The results for the European Elections are not yet fully confirmed in the UK, but the outcome is already too clear. A sweeping victory for Nigel Farage's UKIP party throughout the country seems to indicate the British people's wishes for a change in the relationship with the European Union, leading us to ask the question, has Britain now rejected fully rejected the European venture? UKIP share of the European vote increased by over 10% from their 2009 polling, indicating the disillusionment of many with both conventional politics and the European experiment. Running on a ballot of solely these issues, UKIP have managed to capture this fervor for political gains.
The Liberal Democrats, on the other hand, have suffered heavy defeats running in support of Britain's inclusion in Europe. A view which when combined with their unpopular role in the coalition government has caused a hemorrhaging in their electoral backing, reducing them to a rump of only one singular MEP. This has left the Liberals as the 5th major party in the United Kingdom, after finishing even behind the Greens for the first time since 1989. This has lead to numerous calls from within the party for the resignation of Party leader and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, who has responded by saying that he will not quit. The victory of UKIP in this election comes as no great surprise, but the fallout from their success still remains to be seen. The United Kingdom followed a trend seen throughout much of Europe, as anti-European and proto-fascist right wing parties gained significant ground, and in many cases control of individual nations European representation. The election of these parties seems counter-intuitive to many, as often their members aim only to disrupt the process of the European parliament. By making the parliament slower and less effective, these parties seek to undermine its importance and hasten changes. What seems clear at this point is that there will be a major realignment of alliances and grouping within the European parliament in the coming weeks, this is highlighted by the major success of the Front National in France under Madame La Pen. The Front National are said to be interested in forging a partnership with UKIP in Europe but their former fascist links are publicly of distaste to Farage's party, although it is more likely a fear that their name will evoke too many sour memories of Britain's own racist National Front of the 1970's. UKIP has already made it clear that they refuse to work with the National Front in Europe, but have yet to say where their allegiances will indeed lie in this "New Europe", but the question must be raised as to how long a European parliament dominated by anti-Europeans can surely last?
British Prime Minister David Cameron made it clear today that Britain's membership will not be up for debate until 2017, as previously outlined by the government, despite calls form within his own party to bring the date forward one year to show their commitment to a referendum. Mr. Cameron, who believes in Britain's place in Europe, argued that leaving the date where previously set means that a necessary time frame is left for a greater period of renegotiation. This was a strong stance held by Mr. Cameron who has received his own fair share of pressure within his own party after these election results. This is the first ever election where the Conservatives have slipped into third place and this has lead to some Tory backbenches to call for a election pact with UKIP for next years General Election. This was swiftly rejected by the Conservative leadership, with Chancellor George Osbourne spelling it out in no uncertain terms that if you want a Conservative led government after the next election, then you vote Conservative. Remarking that only two men can be Prime Minister after the next election Mr. Cameron and Mr. Miliband, not Mr. Farage. Regardless of leadership after the next election the probability of a referendum is looking all the more likely, despite Mr. Miliband's supposed opposition to such a vote only as far back as March. The overwhelming public support of UKIP at these European elections makes it clear that the majority want to have a discussion on Britain's continued membership and it seems only logical that in order to garner more support for the General Election that Mr. Miliband will inevitably concede this. Recent polls on voting intention in the case of an in/out referendum on Europe have found strong support for the "stay" vote, with a Yougov poll from 20th-21st May putting the difference at 5% in favor of staying, where as a IpsosMori pole from 10th-12th May puts the difference as high as 17%. These numbers however are highly susceptible to change as throughout 2013, 27 individual poles highlighting just this question returned 26 results in favor of leaving the European Union. The future of Britain in Europe therefore still remains delicately in the balance, the success of UKIP in the polls indicates a strong surge of anti-European sentiment among the British public, but until such a time as a referendum is granted, the lasting extent of these hostile feeling cannot truly be known.
Until Then.
