United Kingdom: The rise of anti-EU populists

last updated 8 January 2015

Hear “the bitter cry of outcast England,” said Leo McKinstry in The Express (U.K.). In a shock to the political establishment, the right-wing U.K. Independence Party, which seeks to withdraw Britain from the European Union, took an astonishing one quarter of votes in local elections last week. It was “an expression of rage against the destruction of our nation by the arrogant, self-serving political class.” UKIP voters are furious that “our social fabric has been torn apart and our civic infrastructure badly overstretched by the continuing influx of foreigners,” at a rate of half a million a year. They are disgusted by a government that can give aid to Pakistan but can’t care for the elderly here at home, one that sends troops to die in Afghanistan but is barred by the EU from deporting a known terrorist. UKIP leader Nigel Farage was able to give voice to this “deepening sense of grievance.”

Despite his private-school, stockbroker background, Farage cultivates a common touch, said George Parker in the Financial Times. After nearly being killed in a plane crash three years ago, he lives life with gusto and “likes to hold press briefings in pubs.” Prime Minister David Cameron and his ruling Conservatives, in contrast, are seen as pompous and out of touch, said John Harris in The Guardian. Cameron once described UKIP sympathizers as “fruitcakes, loonies, and closet racists,” insulting much of the working class and alienating some of his own voters. Now the danger is that Cameron will try to push his party further right to recoup those voters, said Kevin Maguire in the Daily Mirror. The UKIP platform resonates with plenty of Tories, reflecting a general shift to the right. The UKIP wants to “gift the wealthiest another tax cut,” dismantle the National Health Service, and strip workers of job protections while beefing up the police and the army. Ahead of the local elections, Farage “shamefully played the race card, scapegoating immigrants” for all our ills. If the Tories adopt these tactics and policies, they will turn into “a U.S.-style, demonize-the-poor, champion-the-rich, hate-government Tea Party.”

But UKIP voters aren’t extreme conservatives, said Rachel Sylvester in The Times. They’re just nostalgic for a bygone era. A poll of its members found that their complaints were primarily cultural, not political. “Schools, they say, can’t hold Nativity plays or harvest festivals anymore; you can’t fly a flag of St. George anymore; you can’t call Christmas ‘Christmas.’” The UKIP promises to restore a time when parents could spank their kids, when the nation was whiter and unhampered by political correctness, a time of “fluttering Union Jacks and smoking in pubs.” Farage himself, with his trademark fedora and cigarette, embodies that image.