Political commentators have mused for some time now as to what kind of party the motley band of saloon bar propper-uppers at UKIP really is. For some, like their sole MP Douglas “Kamikaze” Carswell, it is a conservative and libertarian thing, but for those by-elections in Labour-held seats it becomes a populist and interventionist movement. After last week’s judgment on the triggering of Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, we saw the true UKIP.
And the true UKIP is not about conservatism or libertarianism. It is not about mere populism. It is a fascist party in all but name. We saw this clearly from the actions of former leader Nigel “Thirsty” Farage and one of his potential successors, Suzanne Evans, yesterday and today. Both are advocating positions that should gravely concern all who value genuine freedom, as well as the rule of law.
Farage was asked during his appearance on The Andy Marr Show (tm) yesterday, as the host put it to him that “You’ve said this week that you don’t any longer trust the independence of the judges”, to which Farage replied “you look at Lord Justice Thomas and you see that actually he was the founding member of a body seeking to integrate law at an EU level”. So what? He’s not talking EU law, he’s interpreting our law.
And when Marr asked “So do you think that when it comes to the Supreme Court we shouldn’t trust the Supreme Court not to be politically biased in this decision?” Farage doubled down. “I’m afraid that the reach of the European Union into the upper echelons of society in this country that makes it quite difficult for us to trust the judgements … if they’ve been activists pushing for politically European integration they shouldn’t be making these judgements”. That is not what Lord Justice Thomas did.
There is no evidence to support Farage’s “activist” smear. It is irresponsible at the very least to invent some kind of pro-EU bias, and he kept up his smearing and smirking at the prospect of unrest later during a discussion with Gina Miller, when he also admitted that the referendum whose result he considers sacrosanct was merely advisory.
Yet, should the Supreme Court ruling incur Mr Thirsty’s displeasure, he is threatening to lead a 100,000 strong march on that court in an act of intimidation not seen since the 1930s. Whether he intends his march to be routed via Cable Street is not known.
And just in case the tendency to fascism was not set out clearly enough by Farage, Ms Evans went on the Radio 4 Today programme this morning and declared that there should be some kind of political control exercised over the judiciary. This, she claimed, would preserve its independence, a magnificent slice of Newspeak.
Putting the judiciary under the control of politicians launches the system down the slippery slope of totalitarianism. We did not remove fascism in Germany and Italy, and later eradicate the legacies of the Greek military junta, Francisco Franco and António de Oliveira Salazar just to have the cancer return in the UK.
Nigel Farage and Suzanne Evans have done us a great service - to let us see that UKIP is a truly fascist political party. UKIP, like fascism, arrives as your friend. Now we can all see where its leaders, past and perhaps future, want it to lead. Thanks, but no thanks.
2 comments:
Not sure this amounts to faacism but really worried by rise of populism
Thoughts as best as I can coherently muster them from a Remain voter who sees the EU as the slighly lesser of two evils rather than any kind of bastion of integrity:
The court was asked to adjudicate on a point of law and it did so. The analysis here (which appears to be infinitely more knowledgeable than I am on such matters): https://spinninghugo.wordpress.com/2016/11/03/how-the-government-lost/ suggests that the Government managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory with its approach. Whether this was incompetence or part of some longer game is the conspiracy theorist in me taking over.
The reaction from certain sections of press and Leave politicians was hysterical and bordering on fascistic rabble rousing. But given these groups embraced "post-truth politics" a long time ago it's notsurprising. For UKIP being outraged for the sake of being outraged is all it has left, the party's only truly held conviction getting out of the EU, the swirling mass of inconsistencies, contradictions, lies and deceptions exists because everything else was simple opportunism. The "betrayal" myth gives its apparatchiks borrowed time.
Whilst there is nothing to evidence the judges were anything but impartial, it is a mistake to downplay the insidious infiltration of the EU into the UK establishment. The entire concept of "widening and deepening" the EU was openly and explicity designed to embed the EU into the elitesof member states from top down to regions and localities. It would take too much space to set out the obvious here, but the most of Europe's elite are by design part of an EU client group even if they personally reject the situation.
Post a Comment