It's just not right, what!
Congratulations to Nigel Farage and UKIP. They certainly seem to have put the cat among the pigeons. It was amusing to see Cameron grovel and apologise for all the nasty things he and his ministers said about them... particularly as many of their voters are Tories. There's an intelligent analysis of what this means on Scot Goes Pop written earlier today before all the results were in. Further interesting comment from Young Scots for Independence, here.
I wonder if this is the day that marked a sea change in English politics, as UKIP emerges from the fringes and the Liberals find themselves only just above the Raving Monster brigade in a by-election, or if Farage is simply being used by the protest voters, now that the Liberals are no longer available.
If it's the latter some of Nigel's pronouncements today are going to look a tad silly. Still, for for the moment, it's lovely to see Etonboy eating humble pie, and havering as much crap as ever:
"For the Conservatives I understand why some people who have supported us before didn't support us again. They want us to do even more to work for hard-working people to sort out the issues they care about.
More to help with the cost of living, more to turn the economy round, more to get immigration down, to sort out the welfare system. They will be our focus, they are our focus, but we have got to do more."
Delusional Cameron!
**********
Maybe people are finally waking up and noticing that Lib/Lab/Con are actually the same folk with the same policies but just different coloured rosettes.
ReplyDeleteCould be. We tend to forget that in this country we actually have a choice. They don't in England. It's one sort of Tory or another.
ReplyDeleteCa moron "They want us to do even more to work for hard-working people to sort out the issues they care about."
ReplyDeleteI presume he means the hard working people caring for ill/disabled getting c£58 pw for a 24/7 job?
He means the c3million spending day after day looking for the non-existent jobs, yes?
He means the people doing 2/3 low paid jobs working all hours to survive?
Those hard working people are the ones he's talking about surely
These are the ones who Westminster see as the hardest workers.
DeleteYes. Your natural instinct for politics is showing itself again PP. That's exactly what he talking about, although out of these he's only talking about the 'hard working' ones, in 'families', 'up and down the country'.
DeleteYawn.
CH: I think they see themselves as the hard working ones.
DeleteIt's not all cakes and ale being in parliament... oh wait, yes it is...more or less.
As a member of the LGBTQ minority, I feel utterly threatened by the rise to acceptability of these homophobic shire-bigots.
ReplyDeleteOnly in England could the son of a merchant banker, former businessman in The City (who is still a member of the east india club) possibly become the face of the anti-politics-class revolt.
I don't want to live on this planet anymore...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd4YgudTcnM
The choice next year becomes even more stark.
ReplyDeleteDean. You will be happy to hear that UKIP don't have much of an impact in Scotland, at least thus far.
ReplyDeleteHowever, they have apparently said that the "sea-change" that their undoubtedly massive success yesterday has brought about means that an independent England is much more likely.
As a party that claims to espouse the policies close to the heart of middle England, I suppose they have done their research.
I agree with you that underlying their desire to get England out of the EU, there are a number of disturbing right wing policies that make Labour and the Tories look almost reasonable.
Yes Jutie...
ReplyDeleteThey have probably done us no harm with their sea change!
English politics will have to move, yet again, to the right. Watch all the Tory and Labour policies take a rightward tack over the next few months as they fight to get their defectors back from Farage. (Interesting name. He's French apparently!)
Dean said .."homophobic shire-bigots."
ReplyDeleteAs a Labour Party member and ex president of the Stirling student Conservatives aren't you supposed to be stopping this type of nonsense ? Didn't Douglas Alexander call for a more polite and balanced approach to politics. Or something like that anyway.
UKIP have gay and black members. Nigel Farage is married to a German for goodness sake.
LOL ...Monty, Nigel himself is French. (so there are obviously some foreigners who are welcome in their party, taking jobs from hard working English families up and down the bloody country... blah blah blah...
DeleteI'm gonna stick in some light hearted comments... and to be honest none of this means anything much to me because I believe we will be free of the UK by the time this comes along... and if the English and Welsh and Cornish are happy with this, so be it. (NI goes on with its Irish politics, only loosely related to anything on the mainland, and much more associated with the Republic.)
