Some of My Best Friends Are Idiot Politicians

Britain's election of 2015 is just over five months away and bits are already falling off the much publicised UKIP bandwagon. Nigel Farage recently went on radio to defend the indefensible,saying that "chinky" is commonly used and therefore, his candidates should not be judged for doing so. Really? Perhaps he wasn't even aware how close this sounds to the old "Everybody does it " defense made popular in American politics, usually when some politico is caught in a bribery or sex scandal. (Milbank, 2009)

In the current political landscape, we see the missteps of the Tories and the malaise that has gripped Labour, in addition to the fact that Britain's famous third party under Nick Clegg has found itself a rudderless non-entity hopelessly bobbing toward next year's election. Into this morass strides UKIP, whose raison d’être is merely that it is none of the major parties.  Its platform is built around an anti-Europe, anti-foreigner platform which no one seems to have the temerity to call what it really is, xenophobia, which gives it something in common with other progressive, all inclusive groups like BNP and EDL. These points would normally not be enough to convince an educated populace to support en masse. Unless, of course, the year is 1933 and we are discussing the Weimar Republic.
 
The newspapers have made much of the purple party's chances, but shouldn't anyone who has seen more than one election have predicted the party's current misfortunes?A flawed machine like this can only go so many miles before the cracks begin to show.

Right now, the other parties' campaigns don't seem to know what to do but, from this observer's point of view, it seems painfully obvious: the Tories need to focus on thier success in the recovering economy, Labour needs to jettison Wallace Miliband and find a more charismatic leader with a clear vision for his party, the Liberal Democrats need to re-invent themselves completely and all three need to paint UKIP as a one-issue party of xenophobes, political turncoats, and opportunists who have no real vision for Britain's future.

Or they could just do nothing and let UKIP, under the leadership of a re-booted Enoch Powell to continue in its race toward self-destruction.


Source:

Milbank, D., (2009) Washington Sketch, Jefferson's Everybody Does It  Defense, Available online from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/29/AR2009072903169.html
Accessed 22-12-2014

For further reading:

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/12/19/nigel-farage-defends-use-of-words-chinky-and-poofter_n_6353102.html