UKIP's new leader, Paul Nuttall, says the Labour Party is split. He's right - but UKIP, a party that's essentially right wing and hoping to attract left wing Labour voters (which I'm sure it will), will also be riven from top to bottom between right and left wing views within its growing membership. The only subject that unites them is Brexit; what are they going to do about the deficit, the NHS, education, climate change, taxation, transport? All these issues divide the left from the right. Am I the only one who sees UKIP essentially as a paradox?
That's not to say Labour and Conservative aren't also suffering from the same paradox. The LibDems are, to a certain extent, immune, as it's difficult to be simultaneously both far left and far right if your position is essentially in the middle ground.
Are we about to see UK politics polarised between isolationists and anti-isolationists, with the rest of policy - the bit that actually affects everyone far greater than the EU - in a permanent muddle, causing total and utter political confusion? The LibDems could emerge as the only party without a split personality and a coherent policy. We are indeed living in interesting times.
That's not to say Labour and Conservative aren't also suffering from the same paradox. The LibDems are, to a certain extent, immune, as it's difficult to be simultaneously both far left and far right if your position is essentially in the middle ground.
Are we about to see UK politics polarised between isolationists and anti-isolationists, with the rest of policy - the bit that actually affects everyone far greater than the EU - in a permanent muddle, causing total and utter political confusion? The LibDems could emerge as the only party without a split personality and a coherent policy. We are indeed living in interesting times.
2 comments:
I've always thought that Far Right meets Extreme Left at the back of the political circle. LibDems are not, to me, middle ground they are a third point on a political triangle.
But it's only on the hard/soft axis where they meet, not on the left/right. It's more of a U shape with left/right on the X axis and hard/soft on the Y axis.
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