To be honest, I think, a lot of the members are precisely what Camergoon and Clarkey said they were... Nut jobs, and some are escapees from the BNP. Many would be likely to want to revise laws on equality as Dean suggests, but Dean should remember that he lives in Scotland and I doubt UKIP will ever have any influence in our parliament.
Talking of nuts...remember when the Scottish Socialists got in in Edinburgh... I'm left wing and for independence, but for goodness sake, if my memory serves some of these people were just mad. Tommy was not, but some of his people were nuts).
Farage in my opinion is a revolting little man (but he has that in common with a great number of politicians and it shouldn't hold him back from success)but I don't think he's a nut. He's just a right winger, and I don't like their politics.
If you are for an exit from Europe, then they may be the only party to offer it at the moment. However, it will soon be on offer from Labour and the Tories and the need for UKIP may well disappear. But remember that means everyone moves to the right in England.
Good for us. We stay the left of centre country we are. They become an even nastier right wing place and we get independence.
Dean: Vote Yes and get away from these people.
Lib/Lab/Cons will never offer an exit from the EU tris. They're all bought and paid for empty suits who will go seamlessly from troughing at Westminster to troughing in the EU.
DeleteUKIP could never match the strange
folk that these 3 parties regularly throw up. And feature in your blog almost daily.
I think they will try to negotiate, but they fear for their places now. If UKIP sell themselves to the English voter, a lot of people who expected to sit around in Wastemonger for the rest of their lives doing absolutely nothing and raking in the dosh, will find themselves out of work... . Early days, but I see a move to the right in England...getting farther away from Scotland all the time...
DeleteBravo Farage ...bien fait monsieur... bonne chance pour l'avenir... Je suis avec vous jusqu'au bout!
The Monarchs of Money
ReplyDeleteIsn't it just utterly terrifying what these greedy incompetent fools have done to us. We don't matter at all in their little games?
DeleteAll these people who saved all their lives so that they wouldn't be a burden to anyone, or the state, in their old age and whose money has disappeared can be sacrificed. It doesn't matter that they don't get another chance at old age. It doesn't matter that their dreams are ruined.
I was never impressed by that dick head from Canada. Now I'd perfectly happily slap him till he cried. Selfish fool.
And these people have the nerve to threaten us and say that if we don't let them have their bonuses, they'll go to India or Dubai.
Well...I wish they would. Then they can bankrupt the population out there... See what happens to them there.
As my dear and sweet mother, who abhors violence and would normally not hurt a fly said... the first banker hanging from a lamppost would show them how we feel.
I say the first ten.
I am sure this post has touched аll thе pеople,
ReplyDeleteits rеally pleаsant еntгy on building up neω ωebρage.
my ωeb page; unsecured loan for bad credit
That picture of Nigel Farage - is that when he saw his salary for being an MEP?
ReplyDelete...And the expenses!!! How many UKIP MEPs have been done for fiddling?
DeleteI like the slogan Better Independent.
ReplyDeleteI like it better too! And furthermore it is true!
Delete@ Dean,
ReplyDeleteAs someone who lives in England, I have noticed that the anti-gay retoric from many within the far right, is resonating with many people.
I think that a lot of people who may not be ordinarily homophobic, will turn a blind eye to this, as long as Ukip stand up for thier rights.
I have been struck by how many people are turning to Ukip down here, many among my friends who are assuring me they will continue to vote Ukip in any general elections.
Scary times.
I totally agree. Lots of decent people are letting homophobia, and anti-immigrant feelings forment politically. But much of this is due to the failure of the political class to actually do something about the shortage of affordable housing, or collapsing living standards.
DeleteKids grow up in poverty while nukes get renewed. Much of this UKIP vote is due to a feeling that 'normal working voters' needs are being ignored.
As you say, frightening times indeed.
Interesting to have the English perspective on things, Patrick. I was surprised to see on a news clip from East Anglia (I think), how much dislike there was of foreigners. I suppose given that a lot of the people interviewed might read the Sun or Star or Express or mail, it's not really surprising-.
