, Columnist
UKIP Victory Makes Britain a Lot Like Europe
The anti-EU UK Independence Party's victory Thursday in winning a first seat in Britain's parliament paradoxically makes the UK more like the rest of Europe.
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Here's a paradox: The more Britain tries to leave Europe, the more like Europe it becomes.
When voters gave the U.K. Independence Party its first seat in Parliament yesterday, Britain finally got an electorally credible populist party at Westminster. Up to this point, the U.K. had pretty much been the exception to the rule in Europe, where populists have gained representation by combining nationalist nostalgia and anti-immigration rhetoric. Denmark has its Danish People's Party, Sweden the Sweden Democrats, Holland the Party for Freedom, Finland its Finns Party and France, of course, Marine Le Pen's National Front. Now that Conservative-turned-UKIP candidate Douglas Carswell has won back his old seat in Clacton Essex we can add Britain.