{"id":325,"date":"2014-12-08T20:31:49","date_gmt":"2014-12-08T20:31:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mrbiggs.net\/ron\/?p=325"},"modified":"2014-12-08T22:53:40","modified_gmt":"2014-12-08T22:53:40","slug":"ukip-from-a-joke-to-a-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mrbiggs.net\/ron\/?p=325","title":{"rendered":"UKIP – from a joke to a threat"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s a testament to just how rare sentient thought is within the human race. \u00a0The UKIP’s recent electoral successes sparked the predictable frightened reaction from dominant journals like the Economist<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And I say that by looking at the tone of the article. \u00a0Britons have genuine concerns about issues like immigration and the cost of the EU, issues the UKIP are riding high on, but\u00a0this article is not concerned with that. \u00a0Rather, it\u00a0attacks UKIP on the\u00a0very issues that characterize a fledgling party: lack of organization, not-so-well-thought-out platform, or that they’re just riding on “charisma” (whatever that means).<\/p>\n

Such\u00a0are issues for UKIP to discuss among themselves, not for outsiders to criticize. \u00a0Success and growth bring new challenges. \u00a0The UKIP need to figure out how to handle their success and prepare for the next step of refining their message to reach a wider audience, actually handling power, and exercising it successfully.<\/p>\n

Rather, the issue here for the rest of us is the vacuum in the discussion, or as they say, the elephant in the room. \u00a0From my desk all the way here in Los Angeles, the issue isn’t even so much immigration itself, it’s that the immigrants are not being absorbed into British society, and are instead just festering on the margins, feeding off its safety net, and threatening to reform it in their image.<\/p>\n

Muslim immigrants, specifically.<\/p>\n

It is an issue that The Economist has made oblique reference to in the past in this study: They Can’t Imagine Not Working<\/a>. \u00a0It’s one thing to welcome immigrants, it is another to make sure society actually benefits from them, rather than them being an albatross around its neck. \u00a0And it looks like England is drifting\u00a0from the American benefit version to the European albatross version.<\/p>\n

Why not admit it? \u00a0In these days where politics has embraced social media, it is easier than ever to see what people are frustrated with. \u00a0There is no way established institutions can deny what’s happening in the British population. \u00a0On the flip side, it’s easier than ever to respond to it.<\/p>\n

Like I said though, I’m just a guy sitting at my desk in Los Angeles, reading what the papers and select tweeters tell me. \u00a0But this is a question I’d like to see discussed. \u00a0And I’m not alone<\/a>. \u00a0If the Economist, the Tories, and other parties are willing to enter\u00a0this discussion, they will attract the attention and passion of mainstream voters, and relegate UKIP back to irrelevance.<\/p>\n

But if they simply caricature UKIP\u00a0as some stuffy old character from Paddington Bear<\/a>, they are leaving the UKIP’s main issue, and main cause for success, unanswered. \u00a0That will give them greater and greater power until they can solve the problem themselves. \u00a0If the UKIP really are the demagogues people say they are, it’ll be a much less effective solution than what could have been done by enlightened statesmen.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s a testament to just how rare sentient thought is within the human race. \u00a0The UKIP’s recent electoral successes sparked the predictable frightened reaction from dominant journals like the Economist. And I say that by looking at the tone of the article. \u00a0Britons have genuine concerns about issues like immigration and the cost of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[103,204,197,198,199,201,200,202,203,196],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbiggs.net\/ron\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbiggs.net\/ron\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbiggs.net\/ron\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbiggs.net\/ron\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbiggs.net\/ron\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=325"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/mrbiggs.net\/ron\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":330,"href":"https:\/\/mrbiggs.net\/ron\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325\/revisions\/330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbiggs.net\/ron\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbiggs.net\/ron\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbiggs.net\/ron\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}