“SHOCK results!”, the headlines screamed, as politicians were said to be “stunned” by the surge in votes for “far-right” parties across Europe in the EU Parliamentary elections.
But the only real mystery is why every-one claimed to be so surprised.
AFPThe far-right is growing across Europe with parties like the German AFD making huge gains[/caption]
ReutersMarine Le Pen of the far-right National Rally hopes to replace France’s President Emmanuel Macron[/caption]
After all, the wave of support for “populist” parties on the right wasn’t just predictable, it had been PREDICTED.
Yet politicians and the media across the continent were left as blindsided by it all as British and US politicos were by the votes for Brexit and Donald Trump in 2016.
“How could this happen?” they asked in bewilderment.
The answer to that question is simple: Because if you ignore what voters want for years on end, paying only lip service to their demands before carrying on as usual, while calling them “bigots” and “racists”, you probably shouldn’t be surprised when they decide to give their votes to somebody else.
Sound familiar? It should do. Because what’s just played out across the Channel is remarkably similar to what’s happening here in Britain.
Just as Rishi Sunak is horrified to see Conservative voters turn their backs on him and trudge off to vote for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, the mainstream parties of Europe have been left dumb-founded by the millions of voters who have done the same to their established parties.
In France, President Macron has called a snap parliamentary election in a desperate bid to see his rival Marine Le Pen elected as PM and her flaws exposed to French voters.
In Germany, the left-wing Chancellor faces demands for an early election, while the Belgian PM, down to just six per cent of the votes on Sunday, fell on his sword and resigned.
In Italy, in Austria and in many other nations, the liberals and left-wingers fell by the wayside as voters turned away from the mainstream parties in search of something different.
It is mass uncontrolled immigration that holds the key to this disillusionment with the older, established parties.
Voters across Britain and Europe have had enough of being told mass immigration is good for the country, making us all richer, when it’s obvious that most people’s standard of living is going down and not up.
Voters have had enough of being told that “diversity is our strength” when their national culture is being undermined every day, and too often new arrivals live in parallel communities while making no effort to integrate or even to speak English.
Lied to then insulted
Voters have had enough of being told they’re racist bigots, for pointing out that mass immigration without any extra infrastructure makes it harder for their families to afford housing, win higher wages for their work, get their kids into good schools or see an NHS doctor.
As European politicians have learned to their cost, voters don’t like being lied to, let down and then insulted into the bargain.
Even as the polls look set to see a Labour victory here on July 4, our political class is facing a similar predicament.
Dismissing anyone who raises concerns about protecting our borders and Western values as “far right” simply won’t wash any more.
Sticks and stones might break their bones but those words just won’t hurt the likes of Nigel Farage, Marine Le Pen, Italian PM Giorgia Meloni and the Netherlands’ Party for Freedom leader Geert Wilders any more.
Voters aren’t listening.
Would our politicians be wise to pay attention to Sunday’s EU election results?
Absolutely. Will they learn any lessons? Probably not.
Whether that day comes next month or in a few years, they will claim to be just as “stunned” by the “shock” election results when it happens here.
But they can’t say they weren’t warned.
Welcome home, at long last, Noa
MY daughter went to a music festival at the weekend, returning sodden and bleary-eyed after rainstorms and an overnight coach journey home.
But she made it safely home.
RexHostage Noa Argamani, 26, has finally returned to her family[/caption]
I can’t begin to imagine what the family of Noa Argamani, 26, went through after the young Israeli woman was seized by Hamas terrorists at the Nova music festival on October 7 and held captive in Gaza for eight long months.
Thanks to a daring raid by Israeli special forces she is now home and safe with her family, above, as are her three fellow hostages.
Tragically, Palestinian civilians were killed in the gun battle between Hamas and the Israeli rescue mission.
This, I’m afraid, is what happens when terrorists choose to hold hostages in civilian homes.
If Hamas really cared about Palestinian lives, they wouldn’t use women and children as human shields and they would release all of their hostages today.
