Douglas Carswell's query about a possible 'Pim Fortuyn moment' made my ears prick up.
Would that it were possible. Sadly, we're still a way away from such a moment - and not because it isn't long over-due. We're still a long way from the moment because our politicians continue to be in the period of spinning 'anti-Islamic activity' nonsenses. The public know what the problem is. The politicians may do. But they won't spell it out, for fear of 'inflaming' the British public.
Pim was always derogatively described - not least by his political contemporaries - as a 'populist'. The distrust that our politicians feel for the public is all contained in that use of 'populist' as a pejorative.
In Britain our politicians have an unstated suspicion that the British people won't be able to restrain themselves from lynching Muslims if the politicians finger Islamist extremists as the problem. I've always thought the public are better than that, but until the politicans in charge think so, things won't improve. Meanwhile, the bigger the politico-public divide gets, the less and less likely it is that at the end of it we'll get a politican as decent and moderate as Fortuyn.
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