OpEd: Ukip and Labour 15-05-15

The commentators 15-05-15

...on Ukip

Ukip has ended up working out rather well for the Conservatives. Nigel Farage proved more of a danger to Labour, as the newly unemployed Ed Balls will attest. Westminster’s firm-but-unfair voting system means that in Parliament, Ukip will be no more be a problem than George Galloway was. In time, David Cameron will need a strategy to win over the voters that Ukip has helpfully wrestled away from Labour. But for now his Ukip strategy is simple: sit back, relax and enjoy watching his enemy tear itself apart.
- Fraser Nelson, Daily Telegraph

When Farage’s election result was announced last week, he looked deeply troubled. It’s clear now it wasn’t just because he had failed to become an MP. He knew his defeat would unleash enemies who would try to force him out. If they succeed, they will have to ask themselves how many of the millions who voted for Ukip last week will stay with the party.
- Andrew Pierce, Daily Mail

...and the Labour party

There are many reasons the Tories won the 2015 election and Labour didn’t. But the search for understanding requires us to look at what was attractive about the Tories, not just what was unattractive about Labour. A lot of people continue to be naive about this. They sit in a bubble in which they see what they want to see and hear what they want to hear.
- Martin Kettle, The Guardian

If Labour had run local campaigns against the Bedroom Tax, involving its victims and making a fuss, it would at least look as if it stood for something and meant it. If it aimed to enthuse its supporters, so that when the leader came into a town there was a real crowd, rather than 20 officials off the party bus pretending to be excited with a balloon, you might create a movement that could counter the torrent of abuse from the Press.
- Mark Steel, The Independent

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Politicians have decided that they don't need us any more. They are connecting directly with the voters.
And if our papers can't do better than clumsy photoshopping, character assassinations and propaganda, readers will soon decide that they don't need us either.
Editor's blog: We're giving the enemy more ammunition

Comment archive, 2015

March 27 Prince Charles's letters
March 26 UK politics
March 25 Cameron's exit strategy
March 24 Lee Kwan Yew
March 23 UK politics

Jim Murphy, Scottish Labour party conference

March 13 UK politics
March 12 Jeremy Clarkson
March 11 UK politics
March 10 UK politics
March 9 UK politics

February 27 UK politics
February 26 Minor party leaders
February 25 Natalie Bennett
February 24 Rifkind and Straw
February 23 World affairs

February 13 UK politics
February 12 UK politics
February 11 UK politics
February 10 UK politics
February 9 Politics

January 30 Rape law
January 29 UK politics
January 28 UK politics
January 27 Greece
January 26 UK politics

January 16 World politics
January 15 Election debates
January 14 Charlie Hebdo
January 13 Charlie Hebdo
January 12 Charlie Hebdo

March 20 UK politics
March 19 The Budget
March 18 UK politics
March 17 Race in Britain
March 16 UK politics

March 6 Scotland and the election
March 5 Isis
March 4 UK politics
March 3 Radicalisation
March 2 Russia

February 20 UK politics
February 19 Chelsea and racism
February 18 UK politics
February 17 UK politics
February 16 Copenhagen

February 6 UK politics
February 5 Isis atrocity
February 4 UK politics
February 3 UK politics
February 2 UK politics

January 23 UK politics
January 22 Chilcot inquiry
January 21 Page Three
January 20 Anti-semitism
January 19 Religion and freedom

January 9 Charlie Hebdo
January 8 Charlie Hebdo
January 7 UK politics
January 6 UK politics
January 5 UK politics

For EI daily digests from June to December 2014 please click here

The defeat debate is already a cacophony but a voice conspicuously absent from the concord is that of Ed Miliband. The former leader could do his party a service by making plain why he thinks Labour lost. It is not a perfunctory mea culpa we need. It is a recantation. Mr Miliband could say, in these exact words, “I thought the country had moved to the left. I was wrong”. The trouble is I suspect he still thinks he is right. He thinks the electorate weren’t up to it. Add false consciousness to the historic litany of Labour excuses
- Philip Collins, The Times

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Editorial Intelligence