Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, has declared his party is on course to change the face of British politics in the wake of its strongest performance in local elections, making a series of gains across England...In the biggest surge by a fourth party in England since the second world war, Ukip averaged 26% of the vote in council wards where it stood, according to a BBC estimate.
The Ukip success saw Farage's party deprive the Conservatives of control of Lincolnshire county council after gaining 16 seats to become the main opposition. The Tories also lost control of Gloucestershire, where Ukip gained three seats and Labour gained four.This is fantastic news. Anything that pulls votes away from the Tories or pulls the Tories away from the center will damage them. See what happened to the republicans in the USA: dragged further away from the political center by the Tea Party, they made themselves unelectable. And single-issue parties will never have any long term impact in British politics. GO UKIP!...Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, has indicated Ukip are not looking for power -
but influence. He compared the role of UKip to that of the SDP in the 1980s which, he
argued, pushed Labour into a rightwards turn. Tony Blair, he said, was an "SDP
Prime Minister."
He said: "I accept when it comes to a General Election we have a problem,
that is the first-past-the-post system.
He said of the SDP: "They fundamentally changed the entire Labour Party -
Foot and Benn and the hard left were all gone and the new modernising Labour
Party ... with people like Peter Mandelson in strong positions. "If ever there was a pressure group in British politics it was the SDP." The Ukip leader said his goal was to "fundamentally change" British politics,
insisting it "can happen".
Mr Farage told the programme he did not feel he was a Tory but supported the
reforms made in the 1980s.
"We need radical reform and I am absolutely certain the getting back control
of our country ... there is now a settled majority out there that wants us to
get our country back," he said.
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Dr Sarah Wollaston, the Tory MP selected through an open primary, has said the success of affable Ukip is a product of a culture of patronage and jobs for friends at the top of the Labour Party and within Downing Street. People want to see people like themselves represented in Government. "It's not just about messaging, but the messenger," she said.
I keep having to say this - just because you disagree with it, doesn't make it wrong or you right. People are choosing something you can't understand. That's frustrating, I understand.
But maybe you do not understand what their priorities are, or how much importance they are ascribing to the issues here, that maybe aren't a big deal to you. If the issues aren't of great importance to a large number of people, this will all go away and we can go back to the two flavours of middle ground.
If the issues are important to significant numbers of people then you will have to endure the debate, because other people matter too, and they get to play this game just like you.
I keep having to say this - just because you disagree with it, doesn't make it wrong or you right. People are choosing something you can't understand. That's frustrating, I understand.
But maybe you do not understand what their priorities are, or how much importance they are ascribing to the issues here, that maybe aren't a big deal to you. If the issues aren't of great importance to a large number of people, this will all go away and we can go back to the two flavours of middle ground.
If the issues are important to significant numbers of people then you will have to endure the debate, because other people matter too, and they get to play this game just like you.
Xenophobes? That's right and why not throw in waycist, little Englander, far rightist and the old favourite, BNP in a blazer. Ken Clark tried it too. In fact, the Guardianistas have tried insults to stifle debate for some time now, but every time you do it, you alienate another voter.
Perhaps, just perhaps, folks are a little weary of getting shafted and being told, particularly by the tofu munching Guardian brigade, what they should be thinking.
I fully support the Grauniard's angst at youth unemployment being at an all time high; but then don't champion unfettered and unskilled immigration. I fully support work permit based skilled immigration based on meritocracy and so, for that matter, does the vast majority of countries in the the rest of the world. Only 19 year old Tarquins with a gap yar's worth of travel experience think anything else is the norm.
It is easy to promote the benefits of open borders while eyeing up the arse of your eastern European au pair in Islington, but it poses more difficulties when you're stuck in the West end of Newcastle. But then you aren't, are you?
Perhaps, just perhaps, folks are a little weary of getting shafted and being told, particularly by the tofu munching Guardian brigade, what they should be thinking.
Perhaps - but speaking as a tofu-muncher, I'm pretty weary of being told by the "send the buggers back" brigade what I should be thinking, too.
In a democracy, people disagree with each other. They will express views that you don't agree with. That's their right. If the left are guilty of telling the right what they ought to be thinking, then by God, the right are just as guilty of telling the left what they ought to be thinking, too.
Neither side really speaks for "the common man" or "Britain" or
- What's "it"? UKIP? Yes, UKIP could certainly do with a change. They could do with getting rid of their existing policies, which are mostly the attitude "Harrumph, I don't like all this modern liberal Guardianista euro-loving 'elf 'n' safety, political correctness gone mad, bring back the 1950s" expressed in very slightly disguised language, and replacing them with actual policies that vaguely make sense and state, specifically, what they will do. You know, like grown-up political parties have, at least in theory.
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