Why the Liberal Democrats love UKIP, and how Nick Clegg may be the saviour of the United Kingdom.
It is a truism that in politics as in
war, my enemy's enemy is my friend. This is being seen in Scotland
right now, where Alex Salmond is rooting for a Conservative comeback
in the opinion polls down south in the knowledge that the more likely
a Tory government in 2015 appears, the more likely Scotland will say
Yes to independence in September.
(It must be strange for David Cameron
to know that the more likely it appears he will win the UK general
election in 2015 the more likely it is it will be the last ever UK
general election. The only person I can think of to have perhaps
experienced similar emotions is Adolf Hitler in 1933.)
Nevertheless, this truism is something
that appears to have been forgotten in much of the commentariat's
analysis of When Nigel Met Nick, round 2.
I must confess from the outset that I
have not yet had the dubious pleasure of watching this intellectual
joust between a somewhat posh, privately-educated, former City
commodity trader, MEP and self-proclaimed man of the people, and a
somewhat posh, privately-educated, former political advisor, MEP and
self-admitted son-of-privilege. However, it is pretty clear
that the general consensus was that the UKIP leader Nigel Farage
trounced Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat leader Nick
Clegg, leaving Farage 2 for 2, as the Americans like to say.
According to the opinion polls Nick
Clegg lost the first debate. he appears to have changed tack for the
second resulting in even less success, leading some commentators to
opine that in agreeing to debate Farage the Liberal Democrat leader
had made an enormous error. He provided a fillip to the Kippers in
advance of the European elections, and in the longer run damaged the
pro-European cause and his own party, by reminding a broadly
Euroskeptic British electorate that the Lib Dems, as well as being in
favour of vivisection, chemical warfare, castration of homosexuals,
denying women the vote, a 90% top rate of tax and the closure of all
private television stations, they are an avowedly pro-European party.
(Admittedly, I made up all the other policy positions apart from
being pro-European, but given the current political mood in Britain,
being pro-Europe or a Lib Dem is about as socially acceptable as any
of the others).
Still cannot believe what persuaded Clegg to challenge Farage to a debate, nearly as bad as Cameron's mistake in 2010 to debate Brown/Clegg
— Lord Ashcroft (@LordAshcroft) April 5, 2014
