UK Politics

(fm the BC thread "Iranian Punch")

whiskey,
A vote for the BNP is a vote to replace one set of racist Socialists with another set of racist Socialists. Over time it would make very little difference. The only party that is committed to repealing Socialism and which is explicitly not racist is the UKIP. If they gain enough influence to pull the Tories back towards Thatcherism, or even revive the memories of the classical Liberal tradition, which has no other home, they could realign British politics and help pull the country back from the brink. Certainly the Liberal-Democrats are more statist, more pro-EU and possibly even more anti-business than is Labour.

If the two divisions are between Socialists and Free Marketers on one axis and between Internationalists and Euro-skeptics on the other then a 4 way box can be graphed. The bottom left of the Socialist Internationalists has New Labour. The top left of the Socialist Nationalists is the BNP. The top right of the Market Nationalists is the UKIP. The bottom right region for the Market Internationalists is largely unoccupied. In theory it could be the home of the Liberal Democrats but in practice their high tax policies, and their allies in Brussels, are hostile to the Market.

The Tories are a party torn in several directions. Their origins were not as the party that represented the interests of commerce and industry but rather those of tradition and agriculture. Part of them still aspire to a vision of Little England aristocratic Socialism. The same legacy that lead some Conservatives to support Mosely and the National Front before WW-II could draw them to a platform of nativist socialism. Their argument with the BNP wouldn't be with it's vision but with the social leadership. Many of these people tend to be anti-American and anti-Semitic. My expectation is that over time their nationalism will morph into an alliance with some Islamic interests.This happened to the National Front in France. More Tories are drawn to the space occupied by the LibDems. They are internationalists who are shedding their old attachment to America in the hope of finding a new role for Britain in Europe. They may help pull the LibDems into a more Free Market direction but they will probably end up conforming to the interests of the regulatory state. That leaves a sizable number of Euro-skeptic Tories who are either friendly to America or indifferent and who now hope to revive a traditional Liberal vision that has been abandoned by the parties that grew out of the commercial Whig heritage.