Thread by @Usherwood

Some notes on the BXP resignations

tl;dr this is a structural problem for eurosceptics

1/

Today's loss of 3 MEPs from the Brexit Party, after yesterday's expulsion of @john4brexit, was driven by differences over electoral strategy: rebels wanted to drop contesting seats where CON might beat LAB, rather than just the no-contest-of-sitting-CONs that Farage went for

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@john4brexit But this hides a deeper problem for parties motivated by euroscepticism: you might be against something EU-y, but what are you for?

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@john4brexit Euroscepticism isn't an ideology, but a frame through which you can make pretty much any ideology work

That's one big reason why it's so popular: you can make it work whatever you believe in

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@john4brexit Hence, parties that are centred around euroscepticism are necessarily broad churches

It's also why their programmes tend to be rather vague too: it might be easy to diagnose a problem, less so to offer a cure

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@john4brexit The result is that differences of opinion are par for the course

This was as true for UKIP as it is for BXP (try this from 2013: blogs.surrey.ac.uk/politics/2013/…)

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@john4brexit Indeed, it was because of the problems with UKIP that Farage set up BXP, to try to neuter disputes: BXP has no members, only supporters, so leadership get to decide everything (so half the 5 Star Mvt model, then)

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@john4brexit However, as with UKIP, existence of MEPs creates a de facto alternative power base in the party, with funding and resource to back it up.

Hardly surprising that 29 people with time on their hands decide to have views on stuff back home

8/

@john4brexit Only difference this time is that scale of challenge to party leader is smaller this time, as there's no internal structure to try and capture, hence the exits today

9/

@john4brexit Finally, worth also keeping in mind that this might all mean nothing if withdrawal happens in Jan and all the MEPs lose their seats: then everything comes back to Farage and whatever he has planned next

/end

@john4brexit Will also note that someone's putting a lot of effort into publicising these resignations, which is unusual: points to the lack of unity across what might be termed the Eurosceptic Movement

@john4brexit And because I got bored, a figure for you