A peep into the United Kingdom’s political campaign manoeuvres
What you need to know:
- Labour challenger Ed Miliband ticked off the usual policies associated with his party: fairness for the underdog, more accountability from the rich, increased spending on public services, especially the National Health Service (NHS).
- One amusing aspect of Thursday’s debate was that Mr Miliband was the suitor three spirited (female) panellists were pursuing (politically, that is), but he was trying his very best to spurn them.
When one is on leave, one tends to spend inordinate hours watching TV after the day’s errands are over. That’s how, on Thursday night, I chanced on an impassioned pre-election British debate on BBC.
The big absence was that of Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron and his coalition partner Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats. Some of the voters polled afterwards thought the decision to skip the debate would cost the prime minister crucial points. But I suspect he felt his Tory base secure enough without having to subject himself to a combined on-air onslaught by what was essentially an opposition line-up.
Labour challenger Ed Miliband ticked off the usual policies associated with his party: fairness for the underdog, more accountability from the rich, increased spending on public services, especially the National Health Service (NHS).
The Tory riposte is that Labour will go for sharp tax increases for “hard working people.” That’s a loaded term. It is, cryptically, a rebuke for those on welfare, who seek refuge in the Labour party and other leftwing parties. The association with the rich and big corporations is what makes the Tories off-putting to many other Britons.
Policies aside, I have never rated Mr Miliband high on likeability. Maybe my bias is a lingering result of the crass dispatch with which he once disposed of his elder brother, David, to become leader of the Labour party. Still, his earnestness can grate, especially before an audience.
In contrast, Mr Cameron is a speaker one enjoys listening to and watching, even when he is threatening something odious like privatising the NHS and basically making it unaffordable for the poor.
Though essentially a Tory toff educated in Eton and Oxford, he has the ease of manner to come across to many Britons like an ordinary neighbour next door.
One amusing aspect of Thursday’s debate was that Mr Miliband was the suitor three spirited (female) panellists were pursuing (politically, that is), but he was trying his very best to spurn them. Nicola Sturgeon of the Scottish National Party (SNP), Natalie Bennett of the Greens and Leanne Wood of some Welsh thing called Plaid Cymru basically know they each can’t win on their own, but are keen to push Labour into a marriage – on their terms.
Their distaste
However, these are allies Mr Miliband can do without for now. He loves their distaste for the Tories, yet he is very much aware they are competitors.
The SNP has its base in Scotland, Plaid Cymru in Wales and the Greens will fight hard across England.
If these three parties score well in their fiefdoms, Mr Cameron will be back for sure.
The fellow in the room nobody wanted to touch was Nigel Farrage, of the far-right UK Independence Party (Ukip). In a way, he was the most interesting of the lot as he spewed his extremist dogmas without any care in the world. (He even rebuked the hosts, BBC, plus the audience as “irredeemably” leftwing, and was quite unfazed by the resultant boos.)
Mr Farrage has two pet hates. One is the European Union, which he claims has hemmed Britain’s independence and which he wants the country to pull out from pronto. The other is immigrants, who he disparages as the source of all of Britain’s domestic problems.
The other panelists demolished Mr Farrage’s prejudices without, rightly, dwelling too much on the man. Ms Bennett pointed out that one out of four doctors in Britain are immigrants, while 40 per cent of health workers (presumably nurses) are immigrants too. Many, indeed, are from places like Kenya. Mr Farrage had said the NHS had become an “international service” burdened by “medical tourists with Aids.” To which Mr Miliband replied that these “tourists” pay for the service and help subsidise it.
The Labour leader also pointed out that the EU was more valuable for Britain’s trade than the other way round. Still, British nativists like Mr Farrage, who believe Britain is still a global superpower, are rooting for Ukip. Polls rank it third behind the Tories and Labour.
