Category Archives: elections

Quite a day.

Posted on by
2

I’ve been a mischievous little snowolf today and have been enjoying the role of ‘agenting’ for UKIP at the count down in this corner of the country. To be honest, I’m feeling a bit shell-shocked. It wasn’t so much that we won a couple of seats, more of which in a moment, it was that we did so well in the seats where we didn’t win. In all bar a couple of seats we came second, close seconds at that. In those where we didn’t come second, we comfortably beat an established party into fourth place.

By and large I have to say that our opponents were a pretty decent lot who coped pretty well with what must have been quite a culture shock, as these brash new kids on the block turned up. They were pretty much all quite friendly, welcoming and in more than several cases admiring of how we performed. These were people who also cared about local issues, that is an important observation, these are different people to the ones who swan about Westminster as if they are better than us.

The performance is really interesting, because all the UKIP candidates down here were paper candidates. We did very little to push ourselves, it was all a bit of a ramshackle, last minute rush job. What we could achieve with a little organisation and strategy could be astounding.

The day built to a crescendo, with our two wins coming in one district which was, as if the script had been written, the last one called. Most of the people from the other parties congratulated our winning candidates, our new County Councillors, with grace and generosity of spirit. All bar one of the Conservatives, who burst into tears, complained about UKIP ‘taking’ her seat and stared daggers at us. We may have looked a little smug, but hey, that’s politics. It is precisely because she viewed the seat as her right that she lost it.

Post-match the first stop was in a pub about 100 yards from the count venue. We got some funny looks as we walked in, all badged up, but the revelation that a new Councillor for the ward was amongst the UKIP numbers was greeted with a thumbs up. A splendid time was had by all.

I feel the need for some sleep, it’s been emotional.

Benched.

Posted on by
3

Or not.

I marvel at the navel gazing being employed over at the Telegraph. It is difficult to strategise when your premise is so completely wrong.

Daniel Hannan started it yesterday with a quite startling piece about how a ‘spat’ between the Tories and UKIP will see Labour into office at the next general election. I used to quite like Dan, indeed he’s still one of the Tories I find most attractive in a political sense, but boy is he wrong. Even the opening line of his piece is a startling inaccuracy.

If we carry on like this, we’ll give Labour a massive parliamentary majority with a minority of the popular vote.

We? Who is this we? There is no ‘we’. Yet another Tory makes the fatal error of assuming that UKIP are a Conservative second XI, pissed off at being made to sit on the bench when we feel we should be out in the middle like some gloriously industrious midfield terrier. Dan, mate, I don’t want to play for your team.

Together, the Conservatives and Ukip could deliver the referendum on leaving the EU which more than 80 per cent of people want.

And together Labour and the Lib Dems could block it. He’s obsessed with this Canadian reconciliation thing, and it all sounds very nice, how Rohan and Gondor united to defeat the massed forces of Sowron, but of course as a Tory, we Kippers should just stop being silly and fall in line.

What Dan fails to understand is that UKIP is more than wanting out of the EU, and that fact is one of the reasons why some imagined reconciliation won’t happen, at least any time soon, and certainly not on the Tory’s terms. So, Labour will get in. And? I’ve said it time and again, I will vote UKIP because I want UKIP. If I don’t get UKIP, I don’t care what I get. There are three identikit (anti)social (un)democrat parties, I don’t want any of them, if one of them wins, I don’t care which it is. It makes no difference to me. Labour holds no more dread for me than the Tories, the LibDems or any combination of the above.

What is it, after all, that Ukip stands for? The same things as the Conservatives: lower taxes, independence from Brussels, an end to the human rights culture, localism. Above all, the party was established to give the British people a chance to leave the EU.

I’m sorry Dan, that isn’t what the Tories stand for. Look, you were up against one of the most useless, hated, ineffective, complacent and downright appalling governments we’ve ever had and you still couldn’t get the job done. Perhaps if at the last election Cameron had made the point that all that is what we’d have got if they’d have won (and yes, we all know Cast Iron Dave has significant form in this area), you wouldn’t be in this situation now. You know, this situation where last minute panicked leaflets were put out, purporting to be something they were not, the situation where UKIP boards are mysteriously disappearing from view. Perhaps, if Cameron had made a song and dance about this in the run up to the election, instead of being a policy free zone, you might have properly won.