DeleteParticularly interesting to hear that people say they will go on voting for UKIP. I thought (from the safe distance of Scotland) that it was protest voting, like people used to do with the Liberals (and yes, sometimes the SNP, I guess), only to return to Labour or Conservative at a real election.
If that is the case then all the parties will surely rush to the right to counter Monsieur Farage.
I think you're right Dean. They have neglected potholes, housing, and people becoming destitute. 20% of people having to borrow money to feed themselves..., more and more depending on food banks and they are still cutting. People are sick of it. And even if they are told that we need to protect ourselves from North Korea's nukes, a lot of people think that the hundreds of billions we have spent on this nonsense might be better spent making sure that people have enough food.
I reckon things may well kick off this summer...
Cameron's coat is on a shoogly peg, and so is Milibands now, after his disastrous interview the other day, when he only just got his own name right by the nearest of margins.
And in the meantime the people who did this to us waltz off to Barbados or the Indian Ocean, in their private jets, completely untouched by any of it...
We are Better Apart when we are Better Together or are we Better Together when we are apart?
ReplyDeleteOne for the Truth Team to sort methinks.
Ewwww... that's a bit weird. It's a Scottish campaign but they are taking money from Tory Dining Clubs in the Home Counties, so why why not accept UKIp help.
ReplyDeleteNo, they don't have seats in Scotland, but it seems that they do have supporters, so why are they all against Farage? Do they think he will put people off? I'd have thought Darling and Lamont and Sarwar would have been doing that big time anyway.
Talking about going along to their events, it seems that quite a few of the people who go along are YES supporters checking up on the veracity of their claims... like the Aberdeen meeting mentioned by the Rev Stu a week or so ago, when Doug Daniels and his mates went along and were able to tell us that their claim of 120 attendees was a flight of fancy on their parts... more like 60 including officials and their children... and YES spies!
Thanks for that CH.
Tris
ReplyDeleteI look at the success of Ukip as a good thing for me, not good for voters in England possibly but good for me. The simple fact is that voters in England, or many of them, feel that the mainstream or 3 tory parties have failed them so they are starting to look at a different party. In times of recession history shows us that people will become inward looking in some countries as their comfort blanket is removed and will start to look to blame others not like them for their woes.
UKip while not really playing up to it(because they don't have to) are finding that their anti-european, anti-immigration message gives voters something to cling to and along with Cameron/Clegg/Miliband being so bereft of ideas or decency they are running to the man in the pub who says the things they want to say but can't. The lies of the 3 tory parties are now coming home to roost. I actually think the rise of the SNP in Scotland since 2007 has probably helped UKip a great deal as you can add a certain anti-Scottish dynamic to the debate in England to a certain degree now.
What I think this means for Scotland is that Cameron/Clegg will need to move to the right even more as UKIp are now a serious danger. The Liberals are virtually a dead party now and will take decades to fix, the Tories under Cameron are being marginalised and will move very quickly right. I would not be surprised if the referendum on europe is brought forward or set in law very soon. Miliband will continue to steal to soundbites of Cameron but two days later making him look foolish and out of touch. He will have to move labour further to the right making his message in Scotland even more difficult to get across.
UKip might just start to provide a boost to the YES vote in some numbers longer term if they sustain their success and Labour will continue to be marginalised as the panic sets in as we have seen this weekend with some of the comments about cybernats etc and that ' racist ' comment by the Labour/BBC activist.
It's getting interesting.
Bruce
Yes, it that alright Bruce.
DeleteI actually can't think of anything to add.
From the time when Ukip started to gain some sort of ground, I've thought that, instead of ignoring a minority party with precious little in the way of representation, the two English parties (I think the Liberals are more or less finished) would move to the right to counter them.
Such is English politics. Right wing at its core.
Nigel Farage has got them in the palm of his hand. They are and have been for months fighting over who can be hardest on:
the unemployed
the sick
foreigners
the EU
Human Rights
No one is in the least interested in what the people in the north of England, the Welsh valleys, Cornwall, or Scotland has to say (and no one has ever been that interested in what the Irish say unless they were saying it with plastic explosives).
They are leaving us behind, or maybe we are pulling out in front of them.
