Send in the Clowns

Kenneth Minogue

May 2013

When in the May local government elections, a party of "clowns" and "fruitcakes" got about a quarter of the vote, commentators went giddy with polling projections in search of what such voting would mean for the main political parties. They were missing the point. Here was a mass expression of derision for the whole British political establishment. In a small democratic way, it was nothing less than a revolution against the "soft despotism" that has prevailed in British politics for more than a generation.   

Kenneth Clarke, a sentimental wet and the embodiment of the soft despotism of recent times, got it precisely right in the abusive terms he chose for these revolutionaries. As "clowns" and "fruitcakes", they were precisely the sort of people who should never (in his view) play any part in politics. Yet now more than a quarter of Britain's electorate had waved two fingers in the air in an unmistakable rejection of the established politicians who claimed to speak for them. Many who don't bother to vote feel the same way. And the first question must be: what was it about the political class they were rejecting?.....To Read More…..