Nigel Farage has some exciting news.
Party Membership
On the surface it would appear Labour ought to be ruling by a landslide. Since it isn’t, its numbers are more than a bit suspect. Note that only 20% of the Labour total is registered.
Numbers from UK Political Party Affiliation.
Ability to Disrupt
The New Yorker writes Nigel Farage Makes Trumpian Trouble with His New Brexit Party
The thirty-odd per cent that the Brexit Party is polling is far from a majority, but the basic problem of Brexit politics is the lack of a coherent majority anywhere. Cross-party talks on a Brexit compromise have stalled. A second referendum doesn’t seem to be on offer. Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, has proved adept at hiding his own position, in order to paper over divisions in his party, but not at actually leading anyone anywhere, except perhaps to a new general election.
It would be a mistake to dismiss the European elections as a mere sideshow in the fight among Britain’s parties, either because the U.K. will withdraw its M.E.P.s should Brexit go through, or because the Parliament is viewed, by many, as mostly just the showy part of a make-work E.U. bureaucracy. The U.K. is not out of the Union yet, and it will be sending seventy-one M.E.P.s to the Parliament, nearly a tenth of the total.
In Denial
“The BBC is in denial, the Tory and Labour parties are in denial, I think you’re all in for a bigger surprise Thursday week than you can even imagine,” said Farage.
The biggest denier of all is Theresa May.
Transformation
The Guardian asks Has the Rise of the Brexit Party Blown Away UKIP?
Why is that a question?
UKIP is gone Support is at 3% and headed to zero. The Brexit Party picked up all of it.
New Slogan
Change Politics For Good
Farage’s new slogan is “Change Politics For Good“.
On the heels of serious missteps by Labour Leader Jeremy Corby and Tory Prime Minister Theresa May, now in the same political bed, that is an excellent slogan.
Four Former UKIP AM’s Join Brexit Party
The BBC reports Four former UKIP AMs have joined Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party, announcing plans to form an assembly group.
AMs are MPs from the Wales National Assembly.
“I’m very pleased as leader of the Brexit Party to welcome four members of the Welsh Assembly who will now re-designate as of this afternoon as Brexit Party members,” Farage stated.
Mark Reckless, Mandy Jones, Caroline Jones and David Rowlands are the four joining the Brexit Party.
Mr Reckless, who left the Tory group on Tuesday ahead of the announcement, said: “Brexit is being blocked and the Brexit Party group in the Welsh assembly from today will be supporting Nigel Farage, supporting the Brexit Party in everything that they are doing to protect our democracy and to ensure that Brexit is delivered.”
Fastest Growing Party
The Independent writes the Brexit Party is ‘Fastest Growing Political Force in the Land’.
Mr Farage revealed the momentum behind his party – which tops polls for the MEP elections – as he warned a cross-party Brexit deal between Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn would fuel it further.
Branding any softer Brexit agreement as a “coalition of politicians against the people”, he said: “I think millions of people would give up on both Labour and the Conservatives.”
He added: “This would be the final betrayal. Frankly, if May signs up to this, I can’t see the point of the Conservative Party even existing. What is it for?”
“Work it out. We have raised getting on for £2m through individual people joining through our website. I can’t think that any other party in the UK has raised money like that.”
Brexit vs labour
The numbers suggest Farage is correct. Support for the Tory party declined far more than Labour.
But the real story is the Brexiteers are united. Remainers are split between Labour, the Liberal Democrats, the Greens, and the newly formed Co-operative Party.
The latter is headed towards oblivion.
Hooray for Farage
Hooray for Farage and the Brexit party!
A customs union makes zero sense. It would be the worst possible action.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
We will see if Farage will grasp the nettle of political reform. Proportional Representation. A slimline English parliament to deal with Health, Education, Adult social care in England (Preferably based in the Midlands or Northern England) Abolition of Westminster Parliament but a new parliament of the regions to deal with cross border English, Scottish and Welsh interests and also take over the constituency aspects of the commons. If this only needed to meet up a couple of weekends a month this could move around the country.
Nigel Farage is an amusing twit. He’ll level off very quickly, then disappear at best, or split the right as he did with UKIP at best, even with any Russian support.
Tories only have 124K – so good question
People have to pay to register, so they don’t?
I gather it is the case that UK parties are like the Libertarian Party in the United States. You are a member if you sign the pledge and pay your yearly dues; that’s independent from party registration (which, by the way, only affects about 2/3 of American voters; the rest live in states in which voter registration does not include registering into any political party.)
It is no different to your Gym membership: you pay the subs each year that’s it. You get to attend the Annual General Meeting where the various officers are chosen and the committee, and you get a vote in candidate selection and a Leadership election if there is one (there wasn’t with the evil May) and if you have been a member I think it is 3+ months.
These numbers are confusing to me, so perhaps someone can give me some background. The population of England seems to be about 55m people. The Brexit party has 100k voters registered to it. On it’s face it appears that .2% of the British population is registered as Brexit, an insignificant number. For that matter, the 500k people registered at Labour would appear to be less than 1% of the population.
It is not like the United States. In the U.K., party members are the kind of people who go to party meetings and register with them and pay dues. Basically a hardcore party supporter. Clearly Labour has more hardcore supporters than the other parties, but it is actual votes at an election that matter.
Thank you for the reply. So, these are basically the hardcore members. They will certainly vote for their party in elections, but it would seem that the vast majority of the population is not registered to any party, and in the end they are the ones that will determine the outcome.
It doesn’t work like that in the UK. The term ‘registered’ is unknown. People are free to join any political party and it is a private matter. With the Brexit Party you pay £25 and become a ‘Supporter’ but only you and the party know. No one else and it is not recorded against your voter registration. We do not have ‘Primary’ elections in the UK.
European Dominoes