UK Tories under pressure from US over far-right allies in Europe | stupid Politics, stupid party

It had seemed that the western world was turning a blind eye to the Tories forging close links with a bunch of far-right parties in Eastern Europe who have a penchant for Holocaust denial.

It hasn’t exactly been an issue on everyone’s lips in the run up to the election in the UK, after all it is something happening outside the UK. It’s simply a shift in alliances within a European Parliament that a lot of UK citizens don’t care much about anyway, right. The party can do pretty much what it likes in that arena without anyone noticing or any harm done to electoral chances, right… but perhaps the sneaky little Tories haven’t gotten away with it after all. There does seem to be a group of people who have been watching what the Tories get up to, and who disprove.

I’m talking, surprisingly, about the Americans,

An American official, asked about the consequences for the US and about the far-right links, said: "I do not see any upsides in the new grouping. I can only see downsides. In life it is normally best to do things when they have an upside."

The American official is quoted here > William Hague under pressure from US over Conservative allies in Europe | Politics | The Guardian. It’s great to see the UK government in waiting get a slapdown from their masters.

It’s uncomfortable to think that there are so many far-right politicians in Europe with so much power – and doubly uncomfortable to think about the ease with which mainstream (I guess Tories are mainstream…ish) politicians cozy up to them, but the fact that America is willing to address this is very heartening.