There is a lesson in British politics for the rest of the world: A democratic revolt of the people against the establishment cannot be resisted forever.
The immediate result of the Brexit vote in 2016 and Parliament’s decision to accede to the will of the electorate and turn in its Article 50 notice to the EU was a strengthening of the two oldest mainstream parties, Tory and Labour, against the ultra-Remain party, the Liberal Democrats, and the ultra-Brexit party, UKIP. The Tory and Labour parties subsequently pledged in their campaign manifestos to deliver on the result of the 2016 referendum, and usher the U.K. out of the EU in a timely and orderly fashion. That Article 50 notice promised an exit date of at the end of March 2019, a date that was repeated endlessly in the media. By endorsing the populist outcome, both parties looked like they might thrive.
And then Parliament refused to pass Theresa May’s negotiated agreement by that date, and also refused to “crash out” of the EU on WTO terms. Leading voices in both the Tory and Labour parties began to embrace the idea of a second Brexit referendum, obviously hoping that voters would come to retroactively bless their indecision, and possibly relieve them of Brexit altogether. Voters seem inclined to destroy them instead.
And now those two parties are about to reap their reward — in the grinning face of Nigel Farage, and in his new Brexit party, which has welcomed in Brexiteers from the left and the right. The former leader of UKIP, and a man who helped the Brexit cause get over the line in 2016, has done some studying on the new populist politics. And he is newly sharp. Asked by the media why his party did not publish a traditional manifesto, he said, “I will never, ever use that word manifesto. I think in most people’s word association, ‘manifesto’ equals ‘lie.’” After the performance of Parliament in the last two years, who could possibly dispute the charge?
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See Also:
(1) Tories slip to single-digit support as ‘ousted’ Theresa hits the EU election campaign trail
(2) Neither Liberal Nor Democrat
(3) ‘My money’s on the
(4) Shameful Labour Antisemitism
(5) Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party is ‘the ONLY Leave option’ in election – ‘No one LISTENS’
