A good concert, a spot of clubbing, climbing Arthur's Seat in a hailstorm, and even a bit of culture. As I travel back the sun is shining and it feels that all is right with the world.
Ah, yes, the European election. The cloud on my otherwise perfect horizon. The smug, Farage-shaped cloud. I do not understand why people have voted for UKIP because there is no chance I would ever do it. So I do not feel what those people feel.
As such, my "Why?" has to be speculation. But the lack of facts should never get in the way of a good blog, so here goes.
I don't think that the UKIP vote is borne of racism. Not for the vast majority. UKIP's best performances have not been in the area with the highest migration. London has performed much more as you would expect, with a drift to the official opposition.
And if a racially stronger policy was popular, we would not be celebrating the removal of the two BNP MEPs this morning, having lost 80% of their 2009 vote.
But I suspect the *fear* that jobs might be under threat to a surge of immigrants, no matter how far-fetched that actually is, is an issue. And the retired Colonels of Tunbridge Wells have always responded well to any call to raise the drawbridge.
More of an issue in my mind is that people do not see any real difference between the three major parties. There are no radical differences between them. If you want difference you either look to the Greens, or to Nige. And the Greens have done OK. Well, even. But they've never threatened a break through. Last time - in fact in my memory *every* other time there has been an alternative with the LibDems. Now they are part of government, so that one comes out. And their only chosen point of difference was Europe, more specifically the EU.
Ah yes, the EU. UKIP's rallying post. Author, if you believe Nige, of every problem this country has. The LibDems have struggled to say why the EU benefits us, just as both Con and Lab hint at the need to renegotiate treaties - which must mean they aren't the laws we should have.
The first purpose of European union, back in the 50s, was to ensure coal and steel production was centrally controlled - with more than an eye on controlling rearmament. The Federalist goal has grown from there, and is still close to the heart of some Europeans, but of very few Brits. But Britain is a trading nation, and the Common Market was a serious attraction to us. Easier trade, breaking down of barriers, bigger markets - all good stuff. People don't see that in the EU. They see bureaucracy, and inefficiency, and perhaps corruption.
Farage has played his hand on this well. Some of his claims are better supported than others. And of course no one significant* has left the EU, so we can't say that the world would end. He is saying "things are crap - do this and they will get better".
So, do you** face a UKIP government in a year? Of course not. Will they fall back to a level of irrelevance as the Greens did after their big vote in the 1989 Euros? Perhaps, though not that far. Will they, horror of horrors, have enough seats to keep a Tory government in power at a disproportionate price? Yes, they might. But we have to find a way of engaging the UKIP voter with full-spectrum politics, and even more so the people who don't bother voting. And if we are serious about the EU we have to show the British people why it's a good thing.
* Sorry Greenland, we love you, but you don't give me a working comparator here.
** I say you! because if it happens I'm off
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