Do people really expect Israel to leave their hostages to rot?
If my daughter was kidnapped by terrorists, I’d expect our government to do anything and everything to help get her back.
And, if it were your child, so would you.
Great ‘N’ the goof
WE’VE all met super-brainy people who are maths whizzkids but you wouldn’t trust them to walk to the shops and buy the ingredients for a cheese sandwich.
They’re both brainbox-clever and practically useless at the same time.
GettyRishi Sunak seems both brainbox-clever and practically useless at the same time[/caption]
I have a feeling Rishi Sunak and his team of advisers at No10 are like that.
It’s the only explanation for the bizarre decision for the PM to head home early from last Thursday’s D-Day commemorations in France, rather than join other global leaders to thank our brave veterans.
His robotic apology the next day did nothing to placate his many angry critics and it may well turn out to be the defining moment of the election for Sunak, just as Gordon Brown’s dreadful “bigoted woman” comment was in 2010.
The decision to head home early still defies belief.
Was there a family emergency? A terror threat?
No, he’d booked in an interview with ITV.
While 99 per cent of us could have told the PM that disrespecting veterans would go down like a cup of cold sick, not one of Sunak’s advisers piped up to say: “Er, are you SURE this is a good idea?”
If they can’t get such basic stuff right, no wonder they can’t fulfill the rather more difficult task of running the country well.
And don’t ask any of them to make you a cheese sarnie.
This lot would forget the bread.
And the cheese.
Squawl wrong
DOES anyone know when we’re going to get summer this year?
I’ve been waiting and waiting but, apart from the odd few hours between grey skies and showers, those much-anticipated BBQ days have yet to materialise.
I’m not expecting a month of glorious blue skies – I don’t live on the Costa del Sol – but could the Met Office just give us a clue which three days we might get some sun this year so we can all make plans to spend six hours in traffic for a day trip to the seaside?
Too much to ask?
It’s all gown crazy
THE woke lunatics at British universities have been busy again.
This time it’s Exeter’s turn.
AlamyUniversity of Exeter students are pressuring all academic staff to sign anti-transphobia pledges[/caption]
They’re pressuring all academic staff to sign anti-transphobia pledges, and declare their trans “allyship” and preferred pronouns.
So was Exeter a hotbed of anti-trans hate before these pledges were introduced?
Were lecturers abusing trans students on a daily basis?
No, of course not.
Because this gender- ideology madness isn’t about protecting people who identify as trans.
It’s about controlling our freedom of speech and thought.
It’s not enough just to be polite and friendly to a trans colleague or student, you must CELEBRATE trans-genderism.
And while Exeter insists no one is “forced” to sign up, academics know their career is over if they don’t.
Enough is enough with this McCarthyite attack on academic freedom.
It’s time to stop this madness once and for all.
Oh, but in case you were wondering, my preferred pronouns are she/Her Imperial Majesty.
Feel free to use them, or not – after all, this is supposed to a free country.
Machete maniacs
TWO 12-year-old boys have been found guilty of murdering a man stabbed through the heart with a machete.
Yes, as shocking as it is, you DID read that correctly.
The court was told how one of the boys regularly carried a machete and that the pair didn’t know their victim, who they beat and stabbed to death within minutes of meeting him in Wolverhampton.
When I was 12 years old, I was carrying my school bag and obsessed with Duran Duran.
So what on earth is going on nowadays when kids this young can hack a complete stranger to death?
Thanks Dr Mike
I WAS very sad to hear Dr Michael Mosley had been found dead after a four-day search for the health guru, who went missing on the Greek island of Symi.
His death is so tragic simply because it could easily have been avoided as he walked for hours in the sweltering heat of that moonscaped island.
APDr Michael Moseley has been found dead after a four-day search[/caption]
I had the pleasure of interviewing Michael a number of times about his Fast 800 diet, which I then successfully used, and he was a lovely man – warm and funny, a great communicator with a lust for life.
His loss will be felt not just by his family but also by the many people he never met but whom he helped to get back to health.