Britain, Elections, and the MPs that doth Protest too Much
The position of Britain’s unelected – and unelectable – prime minister Gordon Brown has become almost untenable over the last week, with the governing Labour Party in disarray and suffering one defeat after another in local council and European elections. No less than six Labour MPs resigned in that period, with most taking a parting jab at Brown himself.
Communities Secretary Hazel Blears quit on the eve of the local elections, prompting a befuddled PM to suggest that those resigning had performed well as members of parliament. To which David Cameron – leader of the opposition “Conservative” Party –responded, “The minister for local elections is walking away the day before local elections. Isn't it a challenge to his authority?” Undoubtedly.
By Friday, Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell had resigned, calling for Brown to stand down, and Europe Minister Caroline Flint – now dubbed the “stiletto assassin” – had likewise walked out, claiming Brown had used women MPs as “window dressing.” Flint timed her departure to coincide with a press conference, in which the prime minister was robustly asserting his intention to fight on, even with the bitter end coming increasingly into view.
In last week’s local elections the Labour Party lost its four remaining councils in England.
In the EU elections, it scraped the sort of votes in some regions that are usually left to the most marginal of parties. In the Southwest Labour slumped to fifth place behind the Green Party. In Cornwall, it was beaten down to sixth, behind an obscure Cornish Nationalist Party, which only regrouped in April – and for which I could not even find an official website.
However, the overall picture for Labour was not quite so abysmal, even if it must have been dispiriting for the Labour faithful.
The Conservative Party came top in Britain’s EU election, with 27.7 percent of the vote, giving them 25 MEPs (Members of the European parliament).
Having been previously written off by the pundits, the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) came second with 16.5 percent, up from 15.6 in 2004. They received 13 MEPs.
Labour came third with 15.7, down from 21.9 in 2004. Also 13 MEPs.
The Liberal Democrats (or ‘LibDems’), who might have expected to have capitalized on the disarray of the government, came fourth with 13.7 (11 MEPs). This is especially surprising – to me at least – as it is otherwise Britain’s third party, and has received a lot of favorable press in recent months in particular, e.g., with party leader Nick Clegg advocating for the Gurkhas.
Among the smaller parties, the Greens increased their vote from 6.1 to 8.6 percent (2 MEPs). The British National Party (BNP) received 6.2 percent (2 MEPs). And the Welsh nationalist Plaid Cymru received just 0.8 (1 MEP). (The English Democrats failed to win a seat in the European parliament. However, party member Peter Davies was elected as Mayor of Doncaster after a second round count.)
Despite being one of the more minor parties, the election of two BNP members to the European parliament was, of course, guaranteed to create quite a stir, and consequently discussing the elections requires talking about the BNP at some length – even if one might prefer not to.
Harriet Harman, Deputy leader of the Labour Party, had announced in April that Labour was teaming up with “anti-fascist” groups and employing “battles buses” as part of a strategy to tackle the BNP going into the EU election. Since the election, the newly appointed Welsh Secretary Peter Hain has said that “It is vital that everyone now isolates and confronts the BNP and works with United [sic] Against Fascism to defeat them.” (And it will be worth mentioning that the UAF had already enjoyed the support of politicians on both the Left and the Right, including David Cameron, who is listed as a supporter on the organization’s website.)
On the day the election results were officially announced, hundreds of UAF protestors gathered at Manchester Town Hall, and attacked BNP chairman Nick Griffin’s car as it approached, preventing him from entering the building [video]. The police called reinforcements, and Griffin was then able to go inside to hear that he had been elected as an MEP.
On Tuesday, UAF protestors disrupted a press conference outside of the House of Lords, pelting Griffin with eggs and chanting “Nazi,” forcing him to abandon the event during which, by his own account, he was “[…] to explain to the press what we’re going to be doing in the European parliament, and of course actually answering awkward questions.”
Founded by committed anti-Semite and neo-Nazi John Tyndall in the 1980s, the BNP undoubtedly has thoroughly unsavory origins. It may well have unsavory elements (such as being a Whites only party, as specified in its constitution), and some of its members no doubt hold views or have beliefs that are totally repugnant. But regardless of what one may think of the BNP, the party is using the democratic process.
And let’s remind ourselves also that Sinn Fein – a party that was only a few years ago considered to be the political wing of the terrorist Provisional Irish Republican Army – was also running in the EU elections, and, according to the Guardian, “topped the poll” in Northern Ireland. The democratic process has helped mellow that party, as it has others. Indeed, it is for this reason that we generally welcome organizations incomparably more extreme than the BNP joining the democratic process, for example, in such places as the Middle East. (And in regard to the BNP, it has moderated enough to renounce anti-Semitism, to have now one Jewish councilor, and to speak recently of its winning the British Sikh vote. Being in the EU parliament will also mean additional pressure for it to change its constitution.)
What we do not welcome, however, is governments and political parties working with organized mobs to harass their opposition, no matter who they may be. Because, in the end, democracies have less to fear from extremists that are genuinely moderating as a result of being engaged in the democratic process, than in ruling elites that employ unseemly and undemocratic methods.
Yes, Labour and Conservative MPs are shocked that the BNP could get two MEPs, but this only goes to illustrate how out of touch they really are with the voting public. Cameron may well be “sickened” by the BNP’s success in the election, but then he needs to act like a political leader and take on the issues that the British people care about – radical Islam, mass immigration, and political correctness in particular – so that he can challenge them at the ballot box. That, if I’m not mistaken, is called “democracy.”
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