I have said enough times what I think of two party systems (or how does a sane person choose between "not good" and "so bad that you cannot understand why anyone would ever support them"?).
The advent of a third party, or fourth or fifth for that matter, in such situations is difficult though, because these countries also use the "first past the post system" where the big parties always win, and money also plays a near corrupting part.
Germany does not have these problems of course, thanks to the glories of proportional representation. The down side being that even the alternatives are often not enough (you cannot pick from 5 alternatives from ultraconservative to neo-Marxist?) and 7% of the voters now support the Pirate Party, which has virtually no clear policies to speak of! Nor wants to be in power. Nor wants to form a coalition with anyone.
"Doof" to quote my third-favourite German word! Not worth 0.7% of my time supporting such nonsense!
Move on.
Anyway I discovered on YouTube an Australian who wished everyone to know that the UK has actually got a 3rd party (about which he sounded enthusiastic - he must be exiled to a very small corner of the affluent South of England) called the UKIP.
More on this shower of pig's droppings in a minute.
For the information of my Australian friend, the UK has had a 3rd party for quite some time. It is called the Liberal Democrats. They sold their souls to the proverbial Devil (there being no literal Devil, of course), by forming a coalition with the UK Conservative Party. A party which is sensibly (rather than excessively) pro-EU with a bunch of Neanderthal Euro-sceptics. A party which showed the intelligence to oppose the Iraq War allied to a party that enabled Blair to participate in the Iraq War despite 30% opposition in his own Labour Party!
Yes, well that establishes the existence of the 3rd Party for now (before they get totally annihilated by the "first past the post system" at the next election).
Then there is the UK Green Party, which has 1 member of parliament, which is one more than the UKIP can manage, which I think that puts them 4th in England.
And in the Bradford West by-election this year, Respect (who are not that far from being a Marxist party that also appeals to Muslims) also won a seat in Parliament, while the UKIP candidate won all of 3% of the vote.
As for Scotland, the "UK" part of the UKIP's title almost is without relevance, as they are a non-factor. Probably the sanest party left in the UK (the Scottish National Party, a moderate organisation despite the "National" in their title), holds sway. Taking Scotland out of the UK would be in my opinion, the best thing that could happen to show that other parts of the UK deserve attention rather than just the South-East. Only 40% of Scots seem to want that though, but if it ever happened, I would be checking round to seeing if I had some Scottish blood that would make me eligible to take out Scottish nationality (as an alternative to becoming German). Start learning to play the bagpipes.
Meanwhile the UKIP. They are to all intents and purposes nothing more than the Conservative Party with a Euro-xenophobic rather than Euro-sceptic tendency, blame the EU, ridiculously, for absolutely everything and want out. They are otherwise committed Thatcherites economically (which explains their strength in the South-East - the Conservative heartlands). And while not endorsing the tactics and implied need for violence of the neo-Fascist BNP, the "talk" (rather than the "walk") on immigration is the same load of phoney inventions that come straight of the BNP playbook - rumour rather than facts.
And try finding anywhere on the Internet the UKIP's position in 2003 (not after the event!) on the Iraq War. Not easy to find, I will tell you! As the EU did not start it, does the "I" as in "Independence" matter here? I suspect not - at least not until after the event!
If they are the fastest rising party in the UK ..... Enough said. I am glad that I no longer live there. As an internationalist, living in a country with a rapidly increasing number of parochial xenophobes is definitely a non-starter! And I am fully aware that the Euro has serious problems (which could get a lot worse tomorrow) - see the other items on this blog for more details.
When I comment on other countries (which I do quite frequently), I make sure that I have read up the information and studied the situation. You will never hear me comment on the American Health Service and the politics involved for example - I do not really understand in depth how it works, and how it could be improved.
Meanwhile I am often saddened by what I see elsewhere, but given the global economy it can be worked out how difficult situations are going to be, what will work and what will not.
So predicting that François Hollande would have difficulties turning things round is proving, sadly, to be correct. In the same way that looking at the arithmetic, I will tell people (strictly based upon the facts) that Romney's budget proposals will massively increase the deficit (and that will have ongoing repercussions for the rest of the world economy unfortunately). Both sides of the political divide proved wrong in one paragraph.
And get rid of the global economy and go back to some nationalist model - vote UKIP and see what you will get. I will, as one who saw the drastic impact that Thatcherite economics and the associated mass unemployment had on the well-being of thousands of people in the North of England in the 1980s, advise you that you will simply get a repeat of that. And don't start producing myths that the EU (or its predecessor) was responsible for that any more than it was for the international financial crisis of 2008 or the Iraq War. It wasn't!
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