It’s a “Political Earthquake” according to the French PM. The EU and British local Elections have been marked by the smashing rise of Euroskeptics, climate skeptics, and skeptics-of-politics in general. (Monckton dares anyone to suggest a more skeptical party than UKip). UKip got 16% last time round in the European elections of 2009, this time it’s looking at something like 28%. “We’re coming for YOU, Red Ed’: Nigel Farage boasts…
Sunday’s UK election results were the first since 1910 in which a party other than Conservative or Labour came out on top in a national vote. That’s to say, Nigel Farage did something nobody from outside the two-party system has done in over a century: he won.
“Try as I might, I cannot remember a time when Britain’s various elites were as united in fury as they are now over UKIP leader Nigel Farage.. The Right and Left of the Political Class Have United Against A Common Enemy: Us”
Mark Steyn‘s advice to the non-UKIP parties (which they didn’t heed):
You can’t keep calling these guys “fringe” “extremists” when they get more votes than you. So instead of shrieking about “fruitcakes” and “loonies” why not try engaging on the issues?
This is big:
The Tory vote fell by 3.8 per cent, but the Ukip vote went up by 11 per cent. Which means they took votes from the other parties, too. Labour likes the idea of Ukip as a right-wing vote-splitter, but once it starts eating into their own base all bets are off. And last week Ukip proved it could do that just enough to make a difference.
The Westminster system is implicitly designed for two players: one to be the Government, one to be the Loyal Opposition. Until the 20th century, other than the various transient Irish Home Rule parties, there were literally only two parties. In that 1910 election, a fledgling Labour came fourth. Within a decade and a half, they’d displaced the Liberals as the alternative to the Tories, and the Libs never again held power until Cameron so bungled the last election that he was forced to form a coalition with them. It’s obviously premature to suggest that Ukip will replace the Conservative Party, but I’d say we’re now in for an era of four-party politics at Westminster.
read more of Mark Steyn
UKIP: why these election results matter – and why the political class will tell you they don’t
A quip which has been doing the rounds on Twitter the last few days concerns the official projection of how many seats UKIP stands to win in Westminster next year, based on its stellar performance in the local and European elections.
The answer is a big fat zero.
No doubt it’s a figure which will afford enormous comfort to the mainstream political class and their many friends in the mainstream media this morning as they strive to explain in various different clever ways why it is that last night’s seismic election results across Europe mean nothing whatsoever.
In one way they are quite right: the European parliament is a fake parliament, none of whose elected members have any say on any issue that matters. (All the important decisions are taken by the unelected European Commission).
But in another way they couldn’t be more wrong. The elections of the last few days mark the beginning of a revolution which will completely transform the face of politics across Europe and which will inevitably lead to the destruction of the European Union.
See also Farage’s Revolution Is Thatcher’s Revolution from Delingpole too.