Miliband is lost ... he doesn't know what his policies are, and presumably that's because he's to wait to hear what the Tories are saying so that he doesn't sound like he's being soft of lazy scrounging layabouts, like the terminally ill and disabled.
And now it seems that Cameron has to wait and see what Farage is saying before he makes his move.
Farage has done well, the lad... or "le gars".
From zero to hero...suddenly the funny little man with the odd taste in clothes is dictating politics in England.
As I see it (in my usual non-informed way.)
ReplyDeleteUKIP - Dangerous to Tory votes
ED Miliband - Dangerous to Labour votes
LibDems - Dangerous to LibDem Votes
There seems to be an under current of what I think, people in England think is self-protection. By voting for UKIP (and the Tories) they're protecting their own gardens - think of immigration, the threat of the EU usurping more powers etc. A lot of it is imagined but some is probably true, although whether you think its good or bad is another question.
They have this term where I work called 'Silo working'. Obviously its a bullshit idea wanked up by some management consultant (excuse the mental imagery.) It basically means, people work in isolation, they don't communicate or share anything - and that is bad for business.
So it is with politics south of the border (and to a much lesser extent up here.) People want to just get on with their own life, they see things as being so bad for them, they can excuse the wilder behaviour of Atos and things like the bedroom tax. Anything that threatens their own status quo - including equal rights for LGBT people - is wrong, even although they're not looking for special treatment; merely the same treatment.
Does the Silo metaphor work for Scottish Independence? I suppose so, but then sometimes you have to look out for your own interests - at least with Indy - its for the benefit of the entire country, not just one person or family within that country.
Nigel Farage is a compelling orator, he's always good value on QT (as far as good value can be said in the same sentence as QT.) He and his party are irrelevant in Scotland I think because they are more English than the Tories and people in Scotland know it. Although UKIP claim to be for the entire UK, I think English voters see them as the closest thing to an English National Party, as usual, Scotland is assumed to be a region of England so there-for thought to be 'in agreement'.
Its not like our vote counts for anything in Westminster anyway?
Always so modest, Pa... and as for the mental imagery... yeah, well thanks. I'll probably have nightmares.
DeleteThe UK IS England as far as that lot are concerned. I don't think Farage and his crew have stopped to think of Scotland, or Wales or NI much less Cornwall, as separate in any way at all.
As can be seen in a post I did today, UKIP actually has a Scottish leader, although he looks more like a character from a 1950's British Film Comedy. The bowler hatted lord actually has nothing good and very much bad to say about us Scots.
I can picture the people who are following UKIP. They do exist in Scotland. I have at least three neighbours who, when anything at all goes wrong in the street blame the Poles. This despite the fact that the Poles are incredibly nice, clever, respectable, decent people who keep their home and garden beautifully and behave with decorum, compared to for example, the Scottish drug dealer who lives in the street and the lowlife who visit him and steal anything that isn't screwed down.
But when there were scratches on people's cars, I was told that "it will be these Poles. They don't have nice things in Poland, so they don't appreciate them"
There was an attempted murder which was immediately blamed on the Poles, although it turned out to have been perpetrated by a Scottish guy.
And I was told that the EU forces hoteliers who employ Eastern Europeans to give them board and lodgings... The dickbrain who made this accusation was unable to tell me why, if this was such an onerous business, did the hotelier not just employ homegrown labour for which it would not have to supply board and lodgings.
Answer, he made it up because he's a racist pig.
So I guess they could do well here. Probably what stops them is the fact that they are SOOOOO English... Farage and his estuary English, and that Pearson fellow who sounded posher than the Queen.
I got a bit off topic there... I must be your mental imagery getting to me... Time I was in bed!
Hot of the press BT has a new logo to comply with the Truth Team 2014 rules.
ReplyDeleteHa ha ha CH...
ReplyDeleteTruth Team for that lot. What a joke.
OT...I was wondering how Anas Sarwar feels about the head case Ian 'not so' Smart who thinks it's fine to talk about 'Pakis' and Joke McConnell who backs him.
I'm thinking that someone summed it up pretty well on Stu's page. 'Ian by name, arsehole by nature.'