Originally posted on Julian's musings:
I guess I am old fashioned in many ways. I still see politics as the old fashioned battle between Labour and Conservative, left and right, workers and bosses. Of course I realize that we are seeing an increasing pluralism, but this is still not recognised by an electoral system designed for contests between Whigs and Tories.
UKIP have thrown a spanner into the works. Whatever their pretentions to the blue collar vote they were born from the right-wing Euro-sceptic wing of the Conservative Party, the awkward squad that gave John Major many a headache post 1992.
UKIP fought the recent elections on two issues essentially: Europe and immigration. These two issues have captured the zeitgeist, and UKIP’s success comes from the somewhat woolly responses from the red and blue camps. Simply put, David Cameron’s Conservatives have got to make their mind up about Europe (the promised referendum neatly avoids having…
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