Tagged with Douglas Carswell

Douglas Carswell and the fall of UKIP

As surprises in politics go, this one’s right up there with night following day. In case you’ve hid in a cave or were too dazzled by the March for Europe’s liberal virtue, Douglas Carswell has resigned from the United Kingdom Independence Party. Something of a square peg in a round hole, Carswell’s politics are complete crap. They dress an apologia for the megawealthy up in the taffeta of individual autonomy and pearls of hypermodernity. That said, his market fundamentalism doesn’t come with extra wrappings of racism and sexism, as per official kipperism, nor the patrician know-all arrogance of his bezzy mate.

In his resignation note, Carswell says that it’s “mission accomplished” as far as UKIP are concerned, and so there is little point staying around. Nothing, you understand, to do with his summons before the party’s NEC, due to be heard Monday afternoon, on allegations that he derailed a knighthood for Nigel Farage. Indeed, old NF himself on Sophy Ridge this Sunday has pledged to stand against Carswell in Clacton next time. There’s little chance of that happening, seeing he’s a serial bottler. Still, for those of us who despise UKIP some grim satisfaction can be reaped from their implosion as politics comes to grips with the damage they and their highly placed enabling friends have wreaked. Continue reading →

How to eradicate UKIP

farage in dustbinThere’s a toxic purple blot on the electoral landscape. Even Madagascan lemurs knew Douglas Carswell would vault his by-election. Marrying a generally well-liked, rooted MP to an anti-politics insurgency was always going to be a rocket from the Clacton crypt. And so the kippers have their first elected member, but what a strange fish he is. UKIP’s odour of prejudice and small mindedness does not attach itself to Carswell.

Don’t get me wrong, his politics are bunk. They are tasteless warm ups for oligarchy with democratic-sounding trimmings, but racism and sexism are not morsels you would find among his unappetising dish. Carswell’s politics were not cooked up on the Great Bigot Bake Off. Quite how his idiosyncracies would sit with the dog whistles and despair of the dominant stop-the-world brigade remains to be seen. If UKIP don’t get a wider breakthrough next May, I’d venture to say “not very long”. Continue reading →

Douglas Carswell’s defection: high stakes

Douglas Carswell on BBCI know it was wrong, but when Douglas Carswell announced his defection to UKIP and the forcing of a by-election in his Clacton constituency, I couldn’t help but think “brilliant!“. I imagine the prime minister was somewhat less chuffed. His terrible summer has taken a distinct turn for the worst. And as for UKIP it needed something to command the headlines again, and they have successfully captured them with style.

Carswell, however, is not and won’t be your archetypal ‘kipper. Yes, he agrees with the party’s europhobia and wants to see a little Britain paddle out into the mid-Atlantic. But that’s about as far as he goes. He’s a rare beast among the Tories, a politician who actually takes the hard right, libertarian principles he espouses seriously. Never mind that so-called “libertarianism” is the comfy shoe for capital’s iron heel. Still, when Carswell gave his defection speech yesterday and praised modern Britain for its tolerance, diversity and, yes, feminism; you don’t have to be Mystic Meg to foresee tensions somewhere down the line. Continue reading →