In keeping with much of its relationship with Europe, the UK appears to be politically out-of-sync with what is happening on the continent.  While polls predict the UK will shortly elect its first left-wing government in 14 years, European Parliamentary elections have seen big gains for far-right parties.  Indeed, the rise of the Right in Europe has been a worrying trend for a number of years.  So, why is the UK bucking this trend?

The sad answer is that it isn’t.

Although it seems likely that a Labour government will be elected in the UK on 4 July, that seemingly enlightened event only speeds the rise of the far-right government in waiting.

From the depths of my beer glass, here are my political predictions for what little value they are worth.  Like an inebriated Nostradamus, I look into the future as told by the bubbles in the froth of my pint, and the vision that I see is not a Priti one.

Let’s assume a Kier Starmer victory for starters.  What will be the consequences?  It seems unlikely that Rishi Sunak would remain leader of the Conservatives in opposition.  I don’t think that he would want it; I don’t think his parliamentary backstabbers colleagues would want it either.  So, who will succeed him?  It seems unlikely to be a centrist Tory, like Jeremy Hunt or even James Cleverly.  Much more likely, it will be someone from the right of the party; someone who can seamlessly merge traditional Conservative voters with those who have more recently supported Reform UK.  There are a number of potential candidates, but my money would be on Suella Braverman, at least in the short term.  Although she would have to be ever-mindful of the ambitious rivals at her shoulder: the return of Truss; the second-coming of Boris; Farage.  How easy for the newly-elected Reform UK MP for Clacton to cross the floor as the self-appointed leader of far-right Conservatism.

And would this far-right Conservative Party be popular?  Of course it would.  No matter their achievements, any serving government is a sitting duck to criticism.  There will be no three-terms-Blair for Starmer.  An opposition, which unites the Conservatives and Reform UK will appeal to exactly the same demographic who misguidedly voted for Brexit less than a decade previously.  There will be no learning from previous mistakes; more, a headlong rush to replicate and compound the errors of the past.

Five years of Labour is merely a brief hiatus before the horrifying spectacle of the most far-right nationalist UK government since Henry III.  A move, which will bring the UK in line with similar nationalist feeling on the continent.

And the winners in all this?  Farage; Boris; Putin.  Strange bedfellows.  And the losers?  Peace; the environment; Truth.

It is far too high a price to pay.

© Beery Sue

Beery Sue is still waiting for that call to be political advisor to #10.