitute what they call "common sense", or what some others call common-or-garden prejudice, for intelligence.
But in order to respect the current political establishment I would have to think the Iraq war was a good idea; that these people are economically literate; that Afghanistan is going great (though producing higher opium yields than ever); that Trident is a fine investment, as are aircraft carriers with no aircraft; that to talk about decriminalisation of drugs is disgusting, even though doing just that has reduced heroin use in Portugal. I must also accept that Cameron recruits the best and the brightest, who just happen to be his schoolmates, and that education should be overhauled by a nostalgic zealot who has never taught and dismisses evidence.But in order to respect the current political establishment I would have to think the Iraq war was a good idea; that these people are economically literate; that Afghanistan is going great (though producing higher opium yields than ever); that Trident is a fine investment, as are aircraft carriers with no aircraft; that to talk about decriminalisation of drugs is disgusting, even though doing just that has reduced heroin use in Portugal. I must also accept that Cameron recruits the best and the brightest, who just happen to be his schoolmates, and that education should be overhauled by a nostalgic zealot who has never taught and dismisses evidence.
All of this, of course, is propped up by the media establishment and the cliche of the Westminster bubble. I wish it were a bubble as it would take one prick to burst it. It is a pretty solid forcefield. I know there are some good people in politics who really want change. But then we see Tony Blair and his "vocation". He now has to be sneaked into the country, but, hey, he is worth £65m. Farage and his merry men could but dream of such respect.All of this, of course, is propped up by the media establishment and the cliche of the Westminster bubble. I wish it were a bubble as it would take one prick to burst it. It is a pretty solid forcefield. I know there are some good people in politics who really want change. But then we see Tony Blair and his "vocation". He now has to be sneaked into the country, but, hey, he is worth £65m. Farage and his merry men could but dream of such respect.
Anyone who is actually "anti-politics" is indeed political, but sees this establishment as sycophantic, self-serving and only able to clone itself. I won't vote for anyone with a peg on my nose. Some individuals may do well, but combining the job of being a good constituency MP and making a name on the national stage is virtually impossible.Anyone who is actually "anti-politics" is indeed political, but sees this establishment as sycophantic, self-serving and only able to clone itself. I won't vote for anyone with a peg on my nose. Some individuals may do well, but combining the job of being a good constituency MP and making a name on the national stage is virtually impossible.
Those who don't vote, who walk away, looking back in anger, not apathy, increasingly mean there is no mandate for this government. Yet it is ever more dissected by hacks and bloggers who pretend to be heretical but are just gossip merchants who never question the deep structures of governance and merely legitimate their own crepuscular existence.Those who don't vote, who walk away, looking back in anger, not apathy, increasingly mean there is no mandate for this government. Yet it is ever more dissected by hacks and bloggers who pretend to be heretical but are just gossip merchants who never question the deep structures of governance and merely legitimate their own crepuscular existence.
To be truly anti-politics would be to refuse to be governed by our inferiors. It's not voting for the "common sense" of saloon-bar racists, the veneer of modernism of chaotic Cameroons or the vagaries of Milibland. To be anti-politics now means wanting something new, not old, not borrowed, not blue.To be truly anti-politics would be to refuse to be governed by our inferiors. It's not voting for the "common sense" of saloon-bar racists, the veneer of modernism of chaotic Cameroons or the vagaries of Milibland. To be anti-politics now means wanting something new, not old, not borrowed, not blue.
The fear that a vote for Ukip is a vote for extremism will peter out. Ukip is not as separate from theThe fear that a vote for Ukip is a vote for extremism will peter out. Ukip is not as separate from the
system as it pretends to be. There are other ways to protest, and we will see them. The anti-politics mood is a rational response to political stasis. We must keep an eye on the far right in Europe, obviously, but here we are being governed by the equivalent of men fighting over the remote control. The worst part is none of them can even work it.system as it pretends to be. There are other ways to protest, and we will see them. The anti-politics mood is a rational response to political stasis. We must keep an eye on the far right in Europe, obviously, but here we are being governed by the equivalent of men fighting over the remote control. The worst part is none of them can even work it.
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