Carry on Conservative Party!

Can the leaders of the main political parties really be as stupid as they appear?  Have they really failed so comprehensively to understand what took place in the Council elections last week? It might be comforting to imagine that their responses are all part of a carefully crafted strategy designed to allow them to subvert and contain the threat posed by the rise of UKIP. But observing politicians and politics over the last thirty years,  it is probably most reasonable to conclude that the vast majority of politicians appearing on screen and in print to unburden themselves of their considered reflections are plain stupid.

Albert Einstein doesn’t appear to have said that ‘the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result’. But it is certainly a working description for the thought processes of many politicians.  Is William Hague stupid or insane when he says, ‘the Conservatives won’t change course’, and asks us if we want ‘a Conservative government that is going to carry on its important work… ?’. At least the crew of the Titanic tried to avoid the great mass of the iceberg that loomed up ahead of them,  though they left their course correction so late that the collision ended up sinking the unsinkable vessel.

If Hague, having his share in navigating the ship of state, is unwilling to countenance a change in direction then he bears a close relation to Albert Trotter,  the jinxed merchant seaman uncle of Delboy, whose presence on board any ship was doomed to lead to disaster.  We might remember that in broad daylight he managed to direct his ship into the U.S.S. Pittsburgh, an aircraft carrier, and then complained that he was unfairly blamed for the incident simply because he was on watch. Well Hague is surely on watch and seems to be having an Uncle Albert moment!

What does he think happened last week? It seems he believes that a quarter of the electorate was indulging themselves. He seems to think that when we realise that we only have a choice between a Conservative or a Labour government then we will all buckle down and vote for the Conservatives as common sense requires. To that extent he is acting as though the will of the electorate is of no great importance at all, save for the routine chore of pretending to lay a manifesto before the people for their approval. We are not at that part of the electoral cycle and so Hague is manifestly not interested in anything we have to say. Like naughty children we have been ‘indulging ourselves’.

If we ask what Captain Cameron thinks of last weeks electoral upset we discover that he shares the same view. Apparently not voting Conservative was a sign that the electorate ‘want us to do even more’. So it’s steady as she goes as far as Cameron is concerned. Far from being opposed to the liberal social engineering being conducted, we want even more. If it seems that we are not really against ‘gay marriage’ then what will be imposed on us next? Polygamy? Polyandry? Incest? It seems that the more we say ‘No’, the more Cameron hears us say, ‘Yes’.

Even Grant Shapps, down in the boiler room, seems to be experiencing a complete divorce from reality, because he repeats the same patently false line. The people have spoken, he says, and we have heard. That’s excellent and makes a change. But what has he heard? Not that we want immigration to cease. Our membership of the EU to be torn up. The benefit culture to be dismantled. And socio-political Islam to be firmly resisted. On the contrary, he hears us saying, ‘Get on with the big issues facing hard-working people in this country’.

How wrong could a party leadership be? How stupid could a party leadership be? How insane could a party leadership be. The electorate has taken the opportunity of the Council elections to stick two fingers up at the Government, and at all professional politicians. It has begun to gain the confidence to shout out, ‘No more!’. But what do the political class hear us say? ‘No, more!’. That comma makes all the difference apparently.

The British people are like a young woman who has imbibed rather too much of the fruit of the vine, and finds herself alone in a bedroom at a party with a creepy man who won’t take no for an answer. As it turns out we are not quite as far gone as we or the creep thought. And we are still able to say ‘No!’ and mean it. If the political class is not willing to gain our informed consent for the actions and activities it proposes and has implemented then the deliberate decision to ignore our resistance to what has been done and what is proposed to be done is not simply stupid, it is not even simply insane, but it becomes a violation of democracy. Let’s put it in stronger language. It becomes a rape of democracy, and those who engage in such abuse are not mad but bad.

Mr Hague, Mr Cameron and Mr Shapps. I think you heard us well enough. We will not lie down and take it anymore. No means No.