After the 2014 European elections, where many people have voted for anyone except the mainstream parties, it seems that the politicians still do not get it, so perhaps we need to help them along.
In the United Kingdom the resounding winner of the EU election was UKIP, whose sole intention is to come out of the EU altogether and go back to trading with Europe but not be governed by them. And why does this option seem so attractive? Because it offers a semblance of control by the people of the UK over its destiny that it appears not to have today. So great is the significance of this victory that it has broken 100 years of a ‘Labservative’ stranglehold on the UK government.
But the mainstream parties appear to be obtuse in public as to their understanding of the underlying causes. Here is what they have to say for themselves immediately after being defeated by UKIP.
The Conservatives, having been beaten for the first time ever in an election into third place, believe that the way forward is to offer the same thing they offered before the European election and negotiate a new treaty with the European Union and then offer an ‘in / out’ referendum in 2017. David Cameron’s answer to the election result is therefore to ‘stick to the plan’. He fails to understand that the reason why he lost the election is that people of the UK care little for what Europe can do FOR them as much as they care about what they perceive that Europe is doing TO them.
At least that might be how it seems but as we know, there is a global debt crisis that was caused by those who politicians work for - no, not the electorate but banks, businesses and corporations. The electorate will be aware that the mainstream parties are chugging inexorably towards doing a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) that allows corporations to sue governments (and by extension cost the taxpayer a fortune) for loss of earnings if those governments do not allow the likes of fracking and GMO foods to do business in our country. This is just a typical example of how much government fails to listen to the people. So telling us that they will have to listen now is risible. Simply put, the Conservatives are not going to listen to the people unless those people have money.
What every UK politician does not seem to get is that it’s not just the economy stupid, it’s the fact that government represents business, corporate interest and its own treasury coffers over the wishes of the people they want to elect them. And the problems to be dealth with are global not just in this country, so the problem inherent in our system is hardly a National one or even a European one.
Also, politicians still seem deny the power of the Internet, even after they had attempted to gag anyone who might inconveniently tell it how it is. Information is so much easier to harvest, bypassing the lies and propaganda of mainstream media, that the old government models of bluff and obfuscation are as outmoded as the Parliamentary system that is causing the very real problem for political ideology to grow strong and meaningful foundations to the little people.
Labours Ed Miliband defended the party’s second place, narrowly beating the Conservatives into third, by saying that the result shows deep discontent among the UK public with the way the country is run and the way our economy works, declaring that Labour can bring the change the country needs. Given the evidence already manifest in the global economy, he is either trying to lie his way to a general election victory or he is greatly exaggerating his party’s capability or he is deluded about the global economic reality. Whichever option you choose, Mr Miliband and the Labour party are just as disingenuous as the Conservatives - hence you start to get the picture as to why an extreme party can beat main stream parties in elections.
The financial global reset, hardly announced in the mainstream media, began in April 2014 when Russia made a declaration that they intended to trade with other countries in currencies other than the US petrodollar. People may also be unaware that countries outside of the Western World have for some years built up gold reserves with the sole purpose of bringing back asset backed currencies, leaving the fiat currencies with insurmountable debt and money that is devalued severely on the world stage. By late 2015 the Western World will see the looming spectre of a global depression, that very few people are aware of or prepared for.
Now unless Ed Miliband has some kind of magic wand to repair the debt based monetary system, there is nothing he can do to change the UK economy unless he is prepared to cut loose from the International Monetary fund, cut all economic ties with both the US and Europe and repatriate the very large quantities of gold owned by the UK monarchy. Now that would be a 2015 election manifesto worth reading.
Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the Liberal Democrats, who was noticeably absent from the interview circuit, is perhaps reconsidering his position after the Lib Dem vote all but collapsed and calls for his resignation came quickly after.
Tim Farron, the Lib Dem party chair, said the result was as he had feared would happen but they were punished for standing up for the right reasons in support of the European Union. This is, of course, another delusional stance, making the Liberal Democrats no less disingenuous than the other two parties.
The Liberal Democrat record in coalition with the Conservative party has been one of hypocrisy and possibly naivety, as no doubt the Conservatives have taken every political opportunity to make them look bad without it looking like they did anything at all. The Lib Dems said, before forming the coalition, they would not raise tuition fees for University students and then went ahead and supported a law to raise them. It was a fatal mistake that cost support across the whole membership. Therefore the Liberal Democrat collapse had nothing to do with Europe; they were already dead.
And let us not forget the victos. UKIP are not without their own delusions. Nigel Farage believes the result of the European election is an indictment of the people’s wish to come out of Europe. But to believe this is to ignore the fact that also across Europe, many extreme right and left wing parties made significant gains throughout Europe, demonstrating the very real discontent that people all over Europe feel about the mainstream governments and their participation in allowing the economic austerity to be laid at their door, instead of the banks that caused it.
London Mayor, Boris Johnson, has called the swing of public opinion toward extreme parties as a peasant’s revolt and he is not far wrong in his historical assessment. One only has to look back at around 1848 to see a similar uprising that was then dubbed the ‘European Spring’.
In France the Front Nationale made sweeping gains and in Greece the far left party Syriza made sweeping gains, demonstrating how the electorate, unable to vote for ‘None Of The Above’ have chosen to vote for any party but the mainstream ones. Likewise across the other European countries, with the exception of the newly admitted nations, the move away from the mainstream political parties is plain to see. Without doubt it is the economic crisis, austerity, joblessness and failure to punish those responsible that is to blame for the discontent.
Angela Merkel of Germany called the results ‘regrettable’ but there is an uncomfortable elephant in the room that all mainstream politicians are trying so desperately hard to ignore.
No politician in the Western world is so stupid as to know nothing about how the economic landscape is undergoing a fundamental shift. No politician (worth voting for) is unaware that the global depression just over the hill is going to hit everyone really hard. And more significantly, no politician is about to turn on the banking system that created the problem and make them pay for it.
What most people see on the ground is that the country has no money and cannot afford to build houses, create more infrastructure and create jobs for the indigenous population. This translates into concerns about immigration, fears over ever rising rents, welfare benefit cuts, severe sanctions on the unemployed, lack of school places, rising energy costs, a rise in retirement age and, as the Labour party has coined it, a cost of living crisis. Unfortunately for Labour they have not the money, the ability or the power to make the changes they claim they can make at the 2015 general election. And just a few months after the May 2015 election, whoever wins the poison chalice will have to start being honest with the electorate and say it how it is.
The people of Europe are not fundamentally Euro skeptic. It would be more accurate to say that people are politician skeptic. Corruption in the corridors of power continue as they did before. The system is unchanged and the only beneficiaries are people with money. While this continues the 99% will remain discontented. I am sure that there are many good and decent conviction politicians. But until they managed to clean up the execrable system that promotes corruption, nepotism, cronyism, backhanders, corporate influence, tax havens, nest feathering and all round self interest, it is difficult to understand why they might feel aggrieved that we treat what they stand for with contempt.
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