The establishment's latest effort at depoliticisation has failed
The Clacton by-election was caused by Nigel Farage seeking to renew his "democratic mandate" in the face of credible allegations of being a bought-and-paid-for tool of political corruption. The thinking was "OK, I may be the tool of suspicious dark money, but, hey, the voters don't seem to mind, so why should you?"
But Farage, like a real conman, was employing a bait and switch. The voters don't like dark money and crypto billionaires—who may or may not be connected to the Kremlin—corrupting the political process, but there's something they like even less: mass immigration (legal or otherwise) and the apparently unrestricted illegal immigration that they see on their TV screens and social media feeds, day-in-day-out.
In the unlikely event that you don't know what I'm talking about
Farage knew that he would be effectively leaning into this sentiment when he re-ran his election as MP for Clacton, rather than the less important issue (for voters) of who is filling his back pocket with cash.
The decision of the other parties to ignore Farage's by-election ploy was an attempt to let him step into thin air and fall flat on his face. In the guise of comedy candidate "Count Binface" they found a suitable foil for Farage. But there are some matters that the electorate are not ready to just laugh off, like demographic replacement (at least above a certain speed!).
If Binface had come out with his own hard line on illegal migration, Farage would have been in serious trouble. But behind the Binface mask is comedy writer Jonathan David Harvey, a conventional woke leftist who has worked for the BBC on such programmes as Have I Got News for You and The Thick of It. Being hard-line on illegal immigration would have closed numerous doors for his lucrative day job.
Most of the voters in Clacton did not want to vote for a smug leftist in a bin costume
The fact is voters realise that the conventional parties are simply incapable of stopping the boats and enforcing a degree of remigration, which means that corrupt and disruptive populists like Farage will continue to resonate with them.
In short there are only two ways to destroy Farage:
(1) Do what any hard-line populist would do to stop the boats, i.e. sink or push back any illegal migrant boats coming from France (without the permission of France obviously!) and/or make the conditions of any migrants illegally landing on the UK coast sheer hell; or (2) Give that job to Farage and see how he gets on with it. My guess is that he would fail at it and soon lose all legitimacy with UK voters.
Until either one of these happens, Farage will be able to use his hard-line posturing on illegal immigration to distract from his own dark money backing, and he will continue to destabilize British politics.
___________________________________
Colin Liddell is the Chief Editor of Neokrat and the author of Interviews & Obituaries, a collection of encounters with the dead and the famous. Support his work by buying his book here (USA), here (UK), and here (Australia), or by taking out a paid subscription on his Substack.
No comments:
Post a Comment
All Comments MUST include a name (either real or sock). Also don't give us an easy excuse to ignore your brilliant comment by using "shitposty" language.