The Shift in British Politics

Charlie Hodgson writes about how the landscape of British politics may be about to change forever.

The next European election will be taking place next week on Thursday the 22^nd of May, this is probably the most publicised European election there has ever been, probably due to the fact that until this year very few people cared about the election and even fewer knew who their local MEP actually was.

 

 

That is all about to change with the massive publicity that the UKIP party has been receiving, admittedly half that publicity is due to one UKIP member or another making a racist or homophobic comment, but despite these remarks from the party, their membership is on the rise peaking at over 37,000 in the last week. In the next couple of weeks we will truly see what the British people think, not only is there the European election coming up, but a by-election in the constituency of Newark in which UKIP could win their first seat in the House of Commons. If they win this election it will burst the desperate bubble of hope for those who hate UKIP that people will only vote for them in the European elections, agreeing with their views on Europe, but not vote for them in a general election, as they do not agree with the rest of their policies.

You also cannot forget the referendum that will take place in Scotland later this year, which if they vote to leave the UK will mean that the chances of a Labour government being elected will plummet. The Labour party can no longer claim to be the party of the people which they used to be, but if they are no longer capable of gaining power in Westminster this is still a drastic step to the right in British politics. With an even further right-wing party like UKIP on a drastic rise in membership what does this say? Can you even take the rise of UKIP seriously? Trust and hope in the three main parties has collapsed and UKIP is offering a so called solution; this lack of trust in the political class has led many people to say they are going to vote UKIP simply as a protest vote!

 

What surprises me most about the Rise of UKIP however is how many of their voters are old disillusioned Labour supporters, who left when Tony Blair created New Labour. These people who once voted for a socialist party and yet they are now voting for a party who wish to privatise the NHS and practically every other nationally run organisation, this simply makes no sense to me. It will be in these next couple of weeks in which you will clearly see what direction British politics is shifting. Could from the 22^nd of May 2014 to the 7^th May 2015 (next general election) be a time in which British politics see’s the greatest change since the election of the first Labour government of 1922? Could the United Kingdom Independence Party be the people who cause this drastic slide to the right of the political spectrum? Only time will tell!