Can UKIP Replace Labour?

I am writing this during the Labour Party conference, and there is not much specific Brexit news around so I am mulling over one possible unexpected side effect of the referendum result.  Could Labour be replaced as the primary opposition by UKIP?  It is something Nigel Farage has mused about.  It doesn't seem all that impossible at first sight.  About a third of Labour voters supported Brexit, and those third seem to be heavily represented in parts of the country like South Wales and Yorkshire which return a lot of Labour MPs.  So if UKIP could turn those leave voters into UKIP voters they could possibly start to build a base in parliament similar to that of the Labour Party.

Was Alfred the Great behind Brexit?

I have just read an article in the American journal the National Review by Rupert Darwell.  It is interesting to read a foreign take on your own country, and it is intriguing in particular when it is about your country's relationship with the rest of the world.  The thesis is that there is something unique about English history.  Americans often use England and Britain interchangeably. But this is not the case here.  The author is well aware of the difference.  His suggestion is that English history is distinctly different to that of the rest of Europe for reasons going back to the ninth century.

Personal Observations

Nothing much happening on the big political scene Brexit wise at the moment.  There are a lot of UK level politics going on so the issue isn't at the top of the agenda right now.  So I'll review how it is going on in my own little bubble.  The people I happen to interact with are no more representative than any other randomly selected group of people.  But I know them so I have a better idea of what they mean when they talk about a subject, so in some ways are more useful than a more scientific poll.

The Lib Dems and Brexit

The Lib Dem conference is getting very little coverage in the press, and what it is getting is pretty negative.  But everything is relative. Compared to being totally ignored as they have been most of the year this probably feels pretty good to the sandal wearers themselves.  They are the most fervent pro-European party in the mainstream and Tim Farron devoted a large chunk of his leader's speech to saying that Britain should be back in Europe.  He finished with -

just when liberals in other parties are desperate for a home where they can make a difference, the Liberal Democrats are back and we matter more than ever.
Keep Britain in Europe. Save Britain from the Tories. What an opportunity, what a mission.
We are ready.

Can We Go Global Now?

One of the good arguments that Nigel Farage used to put forward before the Brexit campaign was that by leaving the EU we could trade on the world stage unencumbered by the EU strait jacket.  It was a good line for him to take because it enabled him to portray himself as the outward looking internationalist fighting against parochial local interests.  I didn't hear it being deployed much during the campaign itself.  The Farage approach was to bring the debate onto immigration - which doesn't really mix well with enhancing internationalism.

Visegrad Group Reveals The Difficulties Of Brexit

A smallish Brexit news story briefly trended on Twitter last night and hasn't survived the Darwinian process of selection to make it into the mainstream news coverage.  The Visegrad Group of countries announced their intention to block any Brexit deal that didn't give their citizens the right to live and work in Britain.  

Diane James Takes Over UKIP - But What Will She Do With It?

The election of Diane James today was accompanied by a titbit of data.  She gained the support of 8,400 UKIP members.  The other candidates shared around 6,500 between them.  So the party that came third in the popular vote at the 2015 election has around 15,000 activists engaged enough to cast a vote in the leadership election.  Of those 15,000 many will play no role in politics apart from paying their subscription.  It's probably a generous estimation if we say that only half of those people will do very much at all.  That leaves about a dozen active members per constituency.