tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post3263719963525223644..comments2024-03-29T09:14:53.583+00:00Comments on All That Is Solid ...: Why a Tory/UKIP Merger Would LosePhilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-47627664593179902292014-09-03T20:38:38.976+01:002014-09-03T20:38:38.976+01:00"Where's the centre? Well, there isn'..."Where's the centre? Well, there isn't one. The irreconcilable can only be reconciled for so long. Should Farage pull it off and UKIP is flooded with dozens of MPs and thousands of ex-Tories, how long would the anti-politics brigade hang on?"<br /><br />I don't share your confidence here, as I think it's perfectly possible, indeed probable that a populist party moving quickly into the space between a directionless post-2015 Tory party and a rag-tag UKIP crowd incapable of 'scaling' (to use Rick's phrase). This new force, which may actually remain under a Conserative party banner or take over a post-Farage UKIP - it matters little which - will be fearsomely populist/illiberal BUT sensible fiscally expansionist in the possible context of a Labour party yoked to fiscal conservatism and watery social justice.<br /><br />I did of cours write at length with these same predictions on 2012, and was roundly mocked, but it doesn't mean I'll be any less correct come 2017-18 or so, though of course Labour can and may still react in the right way both on the doorstep and in Treasury policy terms.Paulhttp://thoughcowardsflinch.comnoreply@blogger.com