Great Britain, Cameron veers right to stop the rise of Euro skeptics

The UK Independence Party, now considered the third party, alarms the conservative Premier compelled to pursue the anti-Europeans on their theme to hold back the drain on approval

In 2006 they had labeled them as an “eccentric, wacky, and partly racist” group. Today the British Prime Minister, David Cameron is compelled look at the Nigel Farage’s UK Independence Party (UKIP); the right-wing Populist Party is openly anti-European with a very different view and actually to attempt to hold them in the wake. Yes, because while the Prime Minister battles with a decrease in support, the rise of the movement that wants Great Britain to exit the EU seems unstoppable. According to political observers, a long drain on votes from the conservative electorate lined up with the right-wing toward the UKIP position is in action. One dangerous factor is quite important in view of the next elections in 2015: without those votes the British Premier risks not being able to reach a majority vote.

To assign the magnitude of the rise in Euro skeptics it is enough to look at the percentages from supplementary elections held days ago in Eastleigh, a small town not far from Portsmouth on the English Channel. Here the UKIP actually increased by 24 percent points, reaching 27.8% and thus arriving as the second party. Cameron’s conservatives only received a humiliating third place (25.4 % of votes, behind them and their own coalition partners – the liberal democrats, in first with a 32% preference. It should be said that even though they didn’t win, UKIP obtained an important outcome, taking away 14% of the votes for Libdem and Nick Clegg that which is considered their stronghold and almost the same for the conservatives.

An isolated incident? It doesn’t seem like it, seeing that the latest polls already give Farage’s Party 17%, only 11 points difference from the Tories, who continue to lose support and stop at 28% (one of the lowest percentages in the last years), who in turn behind the Labor Party coming in at 37%. If one considers that even Cameron’s alliances, Libdem, according to polls, would stop at 9% for the Prime Minister there is something to worry about.

In this perspective we need to view the arduous turn of the screw to the help and support of the immigrants presented recently by Cameron. As if to say: if the UK Independence Party gathers much support, to bring someone in the line of government with strong themes of the movement couldn’t hurt. And like this also new legislative measures will be introduced to guarantee access to community services (government housing, unemployment, school and social services) to be reserved only for those who have resided for at least a certain number of years and paid a certain amount of taxes. The concerns are tied to the presumed wave of immigrants from Romania and Bulgaria, expected at the end of the year, when the restraints will be lowered for free movement in Europe for those countries.

The members of UKIP accused Cameron of sacking their program in this way. “David Cameron’s proposal – they observed in an article published on their movement site – is a copy of our program with the difference being that UKIP would implement these measures by exiting the EU.”

And let’s not forget that under pressure from the Euro skeptics, even those inside their own party, the head of the British government announced a referendum in January regarding the UK leaving the EU – to keep us here from now until the end of 2017.

“The real problem for the conservatives is not UKIP – said Farage – but that their sympathizers remembered a party that talked about creating wealth, lowering taxes and enterprise and now they hear them discuss homosexual matrimony and wind.” In fact, to maintain the coalition with the liberal democrats, the conservative party had to yield on several themes that were important to them. But getting closer to election time Cameron now seems to have every intention of answering the sirens of the right-wing to deal with votes drifting away.

Letizia Pascale