Ukip is full of racists and lunatics – but Carswell did us all a favour by defecting
Truth is, Douglas Carswell didn't seem that interested in Europe. When he announced his defection to Ukip yesterday, the Clacton MP seemed far more concerned with the structure of internal party democracy. He expressed it rather well:
"All three of the older parties seem the same. They've swathes of safe seats. They're run by those who became MPs by working in the offices of MPs. They use pollsters to tell them what to tell us. Politics to them is about politicians like them. It's a game of spin and positioning. First under Tony Blair, then Gordon Brown, now David Cameron, it's all about the priorities of whichever tiny clique happens to be sitting on the sofa in Downing Street. Different clique, same sofa. Few are animated by principle or passion. Those that are soon get shuffled out of the way. Many are just in it for themselves. They seek every great office, yet believe in so little."
Carswell singled out the marvellous Tory MP Sarah Wollaston as a case study. Wollaston was chosen in an open primary and she showed the system worked: she is smart, principled and independent-minded. She's exactly what a member of parliament should be. Her success has been so obvious that the Tory leadership closed down the open primaries programme and refused to promote her to Cabinet, even during a reshuffle when they would have taken someone off the street if they could prove they were a woman.
Carswell's appraisal of the Tory party power structure is not so very different from that expressed by Baroness Warsi in her resignation letter last month. Both are interesting politicians who believed the party had no place for them.
Carswell's move seems designed to rock the structure of party politics much more than promoting euroscepticism. His former colleagues in the Tory party are right about one thing: the best way for someone to secure an in/out referendum on the EU is to vote Tory. My hunch is Carswell recognises this. His real motivation is about democratic culture in the UK.
He gave every impression of being a man trying to roll a grenade under the party political system, using euroscepticism and Ukip's apparent 'people's army' as an excuse.
That 'people's army' argument doesn’t stand up to much, as the centralised, top-down attitude of its hierarchy to its current Clacton candidate demonstrates. Roger Lord is technically subject to party rules which state that in by-elections party HQ will decide who is running, in 'consultation' with the local association. I mentioned this to a Ukip expert yesterday, who scoffed and said: "They'll do whatever Nigel says." 'People's army' this ain't.
Even when it comes to the party's views on other issues, Carswell's defection makes no sense. He is a genuine right-wing libertarian, strong on civil liberties and not unreasonable on immigration. He is miles away from the instinctive authoritarianism of Ukip members. The Clacton MP was at pains to disassociate himself from the image of the party during yesterday's press conference. Before he even explained why he was moving, he stressed his support for the political correctness, feminism and British diversity and attacked "angry nativism".
He may be tough on immigration, but a man who believes "we need those with skills and drive" is not a good fit for a party where 22% believe employers should favour white applicants and 18% believe non-white people are not really British.
But despite all its obvious flaws, Carswell's move can offer a genuinely useful mechanism to undermine political parties. As Alex Stevenson wrote yesterday:
"In Clacton, [Carswell] estimated a blank-faced Conservative candidate wouldn't be able to attract more than a third of the vote. In 2010 Carswell won 53%. Where did the extra 20% come from? The answer is the same one which explains Ukip's growing success: 'The anti-politics vote'."
Carswell is in a position to start untangling the nonsense mandates which the Westminster system claims for itself. By pitching his own personal brand against the Tory brand it will become more and more clear how tenuous people's support for the three main parties is. A vote can be a be a vote for a prime minister, a national party, a local party, or a local candidate. It’s never entirely clear which is being given a mandate. The establishment rather enjoy this fudge, because it expands the justifications available to it.
British political parties were created to represent the interests of social classes which have ceased to exist. Their membership has been hollowed out. They are widely detested. As their membership drifts away, they scrap ever more of their internal democratic structures. Conferences where a mass membership would vote on the direction of the party have been turned into events for lobbyists, journalists and politicians to drink themselves to death at overpriced hotel bars. Anyone capable of independent thought is considered useless to the proper functioning of the party. Conformity and lack of curiosity are signifiers of a potentially successful career.
Carswell's move may not make any sense in relation to euroscepticism or even his own apparent political principles. But it could provide a useful corrective to a party system which has become fossilised and hostile to talent.
