Sadly, the result of his endeavours has been that instead of seeing-off UKIP, his party has become UKIP, with the right-wing of the Tories – some would say the far, far right – taking over the government of Britain without even a ballot or a bullet.
It’s a coup, so fast and ingenious that people didn’t even see it coming. Many still can’t see it.
Some leading UKIP politicians and supporters are now seriously considering leaving their party to join the new Conservative Party instead.
Why wait around for UKIP to choose another new leader when they already have one in Theresa May?
On the BBC Radio 4 ‘Today’ programme last week, UKIP MEP, Roger Helmer, a climate-change-denier who is the party's spokesman on energy and industry, indicated that the new Conservative government, by default, has now become the UKIP government.
He said:
“I like what Theresa May is doing.
“She seems to have picked up about 90% of UKIP's programme. In some ways she’s gone far beyond what we would have done.”Mr Helmer, who defected from the Tories in 2012 to join UKIP, explained:
“The idea that companies should provide lists of foreigners – if we had suggested that, if UKIP had suggested that, they would have been shouting ‘fascist’ up and down the street.”Well, people – some people – have been shouting ‘fascist’, but this time it’s different: instead of a one-MP-party proclaiming far-right policies, it’s the government-in-power that’s doing so.
When did the British electorate vote for such policies as ‘British jobs only for British people’ and ‘firms that hire too many foreigners will be named and shamed’?
They didn't.
Theresa May’s Tory government is a million miles detached from the policies and principles of David Cameron's administration which people voted into power only one year ago.
His government was pro-Remain and strongly recommended to the electorate that they should vote for Britain’s continued membership of the EU.
Theresa May, although a lukewarm Remain campaigner during the EU Referendum, has now shown her true colours, pushing and planning for a hard-Brexit, with open relish and exuberance.
This new Tory-come-UKIP administration is now planning, by their own admission, to ‘change the country forever’ with policies that it’s unlikely the Tories would ever had dared to publish in their manifesto of only a year ago.
With what democratic mandate can Mrs May and her band of Brexiteers now take the country on such a permanent and far-reaching path?
None.
The Conservatives under David Cameron only just won power with a slim majority of 12 seats.
In fact, the vast majority of people who voted in last year’s General Election didn’t want him to be Prime Minister – almost 65% of voters didn’t vote Conservative.
Whilst just over 11 million voters chose the Conservative Party to govern us, over 19 million voters didn’t.
That’s actually a failing of our electoral system, which it can be eloquently argued is much less democratic than the system of proportional-representation adopted for the European Parliament elections.
But Theresa May isn’t claiming that the General Election of 2015 has given her a mandate to "change the country forever."
She can’t claim that because the Tory’s manifesto of 2015, under David Cameron’s watch, promised no such thing.
No, Theresa May is claiming that the EU Referendum has given her the power to permanently change the country.
The Referendum, with the most simplistic of questions, and with a most narrow margin, chose for Britain to ‘Leave’ the EU.
No other instructions were given by the electorate. Nobody voted for what Leave means, or what type of Brexit would be acceptable.
That, however, hasn’t stopped Mrs May from using the Referendum result to proclaim that she can go forward with her policies, even without the endorsement of Parliament.
Forget General Elections. Mrs May claims she has the endorsement and blessing of “the people".
Afterall, she doesn’t just call what happened on 23 June “a Referendum”. She describes it as “a revolution”.
She said in her keynote speech at the Tory Party annual conference last week that it was, “a revolution in which millions of our fellow citizens stood up and said they were not prepared to be ignored anymore.”
(That hasn't stopped her from ignoring 16 million voters - very almost half of those who voted - who did not want Britain to leave the EU. They were barely even mentioned in her conference speeches).
Mrs May said this was, “A once-in-a-generation chance to change the direction of our nation for good. To step back and ask ourselves what kind of country we want to be.”
But of course, she isn’t asking any of us “what kind of country we want to be.” She is telling us.
She went on to say:
“For the referendum was not just a vote to withdraw from the EU.”But, actually, it was. That’s all it was.
A vote to withdraw from the EU, by a slim majority, in a referendum that was only advisory.
No other questions were asked in the Referendum except ‘Remain’ or ‘Leave’.
If Mrs May now wants the Referendum to mean more than just ‘Leave’ – as she is now claiming and guessing it did – then her government should resign forthwith and allow for an early General Election, so that we can vote on her far-reaching policies.
How many of the 11 million voters who chose a Tory government under David Cameron would now vote for a Tory/UKIP administration under Theresa May?
Especially now that it's more clear that she is adopting “about 90% of UKIP’s programme”, with some policies so extreme that UKIP themselves say go further than they would ever have dared?
Isn’t it time that we found out, before our newly imposed political masters do irreparable damage to our country?
_______________________________________________________________
Other articles by Jon Danzig:
- Theresa May's switch from Bremain to Brexit
- Boston wasn't always against migration
- Blame the politicians, not the voters
- Illustrated portfolio of Jon Danzig's latest articles
Join my Facebook campaign to keep Britain in the European Union:Reasons2Remain
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
• Readers comments are welcome, including opinions that oppose mine. Comments need to be on-topic. Personal attacks and anonymous postings will not be allowed. To read more about the style of debating that I encourage on all my blogs, please read my article: 'Debate, don't hate'
• Join and share the discussions on Facebook and Twitter:
#Brexit: @theresa_may has now taken charge of #Britain without a ballot or a bullet. Read @Jon_Danzig’s commentary: https://t.co/YelnX3P4fx pic.twitter.com/cOGUur1XTr— Reasons2Remain (@Reasons2Remain) 8 October 2016
#Brexit #Britain: #MrsMay takes control, without a ballot or— Jon Danzig (@Jon_Danzig) October 9, 2016
a bullet. Now published on my blog – please share: https://t.co/T9nDNVs6jM pic.twitter.com/WJNTnP7DSK
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for your comment. It will be posted once moderated.