Sources: https://twitter.com/BBCPolitics/status/470947661512982528/photo/1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proposed_referendum_on_United_Kingdom_membership_of_the_European_Union#Standard_polling_on_EU_membership (I Know, I Know...Don't Use Wikipedia Kids.) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-27567744
Just a quick reminder that the vote for the European Parliament is today. I implore you to take this opportunity to make yourself heard, it's so easy to do. I will most probably do a little follow up on the results of the election this coming Saturday, by which time I am sure a lot of you will be sick to the teeth of it...we are in the home stretch now so tough it out, I will shut up about it afterwards. You have till 10pm I believe, so no excuses. Unless you are not from Europe, that is a valid excuse and you will get a pass but you will not receive extra accreditation
Nigel "The Mirage" Farage went to sleep Thursday night content with his party riding high in the polls and his popularity as a leader (somewhat perplexingly) higher than ever, although it's safe to assume that he might have had a bit more trouble nodding off last night. Yesterday, Mr. Farage partook in an interview conducted with James O'Brien of LBC radio, that has widely been reported as a car crash. The Mirage looked thrown and flustered, when caught up in a verbal onslaught from Mr. O'Brien, who would not allow him to change the subject of uncomfortable and awkward conversation, of which up to now he had been so adept. The main points of the interview surrounded the continued perceived bigotry and racism of Mr. Farage's party, particularly concerning the almost constant stream of negative headlines that flow from UKIP's representative members. Mr. Farage, who constantly claims to not to be a racist, truly came unstuck when Mr. O'Brien questioned what the difference was between Romanians as neighbors, compared to for example Germans. Leading to Mr. Farage to utter the unfortunate phrase, "You know what the difference is." This slip was only one of a number throughout an interview in which Mr. Farage managed to muddy his past association with the BNP and rationalize his parties relationship with the far-right and often more extreme parties of Europe by claiming that it is part of a different culture there. One in which his party is happy to align with. The UKIP party leader was left even further red-faced by Mr O'Brien pointing out the contradiction in him claiming, as he did back in February that overhearing foreign voices on the train made him feel "awkward", when his own wife, Kirsten, is German and therefore speaks German regularly when phoning home. UKIP's media guru Patrick O'Flynn, having a first hand view of the slow speed car crash unveiling itself before him tried to cut the interview short, but his party leader still seemed game to stick his foot in it further. The whole debacle could not have worse timing for Mr. Farage, with voting for the European elections less than one week away. How this sorry episode effects his party's position in the opinion polls is still yet to be seen. I implore you to give the video a watch yourselves.
The situation in the Central African Republic has gone from bad to worse in the last few weeks, raising fears that the country could become the next Rwanda. The Seleka militia ("alliance" in Sango) began a spree of wide spread abuses in late 2012. Starting in the North-East of the country, the Muslim group spread throughout the country, seizing the capital Bangui in March. Former President Francois Bozize was ousted soon after this rebellion and replaced by the leader of the Seleka, Michel Djotodia.
