Thursday, May 15, 2014

Collapse of politics and representative democracy in Britain exemplified by US Democrat David Axelrod's hiring by UK Labour leader Milliband. UKIP leader Farage is only sign of life in UK politics-UK Telegraph

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5/15/14, "British politics is broken - and only Nigel Farage is profiting," UK Telegraph, Peter Oborne

"Empty of function and barren of purpose, Parliament rose yesterday for another long break. By coincidence, this was the day after David Axelrod, Ed Miliband’s trophy political adviser, arrived in London. 
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Mr Axelrod’s appointment encapsulates the collapse of representative democracy in Britain over the past two decades. Political parties used to belong to their members. Now they have fallen into the hands of a very small group of very rich men, who spend huge sums so that political experts like Mr Axelrod can churn out their corporate message. 
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He has been parachuted into Britain in the same way that a head office whizz-kid flies in, first-class, to solve problems in some ailing local subsidiary. And he will carry out the same task that Peter Mandelson used to do – strategy work and brand management. 
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Lord Mandelson’s methods were loathsome and his morals abominable, but at least he was British, and to that extent one of us. Mr Axelrod has no stake in this country. He is a here today, gone tomorrow technocrat, filling time until a more interesting project crops up. He will not have to live with the long-term consequences of the decisions he helps to frame over the next few weeks, but we will. 
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Mr Axelrod arrives at a sombre moment in our national history. Three momentous years lie ahead.

They may well determine the fate of this country until the end of the century. If the referendum in Scotland goes the way of the Nationalists this autumn, the Union, such a stabilising factor in our common endeavours, will end. The English, Welsh and Irish will be plunged into confusing arguments about who we are. Even very simple points will become insoluble. Great Britain and the United Kingdom will no longer exist: what should we call ourselves?
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Looking further ahead, we face the possibility of a referendum on membership of the European Union. The voters will be asked whether they want to live as part of a province within a greater European state, or be an independent nation, detached from continental Europe, and isolated from the United States."...

[Ed. note: Not so, you wouldn't be "isolated from the United States" by removing the EU parasite. We're already isolated from you by a large ocean which is why we came here. We wanted to get away from you. We don't tolerate monarchies despite US political class delusions to the contrary. If you remove the parasite, we'll be thrilled for you. To the degree our paths may cross, we're happy to work together with free people.]

(continuing): "Meanwhile, British party democracy has collapsed, along with the post-war economic model. All political leaders have embarked on a muddled and pitiful attempt to discover fresh modes of leadership and political expression.

Only one politician seems to be entirely at home in this post-democratic landscape. There is a paradox about Nigel Farage. In an era that has been stripped of familiar signposts, he might have walked straight off the set of an Ealing comedy. Dickens would have loved him. There has been no Axelrod figure lurking behind Mr Farage, trying to make him say the right things or wear the right clothes. He has advanced to his position of unprecedented public influence on his own terms. Voters sense this and respect it.
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For many years, the Ukip leader was ignored by the mainstream media. In the 2004 European elections, Ukip marked its first major breakthrough, winning 16 per cent of the seats. However, the BBC marked the party down as “other” in its news report the following day. 

Now that Mr Farage can no longer be ignored, he is sneered at instead. Even so, it looks possible that next week he will come top in the national vote. This will be a truly astounding achievement. No political party in modern history – not even Neil Kinnock’s Labour in 1987 – has come under such sustained attack and misrepresentation. Mr Kinnock at least had The Guardian and the Daily Mirror; Mr Farage cannot boast a single national title, and several papers are running vendettas against him.

Mr Kinnock was treated reasonably fairly by the broadcast media. This is not the case with Mr Farage: consider the lacerating contempt shown towards him by Channel 4 News and its chief presenter, Jon Snow. Nick Robinson, the BBC’s political editor, has also abandoned his usual fairness when dealing with the party. 

Consider the way Mr Robinson covered Ukip’s campaign launch three weeks ago. He did not seriously attempt to address its policies, as might have been expected. Instead, he tackled Mr Farage about the fact that he employed his German wife as his secretary. This was surely a story that Mr Robinson could and would have left to a junior reporter if he had been dealing with any other party.

It is instructive to compare Ukip to the Social Democratic Party, the last new force to challenge mainstream political control. The SDP could rely on support from the media – much of it fanatical.

The BBC provided the platform (the Dimbleby Lecture) for the speech by Roy Jenkins that signalled the launch of the new party, with most of its top brass present. Ukip, by contrast, has risen despite the media. I would guess that this remorseless perseverance against hostile attack will help make the party more robust now that it has broken through.

Agree with Ukip or not, there is no question that it is a remarkable phenomenon. In particular, its rise tells us a great deal about the failure of the other parties to adjust to revolutionary changes in the structure of British politics. 

Let’s briefly examine the other figures in our impoverished political landscape. Nick Clegg, a decent and honourable man, can feel proud of his record as Deputy Prime Minister. But his party may well split after the coming general election, with the bulk shifting to Labour, while a few (Mr Clegg included) become part of the extended Conservative family. 

By contrast, David Cameron is now in a more powerful position than at any previous stage of his premiership. The economic recovery has gravely weakened his internal opponents, as well as the Opposition. Mr Cameron’s problems, however, are not over. While he can now assert a claim to have been one of Britain’s better prime ministers, especially on the domestic front, the party he leads remains in crisis, with membership still in precipitous decline. This problem urgently needs to be dealt with, starting with a new party chairman in the looming reshuffle. 

I now come to David Axelrod’s latest client, Ed Miliband. He has been a far more effective Opposition leader than many allow. However, he made a very serious mistake three months ago when he allied himself with the political and corporate establishment and ruled out a referendum on Europe. 
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The young Labour leader has consistently been at his most effective when he has been most rebellious: confronting Rupert Murdoch over phone hacking, forcing concessions from David Cameron over Syria, or challenging big business. But he has failed to make the most of these occasional triumphs. He has gone quiet on the press, and nothing more has been heard about Syria (indeed, there is no such thing as a distinctive Labour foreign policy).
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Meanwhile, he lacks any discernible policies on the economy, welfare or education. At his worst, he is the voice of Britain’s bankrupt political establishment, while the Tories have produced the most challenging ideas.
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An opposition leader should articulate a vision, set out a new approach and speak up for the dispossessed. Mr Miliband and his expensive new adviser urgently need to learn from the example of Nigel Farage, the man who has almost single-handedly reinvented the forgotten art of opposition politics." via Lucianne

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