But he didn’t, and you didn’t. There has been no indication that your party has any intention of offering what you try to persuade me they stand for. You pretend this golden dawn is just round the corner, but there’s absolutely no evidence to suggest that your party are even thinking about considering what you claim is tantalisingly just out of reach.

How wretched we should all feel, the day after the 2015 general election, if we saw that there weren’t quite enough MPs to deliver an In/Out referendum because of a split in the Eurosceptic vote.

Again with the ‘we’. I simply don’t believe that Cameron can, will and wants to deliver on that. I don’t believe him. I have no faith in him. The trust I have in him is zero.

consider the recent Eastleigh by-election. Two Right-of-Centre candidates stood on virtually identical platforms. Both wanted an In/Out referendum, and both would have voted to leave.

It makes no difference which way your candidate would have voted. Look, Cameron is promising a referendum, perhaps, if we’re lucky, don’t make a mess and eat all our greens, not because he wants one, but because it is expedient for him to do so. It was an attempt to ‘shoot UKIP’s fox’, the fox has now turned into a wolf. Didn’t go so well, did it? Your candidate was at odds with your leader.

Whilst we’re on the subject, don’t come over all senior partner about Eastleigh, it may have escaped your attention, but we polled more than you. We came second. Well whoop-de-do, there’s no prizes for second. But if all you Tories had stopped being so silly and voted UKIP, we’d have won.

All you’re doing by labouring this point that we’re all narked Tories is deluding yourselves. Hell, I’ve not been pounding the pavements and knocking on doors. I’m a passionate UKIP supporter, but I’m not in the habit going on about out it out in the real world. I’ve heard so many people, so many, at work, in the pub, walking the dog, so very many people telling me that they don’t vote, or they certainly don’t vote Tory. But they’ll be voting tomorrow, and they’ll be voting UKIP. I’ve never seen such interest in a local election before, and I don’t mean from the media, I mean from real, proper people. They like UKIP precisely because of what we’re not. UKIP aren’t a collection of little grey people, in little grey suits, with little grey policies, telling people to be content with their little grey lives.

We’re sick of it, all of it, all of you. Not just you Tories, but of Labour, of the LibDems, all these, a-ha, clowns who seem to think they have some god given right to tell us what to say, think, do, drink, smoke, eat, believe. We’ve had enough of you. We are raucous, we say outrageous things. Sure we get things wrong, we make mistakes, but we make them honestly, we’re not obsessed with little focus groups and chasing that x% who ‘decide’ elections. We’re not playing by those rules.

In the main it isn’t about the EU, it is about a plain talking ‘common sense’ leader, it is about this, about that, the EU question is something I’ve not actually heard mentioned a great deal. It isn’t because it isn’t important to people, it is because it is so bloody obvious. I mention it to these newly enthused voters and I get ‘yeah, well the EU’s crap, isn’t it?’

These people see a party who resonates with them, a party they hope could speak for them, a party they can relate to, a party that hasn’t been tainted with expenses, that doesn’t lecture, a party that has real ideas. Sure, they’re not fully formed, but what’s the rush, we’ve a while until the general election, but you can bet we’ll have policies to hang your hat on. What did you have last time? Nothing.

And that’s what it comes down to, isn’t it? Tories like you look at UKIP and think, ‘damn, if only we were like that’. You’ve settled for second best.

So no, I won’t stop being silly and do as you tell me. I’ll do what I want, thank you.

I am not a Tory.

Posted on by
5

The Tories are wrong. On a number of levels they are wrong. They are wrong on so many things it would be quicker to write a list of what it is they are right about. That list would be short.

One of the things they are wrong about is that people who vote UKIP are Tory disaffectees.

I will be voting UKIP, I am not a Tory. I never have been a Tory.

One of the things they are wrong about is that UKIP are stealing or splitting Tory votes.

I will be voting UKIP. I am not a Tory. My vote does not belong to you. It belongs to me. In an article over at the Torygraph, Vicki Woods launches an attack against UKIP and Farage that is so personal it made me cringe. Vicki, love, when you use the phrase ‘the sort who you know would or should be voting Tory because they always have’ you represent the exact problem your party has. Who the hell do you think you are to demand, suppose, believe, expect that because someone voted Tory at some point in the past that they are now duty bound to do so for the rest of their lives?

