World View: Anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) Surges in Local Elections

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• Anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) surges in local elections
• U.S. shows Israel new bunker buster bomb for use in Iran
• Israeli warplanes strike targets inside Syria
• California law will fund seizure of legally purchased guns

Anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) surges in local elections

Jubilant UKIP leader Nigel Farage

The UK Independence Party (UKIP) won a stunning victory in localelections, winning over 26% of the vote in those districts in which aUKIP candidate ran. The party, which favors withdrawal of Britainfrom the European Union, took votes away from the ruling coalition ofConservatives and Liberal Democrats, as well as from the oppositionLabor party. According to jubilant UKIP leader Nigel Farage:

“We have always done well in European elections [whereUKIP has 11 seats in the EU Parliament]…, but people haven’tseen us as being relevant to local elections or in some waysgeneral elections. So for us to be scoring, on average, 26 percent of the vote where we stand is I think very significantindeed.”

This is part of a trend that’s dissolving Europe’s traditionalleft-of-center / center / right-of-center parliamentary democracy, infavor of fringe parties and protest movements. In Greece and Italy,the dissolution has already occurred. In France, Marine Le Pen andthe National Front party is campaigning against “Islamization” and theeuro. In the Netherlands, Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom (PVV) hasdone well on a strongly anti-Islamist platform. Belgium, Hungary,Denmark, Sweden, and Austria have also seen the rise of parties thatare anti-immigration or anti-euro or both. The Sun (London) and BBC

U.S. shows Israel new bunker buster bomb for use in Iran

For several years, it’s been reported that America’s largest “bunkerbuster” bomber was not powerful enough to reach and destroy Iran’sFordo nuclear enrichment complex, which is buried under a mountainnear the Iranian city of Qom. But the Pentagon has shown Israelileaders an Air Force video of a new version of the bunker bustercapable of destroying Frodo. The 30,000-pound “Massive OrdnancePenetrator,” or MOP, has adjusted fuses to maximize its burrowingpower, upgraded guidance systems to improve its precision andhigh-tech equipment intended to allow it to evade Iranian air defensesin order to reach and destroy Fordo. The specific political purposeof the demonstration is to dissade the Israelis from conducting aunilateral attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Ynet andDebka

Israeli warplanes strike targets inside Syria

Intelligence reports in Washington indicate that Israel has staged airstrikes on targets within Syria. Lebanon’s army web site is listing atleast 16 flights by Israeli warplanes over Lebanon’s air space. It’sbelieved that the air strikes targets Syrian weapons that are beingtransferred to the Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon. It’s believedthat conventional weapons (as opposed to chemical weapons) weretargeted. CNN and CBS News

California law will fund seizure of legally purchased guns

California’s governor Jerry Brown has signed legislation that willallocate $24 million to hire special agents that will track down andseize guns from 20,000 Californians who has legally purchased guns,but who have been disqualified from owning them due to mental illnessor a criminal conviction. According to one legislator, “We arefortunate in California to have the first and only system in thenation that tracks and identifies individuals who at one time madelegal purchases of firearms but are now barred from possessing them.”Russia Today

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