The Central African Republic is primarily a Christian nation and therefore this sudden change led to a spread of sectarian tension throughout the country that culminated in the formation of a anti-balaka militia group ("machete proof" in Sango) consisting of Christians and animists opposed to the Seleka rule. The Seleka abuses of the past year have been met with a similarly horrific response from anti-balaka fighters, destroying large stretches of the North-West of the country. The climax of this tension so far manifested in an anti-balaka attack on the capital on 5th December 2013. The violence that followed was significant and although the Seleka were able to repel the attack, this did not quell the bloodshed. The Seleka then proceeded to carry out a significant wave of reprisal attacks on Christians living in the capital, claiming that they were searching for anti-balaka fighters and leading to the deaths of up to 1,200 civilians. The response from the international community has been slow, with the UN not able to commit a large scale peacekeeping mission until September 2014. A small deployment of French military forces have been deployed with the UN's mandate from December, but are still awaiting the support of the further 1,000 European troops promised under the UN mission. Since the beginning of 2014, the Seleka President Michel Djotodia has resigned from his role and been replaced by Catherine Samba-Panza, a new interim leader. Samba-Panza was criticised when she first took power for forming an unrepresentative government with figures largely drawn from her Eastern regions of the country. The anti-balaka's were the most vocal in their criticism of her government and had refused to cooperate with it. The fall of former President Djotodia lead to a withdrawal of Seleka forces from many of their strongholds in outposts throughout the country. The anti-balaka militia have been quick to fill the vacuum of power left by the Seleka militias in many of the towns they have exited and have brought a wave of violence and repression onto the Muslim population in doing so. Hundreds of Muslims have been killed, with thousands more displaced. Mosques have been destroyed and villages burnt to the ground in pursuing the anti-balaka's stated objective of ridding the country of Muslims completely. The remains of a functional society continue to break down in the Central African Republic, with the police force and law system now almost completely obsolete, human rights violations go entirely unpunished. It is now thought that almost 650,000 have been displaced by the violence, with many seeking refuge in neighboring countries Cameroon, Chad and Democratic Republic of Congo. Many of those that have stayed are without a home as the ritual looting and burning of houses is now commonplace. In recent days Interim President Catherine Samba-Panza has acknowledged the need for restructure of her ministry stating, "The government will be reshuffled to be more inclusive and representative," she added in a speech to the National transitional council that "Voices are being raised to demand the urgent organisation of an inclusive political dialogue." Pressure on Samba-Panza has begun to rise as the wider international community begin to criticise her governments record in the crisis, but although she concedes that concerns are "legitimate" she claims that the time she has had so far is not enough to effectively solve such a complex problem. As this criticism begins to mount, representatives from the International Criminal Court (ICC) have arrived in the country to begin investigations into the crimes carried out since the violence began in 2012. Fighting continues in earnest during this time, with new reports of deaths and atrocities surfacing every day. French forces have been engaged in one of their first instances of heavy fighting in Boguila in the North of the country, when they were locked in a three hour gun fight with unidentified militants on Tuesday. There were no French casualties as a result of the skirmish, but an army spokesperson did confirm that there were fatalities of the militants side. This action follows news from last week that 16 people were confirmed dead following a militant attack on a clinic run by the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres, which has precluded the charity to cease activity in the country.
As recently as yesterday, two more civilians were confirmed dead following militant attacks on civilian convoys trying to escape violence in the capital Bangui. The two dead were a father travelling with his family and a mother still with infant child, both were Muslims trying to escape the sectarian violence of the city. The convoy was part of the African-led international support mission to the Central African Republic (MISCA) which has been supplying military escorts to escaping displaced civilians. Among the many miles of dirt road the escorts however are spread thin, allowing such an unfortunate event to occur. The convoy had been travelling with a Rwandan escort and under the Rwandan Flag, a sobering reminder of the similar ethnic slaughter that blighted that country two decades ago is all too familiar here. It is now predicted that 2.2 million people, almost half the countries population now require humanitarian aid. The situation continues to devolve and this has prompted UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon to warn "Do not repeat the mistakes of the past -- heed the lessons" encouraging memories of Rwanda and the spectre of genocide that encapsulated the conflict. Fighting continues to worsen throughout the Central African Republic and the animosity between Christian and Muslim militants only grows. The divorce of the two sides seems to be complete and this raises the question, is there really a way back?
Hello all, I just want to update you on the current situation with this blog. If anyone was wondering why I didn't write one yesterday, it is because I'm going to change up the date in which I have my weekly foray into the blogophere. As Wednesdays have become a bit of a pain for me, I'm going to switch things up and maybe try a few different days until one sticks, but do not fear, you can expect the first story tomorrow. So basically, check in tomorrow and possibly Fridays from now on. ...and as a little sneak peak, I think I might write a little bit about the increasingly troubled case of the Central African Republic. Thanks you for your support.
