Conversely the results for UKIP this week lead me to think that reaction in this country will also wear a similarly English face.
The real threat to the working class has never really been social inadequates with Adolf Hitler's initials tattooed on their necks. It is the saloon bar bigots in blazers sipping ale from tankards.
Whilst it is clear that Boris's bumbling persona cunningly conceals an intelligent - and thoroughly nasty - political operator - the jury is still out on Nigel Farage. I can't make my mind up if he really is the Alan Partridge of the new British Far-Right or if this is a genius construct to woe the ranks of alienated Middle England.
If the former then I have no doubt he will be replaced as UKIP grows - either way we should be worried. An effective populist-nationalist movement has never really achieved critical mass in this country. They might just do it yet.
4 comments:
I think he spells his name FARAGE rather than FARANGE. The latter is a bit funny though because it sounds like something out of star trek which has the obvious advantage of dangling a little hook in the water for trekies to bite at. But in truth his name is spelled FARAGE. And this is the important bit. You should always pronounce it to rhyme with CABBAGE. And not the affected French-sounding pronunciation the twat himself seems to prefer.
Thank you - I think it was a freudian slip - I must have been getting confused it with FALANGE !
I cannot understand why the left are so hostile to working class populism. I know political argument is scarce on the left, which usually takes the form of demonising opponents, but the hostility to populism is often shared with a condescending attitude to the working class who are seen as dummies, easily persuaded by right wing arguments. Very often there is a grain of sense in the arguments of populists, which might be worth extracting. I cannot speak for Farage, but it should be clear he is not a fascist, or a Nazi as portrayed by many on the left. His appeal is to the middle classes of the Tory shires and to the many working class Tories - Disraeli's Angels in Marble. The left would do well to evaluate his policies, dump the bad ones and see what is useful in the others. But instead we will see false accusations of racism, xenophobia, and nationalism. Working class people have historic traditions which give them roots and whilst it is fashionable among multiculturalists to denigrate all traditions, people still belong to their roots. Misinformation, and silly tactics as performed by the yobs in Farage's recent visit to Scotland, merely serve to ridicule the left.
I don't really think Farage is a Fascist. It was guilty of a bit of alliterative hyperbole.
But he is a thoroughly nasty reactionary who speaks for a section of the middle class and most importantly is becoming a pole of attraction for working class Tories.
That makes him dangerous - particularly in the kind of xenophobic climate that the events in Woolwich will now doubt no add to.
And yes - I agree that in answering that climate liberal multiculturalism is no substitute for working class solidarity.
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