This is the attitude from all the big 3 parties; ‘you belong to us’. Uh-huh, this is why UKIP are spiking at present, you treat people like chattels, like vassals, you insult them, you dictate to them, and then you expect them to support you. It is like an abusive relationship, perhaps now the abused are starting to hit back.

I suspect that Vicki Woods has been got at, because it appears that the Tories have been spending a good deal of money on trying to dig up dirt on UKIP candidates in next week’s council elections. It’s pretty strong stuff, one candidate owns a bar where adults can go and see another adult take their clothes off. The leader once went into a place that was similar.

I don’t much care. I suspect most other people won’t. Those that do care will say something along the lines of ‘I knew that bloke Farage was no good.’ It is intelligence that will reinforce, not change, opinion.

Over in the comments on the Telegraph someone has listed the convictions and arrests regarding Tories. Lots of them. Lots of kiddie fiddling stuff. I have no comment to make on that.

The thing is this, the Conservatives must be running scared to do this. By doing it, and by being so slapdash as to be caught out doing it, they’ve just reinforced the line that they are a bunch of unscrupulous arses who would do anything to anyone to hold onto power. Nice.

The other thing is that they still believe that UKIP voters belong to them. I don’t. We don’t. We belong to ourselves. Why is this concept so difficult for you to grasp? Why do you think I owe your party any loyalty? I owe them nothing. I’m loyal to UKIP, I’m a member. If the party’s views change and I end up disagreeing with more than I agree, then I’ll leave. My loyalty is to my views. There is talk of no pact whilst Cameron is leader of the Tories. This is good. There is talk of a pact if Gove became Tory leader. This is bad. If such a merger or pact came about, I’d be off. Why? Because I’m not a Tory. I’m not using UKIP as some kind of regent until the Tories come to their senses. I don’t view UKIP as a safe harbour as a storm blows on the Tory seas. I’m not a Tory.

The Tories seem to think all UKIP could, would, should and did vote Tory. I don’t. This is not some Tory second XI.

I had an interesting discussion with the Tory candidate for my county council ward the other day as he called round doing the doorstep thing. I actually quite like him, he’s a good bloke, and he’s done a lot of good work. He was the driving force in the county council to get the city council’s support of the aforementioned and disastrous Westgate Towers traffic scheme overturned. He is hoping to get the aforementioned Kingsmead field designated as a village green to scupper the city council’s plans to develop it for housing; a plan that is widely hated in the community, and widely supported in the city council.

The city council has 49 councillors, only 15 of them are not Tories. They are detested, in Canterbury. You couldn’t hope to find a place more blue. The county councillor for this ward is hated by the city Tories as he keeps frustrating them at county hall.

My appreciation for his work aside, a couple of the things he said to me in trying to get me to vote for him really pissed me off. When I pointed out the lunacy of a Tory councillor constantly trying to undo the work of the other Tory councillors, when I pointed out that they hate him, when I pointed out to him that he was in the wrong party, he laughed. ‘But if I joined UKIP, I wouldn’t get elected.’

BAM! There we have it. He’d rather be in office than address the obvious issues within his party. Big black mark from Wolfers there.

Second, he trotted out the line than really gets my goat; if you vote UKIP you’ll get Labour.

Even now that makes me bristle. I will always, always vote FOR what I want, and never against that which I do not. If there is nothing I want, I will spoil my paper. If what I want doesn’t get in, it doesn’t matter to me what does. Don’t threaten me with the Labour bogeyman, they are the minority on the city council, perhaps if they’d been the majority, the traffic trial and field sale wouldn’t have been on the agenda. Maybe if they returned a county councillor he would also oppose what the Tories had done on the city council, I mean, it isn’t beyond the realms of possibility that a Labour person would try to generate capital for their party by opposing the other side, is it? And, just in case I haven’t expressed this enough, because I am not a Tory, the thought of Labour does not give me an attack of the vapours.

Then today we receive a letter where he states, quite incorrectly, that he is the only candidate who lives in the ward. I know this is not true as I know the UKIP candidate and he most definitely lives in the ward.

