Elite - Moi?

The Eastleigh by-election has been in the news these past few weeks and the result announced as I sit down to write. Not only is Eastleigh close to where I live and work in Winchester, but inevitably, a mid-term by-election in a key seat (especially given the tense relationships in the Coalition right now) was always going to attract a huge amount of media interest.

Clearly one of the headlines of the day is that UKIP came so close to ousting the Lib Dems from one of their strongholds, and additionally pushed the Conservatives into third place, albeit by gaining votes from both of the governing parties.

A commentator voiced the opinion that UKIP’s ‘protest vote’ was not so much on policy grounds, as a general reaction by the electorate against ‘elitism’. Such a feeling, he said was not directed just against politicians but against other sectors of society, such as bankers and the professionals involved in the ‘Mid Staffs’ report.