I’m currently live(ish) blogging from the Hay Literary Festival and I’ve attended a fascinating and illuminating session about the aftermath of the European Parliamentary elections. The session, sponsored by the centre Left Prospect magazine, was chaired by Bronwen Maddox the editor of that publication.

Taking part in the discussion were John Kampfner former editor of the New Statesman, and Anatole Kaletsky of the Institute of New Economic Thinking and they were joined by telephone by Peter Kellner the president of the YouGov polling organisation.

There appeared to me to be a palpaple sense of shock and numbness from the audience that across Europe various ‘outisder’ parties from both the Left and the Right had done so well in the election. The session started with the participants outlining the political situation in the EU and that this was the first time since 1906 that a party other than a governing one or the offical opposition had been kicked by the electorate in this way.

Peter Kellner said that there was the strong possiblity that those Tories who had voted UKIP would return to the Tory fold come the 2015 General Election in the UK. He also said that the electorate had let go a ‘cry of rage’ at Europe’s political elites. He added that as well as a reflection of nervousness about the impact of Globalisation, this result was also a ‘rejection of aspects of liberalism’. He also said that this also reflected voter concerns about immigration and added that in Britain ‘UKIP was the big winner’. He did caution that many of the ex Tory votes that went to UKIP would ‘probably be going back to the Conservatives’. Personally I’m not so sure as the Conservative party has drifted so far to the Left now that it is leaving the grass roots Tories behind. From my perspective I believe that the Tories are now so ‘metro-liberal’ that they are no longer recognisable as Conservatives.

John Kampfner made the valid point that there is much anger in the minds of the electorates of Europe that those who caused the banking crisis and those who imposed harsh economic discipline on the nations of southern Europe have not been held to account and that this is one reason for the success of ‘outsider parties’. He said: “ one of the messages that have been sent to those politicians who live in a goldfish bowl of full time politics is that the voters are saying ‘here I am’.

I did pick up the feeling that the panel was trying to talk down the success of UKIP and that they were desperately trying to fit it in with their own experience of politics.

Anatole Kaletsky made the valid point that Labour ‘should have done better’ this close to a General Election. I would take from that comment that it is not only Nick Clegg who is in political trouble but also Ed Miliband as well.

Peter Kellner said that the mainstream parties in the Euro parliament were more than likely going ot be able to outvote the outsider parties as a bloc vote but if they do this then the mainstreamers would further alienate the European voters. He also said that it was very difficult to compare the push to vote for outsider parties in each nation as each country has its own concerns and own specific politcial problems.

Mr Kellner added that the election has thrown up an interesting fact in that London now seemed to be becoming ‘detached’ from the UK and was almost its own seperate political entity. On the subject of immigration he said that this was related to the economic situation and that there was a ‘dismay’ on the part of voters about what is happening to their towns,cities and countries.

I got the distinct impression that this session was very much the political commentariat class attempting to come to terms with the Euro result and to try to find an explanation that is acceptable to themselves as to why the voters of Europe have chosen outsider parties of diverse type and in so many different countries.

All in all this was a very informative session and showed the politcal class having a ‘what on earth’ moment. It will be very interesting to attend a similar session next year if UKIP or other outsider parties do well in the 2015 General Election. I get the impression that if UKIP do get seats then there will be a another cry of rage,but this time from the mostly liberal/leftists inside the tent (in the case of Hay, literally) rather than from those who for so long have felt excluded from the political process and talked down to by politicians.