There was a time when y’Lord was a young whipper-snapping, NME-reading, Labour-voting conformer. Like all political drones I thought I was going against the flow; in a more sober reality I was performing exactly the way my chosen side had indoctrinated me.
During those years I was flippant enough to call Thatcher, Major and their accomplices fascists. I still disdain the Conservatives. More even than Labour they stand for lining the cavernous pockets of their rich chums while seeing to it that the rest of us stay in our place – to hate them is perfectly reasonable. Despite that I now understand that to go so far as to call them fascists, apart from being embarrassingly over-the-top, trivialises the real thing and the suffering of its victims, especially those who suffered before and during the Second World War. It shows a complete lack of perspective.
I mention this because one of the things that has angered me most about the EU’s pan-media campaign of slurs against its British opponent UKIP is the frequent and vacuous description of Farage and his freak show as fascists, Nazis, insert-your-own-ad-hominem, etc. UKIP are a ragtag gang of unreformed Tories, old school socialists, and political misfits (the Hamiltons, for crying out loud). Nevertheless, to compare them to history’s biggest villains is woefully inappropriate, not to mention dishonest.
Yes, some Kippers have been exposed as bigots, as has happened with members of all the main parties more often than I can count over the years. The press and documentary-makers have dug around for dirty UKIP candidates and unsurprisingly have found some. In truth it’s a wonder journalists have not unearthed more bad eggs than they have – UKIP is not as well polished and stage-managed as the older, better funded and more experienced rivals; it’s members are not as well vetted. If all aspirants of each alleigance were put under a microscope with the same enthusiasm there would be similar scandals for each faction. You can be sure many red, blue and yellow MPs would reveal themselves to be pillocks if they were not carefully shepherded by spin doctors and PR agents.
UKIP as a whole are nothing better or more sinister than the Tories they will ally themselves with after the election. The difference between the two is that UKIP oppose the EU while their cousins only pretend to, and UKIP will quickly forget the original cause once they have a taste of power.
A considerable number of people have jumped on the anti-UKIP bandwagon. I’ve witnessed people who I know to be racist standing on the damn thing. Adults who should know better have swallowed and repeated the lies which were designed to make UKIP untouchable. Once upon a time I would have been among them, whether I felt it in my heart or not. However, at least as many have reacted contrarily to the bombardment of EU propaganda, and rather than consigning UKIP to oblivion like the genuinely far right BNP, the widespread abuse of centre-right UKIP has seemed to make its share of the cake grow. I’d like to think the public have seen the relentless slinging of slander for the shameful political sham it is. That would be poetic; still I guess we’ll never know. One thing is clear though – the British don’t like being told what to think.
The BBC finally clocked on last year that their long-term denigration of UKIP was having the undesired effect of swelling the anti-federalists’ support and thus toned the efforts down a little (it’s not nearly as blatant recently although you can spot calculated manipulation in their pre-election coverage if you keep your eyes open).
The trendy social media operation has continued unabated, throwing petrol onto a fire which the BBC and the left have been fueling for years. Out of the ringleaders’ control, like a monster which has snapped its leash. Name-calling makes UKIP more popular? Let’s keep at it! Genius.
Hopefully when the Con-UKIP coalition arrives and UKIP turn out to be just like any other party, sitting there in their suits dodging questions about spending cuts, and the jackboots marching down the streets fail to materialise, some of those who got swept up in the anti-UKIP hysteria will feel suitably silly (most of course will conveniently forget their doom and gloom predictions). The new coalition will have no more luck getting immigration under control than its predecessor.
The lone plus, I suppose, is that for a spell the gullible portion of the electorate which was fooled into thinking UKIP would kick down the doors of all Britain’s immigrants and non-Aryans and throw them into stormy seas, will be immune to similar large-scale propaganda waves; much as our Crusade-weary citizens refused to be whipped into a frenzy when the BBC tried to pave the way for our government to invade Syria (thus derailing the whole trans-Atlantic war machine, because America didn’t want to go it alone – how embarrassing for David Cameron!), on the grounds that we had heard the same old shtick from Tony ‘Bloodlust’ Blair.
To besmirch the many – black, white, Asian, and even immigrant – who worry about immigration levels and the unstoppable wheels of federalism as fascists has been not just to overstate the matter, but to insult the millions who gave their lives to bring down Hitler and Co.
If you disagree with the contents of UKIP’s manifesto then fight them for what they are, not what you wish them to be. If you can’t produce a comprehensive argument without accusing them of ideologies and policies they do not advocate perhaps your case is not as strong as you thought.
The great irony is that the only way a moderate nation like ours will ever end up with an actual fascist leader is if our less reserved European Union neighbours elect one.