But the Liberals, and their Lib Dem successors, did indeed
win by-elections, as well as having an increasing presence at General
Elections. It is this thought, as I described
yesterday, that is not being allowed to enter as many right-leaning pundits
approach panic mode over the UKIP performance in three by-elections on
Thursday, in which they won no seats at all, despite favourable publicity.
And there was no more favourable publicity than that
afforded UKIP by the Maily Telegraph,
where editor Tony Gallagher – being talked about as a potential successor to
the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre at the Daily Mail – appears to be telling the Tories that they must make
their peace with Nigel “Thirsty”
Farage and his motley rabble, or at least turn to the right pretty sharpish.
So Thursday’s paper carried an article of Ron Hopeful
quality from Harry Wallop, which walloped absolutely nobody with
its lame rhetorical question “Could
this be UKIP’s day?”, because it couldn’t. Even with a Roma population of
3,500 in the Rotherham area, and therefore plenty of whipping boys on hand, and
the fostering row, UKIP could not do what the old Liberals did in Orpington
and Ripon.
Like the assembled hosts of Fox News Channel (fair and
balanced my arse) over the US Presidential
Election, the Telegraph’s hacks had
substituted belief for reality: UKIP was going to win because they wanted it
to. And even after the party came second, in a poll where less than 35% of the
electorate turned out, there was almost universal approval of Farage and his
pals as potential Tory soulmates.
Even before the result, Ed “Case” West was talking up the party’s prospects: “Tonight,
Ukip have a chance to show the world they're more than just a protest vote for
angry Tories”. And mere defeat didn’t stop the punditry, with Tim
Stanley (who you can tell as he’s a doctor) proclaiming “After
Rotherham, Ukip is now a national populist party – a magnet for anger at the
British establishment”.
He was joined by Peter
Mullen, aka Reverend Batshit, who warned “the Tories’ support is draining away to Ukip like flood water ... UKIP is
the one party where now you can find Tory values”. MEP and occasional Tory
Dan, Dan the Oratory Man proclaimed
that UKIP was now the main opposition to Labour in northern England. Who
knows, perhaps they’ll suggest Farage “prepare
for Government” next.
Yes, David Steel was wrong all those years ago. But at least his party had MPs.
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