Next week on June 4th , we have the European elections and, whether you are in favour of Britain's membership of the EU or not, should provide the opportunity for the electorate to make a rational decision at the ballot box. Of course they never do, and for years the European election has been seen as the big opportunity to work off your beefs about what is happening locally.
But this year the voters anger could take a new and dangerous turn. It's OK letting off steam if your frustration and anger results in a marginal rise in the fortunes of the minor - some extreme - parties but without creating more than a ripple.
This time the expenses row which has consumed Westminster has fired voters with a fierce rage and it looks, from the polls, as if Labour - not surprisingly - is destined to feel the brunt of most of this, and the Tories somewhere behind. Perhaps more surprisingly, even the Liberal Democrats look as if they are going to be punished for being one of the major parties. Voters seem to have a 'plague on all your houses' sense about them and it looks as if the benficiaries of their wrath are going to be UKIP and the British National Party.
UKIP look like making a very strong showing but what is more worrying is that, in certain areas, the BNP could well be sending MEPs to Brussels.
I sincerely hope that British voters have a last minute injection of common sense. For all that the anger with our established politicans is justified, it will not help the cause of politics or democracy to give power to parties like the BNP, even as a knee jerk reaction. Once they get a foothold, there could be very unpleasant and unforseen results for everyone, including those who were blinded enough by anger with the system to vote for them.
But this year the voters anger could take a new and dangerous turn. It's OK letting off steam if your frustration and anger results in a marginal rise in the fortunes of the minor - some extreme - parties but without creating more than a ripple.
This time the expenses row which has consumed Westminster has fired voters with a fierce rage and it looks, from the polls, as if Labour - not surprisingly - is destined to feel the brunt of most of this, and the Tories somewhere behind. Perhaps more surprisingly, even the Liberal Democrats look as if they are going to be punished for being one of the major parties. Voters seem to have a 'plague on all your houses' sense about them and it looks as if the benficiaries of their wrath are going to be UKIP and the British National Party.
UKIP look like making a very strong showing but what is more worrying is that, in certain areas, the BNP could well be sending MEPs to Brussels.
I sincerely hope that British voters have a last minute injection of common sense. For all that the anger with our established politicans is justified, it will not help the cause of politics or democracy to give power to parties like the BNP, even as a knee jerk reaction. Once they get a foothold, there could be very unpleasant and unforseen results for everyone, including those who were blinded enough by anger with the system to vote for them.
No comments:
Post a Comment