EU Election Earthquake - Tribal Voters Need Help To Cross The Rubicon

As election day arrives, the prospects of a political earthquake remain a distinct possibility, but sadly there are tens of thousands, possibly millions of voters who will find it difficult to wean themselves off their tribal voting addiction.

As a native of the South Wales coalfield and a former paid up member of the hard left, I know from personal experience how difficult it is to abandon the beliefs and voting habits that have been ingrained on the soul from birth to enlightenment.

Not just impressionable young people, fresh from years of 'progressive' brainwashing in Great Britain's schools, and who may be voting for the first time, but supposedly mature adults will vote along party lines, not on ideological grounds or for any particular issue but because their parents and grandparents always voted the same way.

It is this predictable voting behavior and blind loyalty to a political party that has engendered the arrogant, corrupt, self serving political class that is a disfiguring blot on British democracy and who have reduced the Mother of Parliaments to a den of iniquity.

That said, it has not been easy up until now for voters, no matter how disenchanted they are with their representatives, to switch allegiance to an alternative political party that they have hitherto considered to be their traditional enemy.

As the British people stand amid the wreckage of their once great country and survey the disaster wreaked upon them by the agenda driven legacy parties, the rise of the United Kingdom Independence Party, UKIP, has given them a real alternative they can vote for without subjecting themselves to pangs of conscience for supposed disloyalty to family/community/class/ tradition or whatever.

As hard as it is for the tribal voter to admit, the stark truth is that the old political order of Labour, Conservative and Liberal has used and abused their loyalty for their own selfish political ends and destroyed the traditional British way of life in favour of an unwanted, unasked for society which is unrecognisable as the country of their birth.

From what I have gleaned from my travels around South Wales and Southern England, traditional tribal voters want a change from the discredited legacy parties but are wavering on the edge of Rubicon, unable to take the plunge without an encouraging nudge that will help them finally break the chains that bind them.

At this point I will beg the readers indulgence and share an anecdote which will illustrates the point that a simple final nudge helped to push three reluctant Labour tribal voters into the arms of UKIP.

In conversation with a steel worker from the giant Port Talbot works who was enjoying a post work pint of beer, he admitted in whispered tones that he had enough of the odious Peter Hain and the Labour party but could not bring himself to vote for any of the alternatives. I suggested UKIP but he was not convinced.  I mentioned that at least they plan to stop immigrants who have not paid a penny into the system from claiming housing, health and other cash welfare benefits.

He was horrified by this revelation and several beers later he was converted to the cause. Several days later he had not wavered and was convincing in his declared intention to vote UKIP.

David Cameron has promised yet again to end this injustice in a cynical trawl for votes but he is too untrustworthy to believe.

A simple chat with a retired engineer had the same effect. A lifelong Labour party tribal voter, he had had enough of watching his beloved home town changing beyond recognition with Eastern European Big Issue sellers and beggars making a nuisance of themselves in ever increasing numbers. He was wavering on the edge, unable to break the habit of a lifetime and commit himself to voting UKIP.

Enlightening him on the High Court judgement that classified Big Issue sellers as self employed and therefore entitled to work permits and a raft of taxpayer funded benefits, it set off a reaction that can only be described as controlled outrage.

Further enlightening him that this was done with the connivance of the three legacy parties, there was another recruit for UKIP, in the heart of Labour country.

I met him many times later and he was adamant that he would not change his mind when faced with a ballot papaer and revert to his old voting habits.

Finally the easiest one of all concerned a lady that works in a local Fish and Chip shop who despised her job with every fibre of her being but being ineligible for welfare benefits, needed the money to keep her head above water. When she was informed that Big Issue sellers and all the other immigrants she sees around her town are eligible for welfare benefits, including Child Benefit for children back in their homeland, she swore by all that was holy that she was done with Labour and would be voting UKIP.

I spoke to the same lady some weeks later and she had persuaded her husband, her sister and her brother-in-law to switch from Labour to UKIP also.

I realise that I have left myself open to charges of stirring up fear and animosity toward the immigrant community by playing on peoples emotions with reference to welfare benefits, but there was nothing I had said that wasn't true and nothing I had said that hadn't previously been said with much fanfare by David Cameron and his Conservative party spin doctors.

It must also be remembered that the Labour, Conservative and Liberal parties have been abusing the peoples loyalty for generations while giving away the fruits of their labour to undeserved people from abroad who have not paid into the system.

The moral of this anecdote is that it doesn't take much to convince wavering voters who are disenchanted with their traditional political party, and who are struggling to lose their attachment, to be motivated by a single issue that would help them make that final plunge.

In conclusion I will add that with tribal voters, having made such a dramatic leap by abandoning their traditional loyalties, there is every likelihood that they will enjoy the freedom from the political chains that bound them and they will not return to their former parties.

This bodes well for carrying forward new recruits into the next general election.


Post Script: Read this excellent post from The Mellow Jihadi and weep.