Quote of the day 17th February 2015

“They voted because they utterly despaired of their established parties, and probably rightly, although it was a bit hard on the outgoing prime minister. But at last they decided that the old Greek political establishment, corrupt and oligarchic as it had always been, had got them into this mess, and was probably not going to get them out of it quickly, and so they decided to take a risk – what else was on offer? – and see if these extraordinary alternative Left politicians can somehow pull off a miracle, which I don’t think they can.

“Every western democracy has that problem. The angry impatience, the escapism, the easy answer – to say it’s all the fault of our established politicians, all the fault of these bloody foreigners – every western democracy has that.

“In no western democracy can the traditional parties of government get a majority on their own. The first one was the Tea Party. Then you had Le Pen. Most of the protests are right-wing nationalist in Europe, but some are left-wing nationalist, like Spain and Greece. The Greeks are the only ones so far who’ve put theirs in office. I am fearful of the consequences.”

(Ken Clarke on the recent Greek election)

Comments

Sue said…
Hasn't it become obvious that the citizens (including here in the UK) have had enough of being ignored? Why do you think the anti-EU party UKIP is doing so well?

If the Conservatives want to win their grass roots membership again, they need to move us away from this dying club. It beggars belief that one of the biggest socialist projects ever attempted in Europe is being supported by our Tories.

Mrs Thatcher must be turning in her grave.
Jim said…
Sue, do you think UKIP will continue to do well? Personally I don't I think their support has hit a plateau. The thing with UKIP is they are not really anti EU, they need it. They are now more anti migration and whatever is popular this week, often to the detriment of their "policy" last week.
Chris Whiteside said…
Sue, thanks for your comment. I think all the parties (including UKIP) could do with listening more to voters, and this is something which the EU is particularly bad at, which is one of the many reasons it needs to be reformed.

Jim - I suspect you may well be right.

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