HOPE not hate blog: Will Britain get a Tea Party?

Will Britain get a Tea Party?

posted by: Nick Lowles | on: Sunday, 19 September 2010, 13:54

The whole Tea Party phenomenon has been pre-occupying my mind a lot recently. Obviously there was Christine O’Donnell’s victory in the Republican primary in Delaware earlier this week, and the swath of connected articles that have appeared on both sides of the Atlantic. I’ve also been reading a draft of a report by our sister organisation in the US, the Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights, in conjunction with the NAACP, the country’s oldest civil rights movement.

However, I’ve also been pondering whether such a group could emerge over here and my conclusion is it a real possibility and it could be quite dangerous. I fear that there is political space for such an organisation. There is a ceiling on the support the BNP can attract, and they are quite some way off reaching that at present due to their internal conflicts, but there is also space to the right of the Conservative Party. It was interesting that some of the organisations behind the US Tea Party helped sponsor a conference in London ten days ago in conjunction with the British Taxpayers Alliance. From a quite different quarter I’m picking up that English Defence League guru Alan Lake is also articulating support for a UK equivalent.

A growing number of people are breaking with mainstream parties and there is widespread mistrust from even those who are still holding on to their political allegiance. A new party – or grassroots lobbying organisation – that links English Nationalism with a populist right wing agenda, albeit liberal on some social issues, could be quite successful.

I’ll be writing more about this in the next issue of Searchlight but it is certainly something that we need to keep an eye on.

Posted: 19 Sep 2010 | There are 5 comments

Comments

Comment 1 | From: J | Date: 19 September 2010, 14:42

There is a major difference between the US and the UK though; the US was largely founded on the rejection of taxes, whereas here in the UK I believe that the vast majority accept the fact that taxes are required to run a nation.

Comment 2 | From: Theo | Date: 19 September 2010, 16:51

I support a British Tea Party, There alot of issues with the mainstream parties and hopefully this can create a new movement to clean up politics for good.

Comment 3 | From: Antonio Lorusso | Date: 19 September 2010, 19:04

We already have versions of the two american tea parties. One that matches the genuine "don't tread on me" tea party, namely the Libertarian Party, and one that matches the hijacking of the US tea party by fake libertarian conservatives, namely UKIP. If you think UKIP is genuinely libertarian you either have a misconception of what libertarian means, or haven't read UKIP's entire policy document. Like all fake libertarians, such as conservatives, they are only interested in protecting liberties that matter to them personally. This is authoritarianism disguised in the language of liberty. I'm not saying that a UKIP government wouldn't overall be an improvement on the other parties except the Libertarian Party, but they are only populist libertarians and should not be trusted. Their recent policy on the criminalisation on wearing full face coverings is evidence of this.

Comment 4 | From: Paul | Date: 19 September 2010, 21:22

Interesting. The US Tea Party want small government, low-to-no taxes and no socialised healthcare. A British version would be hamstrung by the British attachment to the NHS and a general social democratic attitude (very different from the US). I have no doubt that a UK version will try and be launched. I reckon it will call for more cuts, lower taxes and be anti-Trades Union (and will try and keep a distance from the EDL and BNP). I'd be surprised if it got the same sort of traction as the American version, unless it fixates itself on Race and Immigration, and I can't see it having the same toxic effect on the Tory Party as it's having on the Republicans. Could be wrong of course and in this climate anything could happen. Look forward to reading your views in Searchlight.

Comment 5 | From: Roger | Date: 26 September 2010, 11:11

It's a good idea. You've hit the nail on the head.

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