Euro-vote Splits Kingdom

While the appalling results for Labour in the European Elections are being highlighted (rightly) as the electorates verdict on Gordon Brown’s leadership and the Westminster Expenses Scandal, there are many themes that are being drawn out from this.

Obviously, the election of Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons as MEPs for the BNP has created quite a stir, and rightly so. The rise of right-wing parties that play the race/immigration cards is a theme in European Politics, playing on fears of security and welfare, distilling the consequences of Islamic extremism and terrorism into a simplistic race card that rails against the Continental shift towards inclusiveness and multiculturalism.

Most guilty in this is the foolish statement of Gordon Brown: “British Jobs for British Workers”, that has thrown the electorate head first into a frenzy of misplaced British nationalism. Brown’s utterance had damned his Party, and while expenses and leadership failings are more widely reported, his unenforceable and un-European promise, which he had to 180 degree about turn on,  is for me his greatest folly.

The rise of the BNP in Yorkshire and the North West is an extreme case. More stunning is the rise of Euro-Sceptic UKIP across the English and Welsh votes. In England, Europe is something to be feared and resisted. Unlike the other parts of the United Kingdom, the English electorate have a deep seated suspicion of any powers being ceded to other countries, and therefore UKIP have captured the imagination of the English Voter that they can go it alone. Europe is seen as a bad place, where Johnny Foreigner lives, plotting to straighten bananas, ban sausages and replace Real Ale with German Lagers. The positives of Europe are ignored.

In the Principality, the Conservatives have received a resounding vote of confidence. The Labour heartlands have been left to go the way of the coal mines and the Tories have for the first time in history have come out on top.

Northern Ireland is still to declare, but the Province is a world of it’s own. The usual suspects of Unionism, Nationalism, Loyalism and Republicanism fly their flags in a corner of the UK that cannot give any of the main parties any kind of kicking over expenses, as none of the main parties have any major role. Brussels? Forget Brussels, here it is still Dublin, Belfast and London that are loved or loathed. Parochialism in the Province is alive and well.

Finally, Scotland is strangely silent of anti-European agendas. Alex Salmond’s presidential manner has won approval and his pro Independence (but stay in Europe!) Scottish National Party have delivered nearly 30% and close to a 10% lead on Labour. Once upon a time you couldn’t buy a seat in Scotland that wasn’t Labour. Now Labour can’t even put their losses on the expenses.

But tellingly, Scotland’s vote has been utterly free of anti-European agendas, and certainly Scotland has had no time for neither UKIP nor the BNP. Scotland seems more at ease with Europe – a telling behaviour for a nation that traded extensively with European counterparts through its history, in Monarchs, Religion and Goods. Ask any Leither why the Borough is important, and they will tell you of French Claret Vaults. Key Scottish historical figures such as Bonnie Prince Charlie, Mary Queen of Scots and Queen Margaret owe their own nurturing to France, Italy and Norway. Many Scots talk of the Auld-Alliance (that’s with France, not England). Perhaps Europe is a concept more palatable to the Scot?

So in summary, England: Conservatives, UKIP and the BNP all winners; in Wales: Conservatives and UKIP; Northern Ireland: It’s all about British or Irish Identity and in Scotland, no place for anti European feeling and a surge to the (non racist) SNP.

The only thing Uniting the Kingdoms is the failure of Labour.