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| British Tea Party makes huge gains across England |
As voting began, junior coalition partner Nick Clegg, was bitching that it's become increasingly hard to work with Cameron and the Conservatives as they desperately try to hold onto their far right (and racist) flank. Clegg told the media Cameron is no longer appealing to the political center.
Interviewed on the eve of the local elections, and facing the prospect of coming fourth in terms of share of the vote behind Ukip, the Liberal Democrat leader and deputy prime minister vowed to "dig in my heels and make sure the centre of gravity of the government as a whole does not get pulled rightwards due to the internal dynamics of the Conservative party."Yesterday was UKIP's real national coming out, the first time they really campaigned as a national party across the country, or at least across England; there was no voting in Scotland or Northern Ireland yesterday. During the campaign, they embarrassed themselves because of lunatic fringe candidates who went unvetted... and wound up unmasked. Conventional wisdom had it that if the Conservatives lost more than 350 seats (of 1,477 they went into the election defending), the party's goose was well and truly cooked-- perhaps to the point of a backbencher rebellion against Cameron from his party's right-wing.
Clegg cited Conservative policies on welfare, Europe and climate change as the three pre-eminent examples of Cameron being pulled right, and conceded that his coalition partner was no longer the same political animal as presented before the 2010 general election.
He admitted that Cameron's positioning "makes it more complex to make progress in areas where initially we thought it would easy to make progress," disclosing he has recently had to spend more time to secure agreements on the green agenda in government than on any other issue.
...Expressing some pretty strong personal disillusionment with the dynamics of Tory politics, the deputy prime minister argued that "the Conservative emphasis before 2010 was to be centrist, compassionate, green party, but it is returning to some pretty traditional Conservative signature tunes that I totally understand they think are necessary to strengthen Conservative defences against Ukip. There is a real struggle on the right of British politics."
The first votes to come in last night were for the parliamentary by-election in South Shields and, as expected, Labour held on with ease. UKIP pushed the Conservatives out of second place though. UKIP pulled almost a quarter of the vote, pretty much what they were doing on average everywhere. The Labour candidate, Emma Lewell-Buck had a margin of 6,505 down from over 11,000 in the 2010 general election. The Conservatives were badly mauled and the Lib-Dems were nearly obliterated.
• Labour- 12,493
• UKIP- 5,988
• Conservatives- 2,857
• Lib-Dems- 352
Although the Lib-Dems finished seventh, they did beat the Official Monster Raving Loony Party's 197 votes. The Independent Socialist Party almost doubled their share-- 750 votes.
In a sign that Labour is increasingly anxious about the long-term threat posed by Ukip, as much as the Conservatives, Harriet Harman, the Labour deputy leader, warned: "People are feeling disaffected and disenchanted. It is a challenge to us and a wake up call for us to actually listen to people who feel times are hard and wonder whether any of us have actually got the answers."Votes are still being tallied in the council races-- only about half the results are in-- but there's no doubting that the UKIP had an even better day than anyone expected.
...The Conservatives' fear is that they will be squeezed by a resurgent Labour across the north and the Midlands, and by Ukip in the south and south west. Cameron has tried to protect himself from questions about his leadership with a revamp of the Downing Street policy unit and the promise of tough measures to restrict the benefits of EU migrants in the Queen's speech. Boris Johnson, the Conservative mayor of London, said: "It's going to be a tough fight for my party in mid-term: that is inevitable."
Compared with 2009, when these seats were last fought, the Conservative share of the vote is down by 9% and the Lib Dems are down by 12%. The Labour share is up by 7%, but it is still five points lower than it was in 2005. UKIP has seen the biggest boost, with its vote share up by 13%.My favorite British political pundit:
...Of the 19 councils to declare so far, the Tories retained control of traditional council strongholds like West Sussex, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Dorset, Hampshire and Hertfordshire, as well as Somerset and Devon.
But they lost their majorities on Gloucestershire, Lincolnshire, Warwickshire, Norfolk and East Sussex councils, which moved to no overall control, as both Labour and UKIP made gains.
...Labour is expected to claw back ground in the north of England and make some progress in the south.
It has taken control of Derbyshire county council, which it lost in 2009, and made double digit gains in Cumbria, Warwickshire and Hertfordshire.
The most eye-catching performance so far has been from UKIP, which is riding high in the opinion polls and fielded 1,700 candidates, three times the number that stood in 2009, when the party won just seven council seats.
So far, the party has won 16 seats in Lincolnshire-- where it is now the official opposition. The party, which campaigns for the UK to leave the European Union, has been polling 12 points higher, on average, than in wards where it stood in 2009.
UKIP's Nigel Farage told the BBC Radio 4's Today Programme that "the people who vote for us are rejecting the establishment and quite right too."
"Three parties, three fronts benches who look the same and sound the same and made up of people who basically have never had a job in the real world," he said.
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