Stupid UKIP, stop picking on Churchill

I've never been in the least tempted to vote for UKIP-- the one-issue political party whose sole raison d'etre is to campaign against membership of the European Union. But I've been gobsmacked by the sight of this UKIP election poster plastered here and there in odd corners I've passed in my car driving across London. 

So there's Churchill, proudly invoking victory in his Homburg (hello--a European hat style) as their poster boy. 

They could hardly have chosen a more inappropriate front man. 

Does UKIP not know one of Churchill's most famous post-war speeches was the one where he advocated not just a European common market (as was being discussed at that time)-- but a federal United States of Europe, way beyond anything the current EU has proposed? 

Here's some extracts from what he was saying back in 1946:

If Europe were once united in the sharing of its common inheritance, there would be no limit to the happiness, to the prosperity and the glory which its three or four million people would enjoy..... 

Yet all the while there is a remedy which, if it were generally and spontaneously adopted by the great majority of people in many lands, would as if by a miracle transform the whole scene, and would in a few years make all Europe, or the greater part of it, as free and as happy as Switzerland is to-day. What is this sovereign remedy? It is to re-create the European Family, or as much of it as we can, and to provide it with a structure under which it can dwell in peace, in safety and in freedom. We must build a kind of United States of Europe. In this way only will hundreds of millions of toilers be able to regain the simple joys and hopes which make life worth living. The process is simple. All that is needed is the resolve of hundreds of millions of men and women to do right instead of wrong and to gain as their reward blessing instead of cursing.....

Our constant aim must be to build and fortify the strength of the United Nations Organization. Under and within that world concept we must re-create the European Family in a regional structure called, it may be, the United States of Europe. And the first practical step would be to form a Council of Europe. If at first all the States of Europe are not willing or able to join the Union, we must nevertheless proceed to assemble and combine those who will and those who can.

Of course, at that time, Churchill spoke of Britain as if it was somehow not really part of Europe. But his vision was of Britain as head of the Commonwealth. That's pointed out by some of the defenders of this campaign in the comments here.  However, a key feature of the Commonwealth he advocated was one in which all of its citizens had unlimited right of immigration to Britain. It was the Conservative governments of his time and subsequently which turned to mass immigration from Caribbean and the Indian subcontinent as the answer to Britain's postwar labour shortages. Churchill did express reservations about the policy in racist terms--but it can hardly be UKIP's case that they stand behind Churchill's suggestion, towards the end of the time when he was barely able to function as a politician, that a Conservative Party slogan should be "Keep Britain White"?

So, if UKIP is going to invoke Churchill, are they going to support substituting membership of the EU with that of a Commonwealth of unlimited rights of immigration? Or are they hinting at support for Churchill's sometimes-expressed white supremacist attitudes?

The UKIP grandees like Campbell Bannerman, who picked Churchill as their poster boy, seem to have arrested their awareness of his historical role at Dunkirk, the biggest military defeat in British history, in which his role was primarily to inspire and commit Britain to fighting Nazism and totalitarianism.

David Campbell Bannerman commenting on the launch said:  "Sir Winston is an ideal icon for our campaign because it is high time that Britain found that old Dunkirk spirit again and learned to fight its corner in adversity.  We've accepted far too much nonsense from Brussels over the years and it is time to say NO MORE!  The only way to do that at this election is to vote UKIP, as none of the old parties have anything to offer other than more Europe.
 

UKIP's barely concealed agenda is a decidedly Little England one. No, they're not fascists in smart suits, like the BNP. But their view of politics is simplistic, ignorant and ultimately a prescription for economic dead-endery.

They would hardly stand a chance in next Thursday's election were it not for the disastrous failure of the UK's three main political parties to confront and put a rapid and decisive end to the cosy, all-in-it-together morass of self-serving corruption through our own Parliament's expenses rackets.

There's of course no shortage of corruption in the EU's own Parliamentary arrangements. But the answer isn't to walk away, any more than it is to walk away from the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

I'm probably going to vote for Libertas in the EU elections, because I think trans-EU parties with a focus on accountability and a combination of commitment and scepticism are the least worst choice.

The local UK elections are more problematic. Any temptation I was beginning to have to vote Tory in protest at Gordon Brown's handling of just about any policy or crisis you care to mention has been laid to rest by David Cameron's shying away from dealing with (and sometimes open support of)  those expenses miscreants of his own party he happens to be most sympathetic to.

In the past, I've resorted to voting for the Green and Liberal parties when protesting against the worst excesses of the former ultra-left Hackney Labour Council in its heyday. Looking at the policies of the Green and Liberals today, their policies seem to me a lot more disastrous than those of Labour and their politicians no more trustworthy.

I'll be looking at the other minority parties over the next few days to see if there's one I can square my conscience on registering my vote with.

Into my mailbox pops a breathless little communication from Teachers' TV telling me it's Behaviour Management week. Well, so it is. I hope the voters get their sanctions and rewards right and our politicians decide to change their ways.

Comments

[Yasin Akgun]

an entirely poor article. if it took you six decades of opinions to come up with an article like that then I shudder to think what you were saying two decades ago.

[Judy]

Given where you're coming from, you would say that, wouldn't you? Try engaging with the arguments....

[Independence Home]

This article is so obviously written by somebody whose view of UKIP is that as painted by the media and not that of somebody with knowledge of the party.

UKIP is not anti-immigration, nor is it anti-cooperation. We favour something akin to the Council of Europe rather than political union. We believe that every piece of legislation should be approved by national Parliaments, and not that we should be part of a federal political system.

What exactly can Libertas MEPs do to reform? They will not have power to change institutions as these can only be changed by treaty, requiring national governments.

[Ichabod Crane]

Dear Judy,

I'm posting under a pseudonymn (obviously).

I've tried several times (in my real identity) over the past year to reach you by email, but haven't received a reply probably due to overzealous spam filters, so I'll try it this way.

A number of years ago (2005? 2006? don't remember) we had a very nice exchange of emails. I also posted a few comments on this blog.

The thing is that I did so under my real name, and I am now, out of the usual privacy and security concerns, wishing to have those posts either removed or at least renamed to a pseudonymn. (All the other blogs where I made the naive mistake of posting under my name have now done this for me; Adloyada is the only one that is left because I’ve not been able to get in touch with you.) So I am writing to ask you to please do this for me – I shall be extremely gratefuL

If you reply by email to the address I am providing with this post, I will tell you who I am (you will remember me) and then I very much hope that you will do this favour for me.

Thanks very much in advance,

“Ichabod”