Far Right UK Parties - Worth worrying about?

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Friday June 14, 2013 · 6:40 AM PDT

2013/06/14 · 06:40

I was busy minding my own business reading round the various internet sites, and I happened to be reading Daily Kos, when I came across this diary about Far Right extremist politics in the United Kingdom. Now I have discovered that this diary is an American's viewpoint on our Far Right politics, and it makes some sense, and is mostly pretty accurate, but for the authoratative viewpoint on UK Far Right politics, you have to ask someone who actually lives in the UK and writes about the political scene, amongst other things, and round here, well, that would be me.

It was a fascinating piece of writing, but the one thing that shines out from it to my eyes, is the fact that because the Republican Party in the US has veered to the extreme right in more recent years, there's always a lot more fear about right-wing extremism in the US than there is in the UK. In some ways, it reminds me of the fear over Commmunism that we saw in the US back in the 1950s, with the McCarthy witchhunts. The EDL, BNP and the National Front along with UKIP are the current incarnations of far-right wing politics in this country, a history that pre-dates the Second World War.

Ian Beaumont

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Saturday May 25, 2013 · 10:19 AM PDT

2013/05/25 · 10:19

I never thought that I'd see the day when a UK politician presented something crazier than the Tea Party Republicans do. I even less expected to find that crazy UK politician within my own home county of Cornwall. None the less, this year, it happened. What's even crazier is that he resigned, re-stood for election, and got re-elected. What's worse is that this politician is not a Conservative, not a member of UKIP or the ultra crazy BNP.

Oh no, this was an Independent councillor, unaffiliated with any major political party in the UK. Sit back, relax, and listen to a cautionary tale from the other side of the big pond, about a Cornwall councillor, disabled children, and council spending.

Ian Beaumont

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Sunday March 15, 2009 · 4:30 PM PDT

2009/03/15 · 16:30

The Republican Party as of late seems to resemble a circular firing squad. Even when they're aiming at the opposition, they do a "Dick Cheney" and hit their own men. But now, the original has decided to add his bullets into the mix, and despite being aimed at US President Barack Obama, he manages to only shoot the Republicans collectively in the foot.

He appeared on CNN's State of the Union with John King, and proceeded to demonstrate yet again why the Republican Party not only lost both in 2006, and 2008, and why it will continue to lose until it disengages itself from rabid right wing conservatives like Rush "Limburger" Limbaugh.

Ian Beaumont

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Thursday March 05, 2009 · 4:59 PM PST

2009/03/05 · 16:59

When Barack Obama was elected, he promised to change the way Washington works. He wanted more bipartisanship, more working together for solutions, rather than partisan politics as usual.

But so far, the Republicans have proved that they have no interest in finding solutions, only in political points scoring. So what can be done?

Ian Beaumont

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Thursday October 30, 2008 · 4:01 PM PDT

2008/10/30 · 16:01

This is it. The home stretch, the final furlong, the last days of what has been the longest presidential election in US history. It started back at the beginning of 2007, and has just continued at blistering pace since.

It's been a campaign of notable firsts and notorious firsts. It's been a campaign that's seen more possible candidates than any other previously, and the possibility that we are on the verge of the country's first ever black president. But what will this campaign be remembered for?

Ian Beaumont

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Friday May 30, 2008 · 5:01 PM PDT

2008/05/30 · 17:01

For those of you who do not know me from the Viewpoint blog, where I talk about Life, The Universe and other strangeness, I am a UK citizen, an observer of events, looking for truth and sense in a world, both regular and political, that often seems senseless. Hence my viewpoint being a UK one.

Now, to someone who participates in a one member one vote system like the UK's, I find the whole US system of primaries and caucuses before we even get to the election itself to be far too long, cumbersome and difficult to understand. But out of all the campaigns I have followed since 1984, this one has gone on far longer than any other, like watching all six Star Wars films in one sitting, or all 3 extended cuts of Lord Of The Rings in one go, with more holes and caveats than a badly-plotted B-movie.

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Far Right UK Parties - Worth worrying about?

Cornwall Independent councillor out-crazies the Tea Party.

Dick Cheney shows up the failure of Conservative-Republicanism

Bipartisan Washington?

Into the final furlong

UK Viewpoint on the DNC meeting.