From the Guardian again, an opinion piece by the amusingly-named Jeffery Titford, UKIP MEP: “I am picking up a strong sense that voters have not only had enough of seeing their country being pushed around by Brussels but, interestingly, they are just as disillusioned with the big three parties and want to use this election to raise a metaphorical two fingers at them.”
“Dissillusioned with the big three parties” actually has a lot of validity to it. The first part may or may not. Until we have a referendum, it’s all guesswork. No matter how many polls from the notoriously unreliable You Gov you commission, until everyone in the country has a chance to express their views once and for all, no one has a clue.
Some things are for sure: lots of people are pissed off with Labour, and with Tony Blair in particular; many people still don’t think the Tories should be allowed back into power; and a sizable chunk of the population won’t vote for the Lib Dems because they don’t think they’ve got a chance of getting in.
Sadly, in this country people no longer vote as they should: for the individual candidate that best represents their views and desires. Instead, we vote for parties. I wouldn’t be surprised if a sizable number of Labour councillors lose their seats in the upcoming local elections not because they have done anything wrong, but because the country has fallen out of love with Mr Blair.