I try to avoid mentioning Owen Jones because he already gets so much attention from people on the Right, including quite a lot of abuse on t’internet; the poor man’s probably blocked more people than have followed me. But his letter to Ukip voters in today’s Independent interested me as a study in what Jonathan Haidt described as the Left’s blind spot.
Owen’s argument is that Ukip supporters have Left-wing views on the economy and therefore should desert former City trader Nigel Farage and join him in voting for a socialist party.
A lot of Ukippers (horrible word but I can’t think of any other) do have fairly socialistic views on things like public ownership; they are far more economically anxious than Tory loyalists, and express far less confidence in George Osborne’s economic strategy, which appears to offer little relief for the struggling middle class.
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