Justin Strekal political director at Norml.

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I mentioned last week that I would talk

about the earthquake – earthquakes really – in UK politics. In particular that

Nigel Farage’s new party, the Brexit Party won the European

Parliament elections in the UK by a mile last month.

They did win by a mile, but it’s important

not to get carried way. They won by getting 30 per cent of the vote. That was

way more than any other party, but of course nothing like a majority, and a

fair way below what was predicted by pollsters. But it has still upended

politics, and let’s not forget that was a stunning result for a party that was

only a month old.

But that only tells half the story. The

party that came second was the Liberal Democrats – a centrist party, very

pro-European. They got a huge increase in their normally tiny vote with a very

simple slogan. Stop Brexit – Vote LibDem.

Third came the opposition Labour party, and fourth came the Green Party. Have

you noticed what’s missing? The Conservative Party, Theresa May’s party, the

government party, came fifth. She got less than nine per cent of the vote.

But that’s the European Parliament elections,

a second-order election, a chance for the voters to let fly, it’s probably

going to have no effect at all and the turnout was low, so we can safely ignore

the result – right? Not quite.

Opinion

polls for UK government elections have taken a decisive turn. The Brexit

Party doesn’t do so well; it’s still doing impressively, but the real story is

how British Politics have been totally upended.

The Liberal Democrats are in first place in

the polls for the real, grown-up election, for a British parliament, with the

Brexit Party in second place, and Labour and the Conservatives coming third and

fourth. In a US context, that’s a bit like the Libertarian Party and the Green