So, I will not be voting Tory. I will not be voting Tory because:

  1. I do not trust or believe their leader.
  2. I do not trust or support their policies.
  3. I do not like their negative campaigning techniques.
  4. I do not support, in the slightest, their local policies.
  5. I do not like their obvious in-fighting locally.
  6. I do not like their candidate’s attempt to scare me into voting for him.
  7. I do not like their inaccurate and misleading communications.

Most importantly, I will not be voting Conservative mainly because I am not a Tory.

You’ll pay for this.

Posted on by
2

If it wasn’t so laughable, the lengths to which the EU will go to in an attempt to drown out voices of dissent would be very sinister.

The Telegraph has broken a story about what the EU intends to do about the rise of EUroscepticism in the run up to the Euro elections.

Key to a new strategy will be “public opinion monitoring tools” to “identify at an early stage whether debates of political nature among followers in social media and blogs have the potential to attract media and citizens’ interest”.

Spending on “qualitative media analysis” is to be increased by £1.7 million and while most of the money is to be found in existing budgets an additional £787,000 will be need to be raised next year despite calls for EU spending to reflect national austerity.

“Particular attention needs to be paid to the countries that have experienced a surge in Euroscepticism,” said a confidential document agreed last year.

“Parliament’s institutional communicators must have the ability to monitor public conversation and sentiment on the ground and in real time, to understand ‘trending topics’ and have the capacity to react quickly, in a targeted and relevant manner, to join in and influence the conversation, for example, by providing facts and figures to deconstructing myths.”

It is navel gazing on an industrial scale, and speaks volumes about the attitude that pervades the corridors of the EU’s buildings. The whole line about ‘deconstructing myths’. Let us not forget, this is an organisation that hasn’t had its accounts signed off since the last sacking of Lindisfarne, and they seem to think people will just accept any figure that is thrown at them as undeniable evidence.

Look, you morons, the reason there is a surge in scepticism against your hateful little project is because people neither believe nor trust you, do you really, honestly think that trawling twitter, facebook and the blogosphere and posting fatuous little stat-attacks is going to make us love you? Especially when we are paying for it.

I DO NOT BELIEVE ANYTHING YOU HAVE TO SAY.

I am not alone in this.

I DO NOT TRUST YOU OR YOUR MOTIVES.

Why? Well, the very fact that you feel it necessary to monitor what people are saying and writing for fear that they may be saying or typing something that is contrary to your agenda is one pretty good reason why.

It is all so. . . East German.

Really, it conjures up scenes from The Lives of Others (a superb film if you’ve not seen it). What’s next? Well, I can see a time when people are prosecuted for expressing a contrary opinion, because it would be against the ‘interests of the people’ or some such similar guff.

But this is just hors d’oeuvres. If they are going to throw all this effort behind the election of people to their irrelevant little rubber stamping chamber, imagine what they’ll do if Cameron gets re-elected and if (unlikely as I think it is) he lives up to his word and gives us the biggie. This is a training exercise for them.

It won’t work. Even with all the money the EU has to throw at the problem it will have little effect. The world has changed, and all the money in the world will just not allow a centralised rigid system of control to compete with an organic and chaotic system. The problem with the lad sticking his finger in the dike (stop sniggering at the back) is that it just moves the pressure on to the next weak spot, and pretty soon you run out of fingers.

There will be strategy meetings, reviews, lots of little diagrams and analytical charts, but it won’t matter, someone is going to have to co-ordinate. Social media, blogs and so forth need no co-ordination, no blueprint or over-arching strategy, this is one of the reasons why the Left have traditionally struggled with blogs; independent thought and action are discouraged. You see when I write this, I just sit and write. This is the world according to Wolfers, I have no source I have to refer to, no higher power I have to be on message with, nothing but me, my thoughts and my opinions.

The debate will suck in millions of people, many for, many against. But, EU, you are control freaks, you just won’t trust your drones to do it right. How many different lines will you be able to put out? Do you think the organic mass won’t notice? Won’t compare notes? Won’t mock?

There is no head on this gorgon to cut off. All it takes is a few posts, comments, Facebook statuses or tweets to go viral. You are only going to be reactive, the people will be proactive. As soon as you make yourself visible, you’ll be swamped. You’ll be laughed at. Nothing destroys credibility more than laughter, ask the bully who ends up humiliated in front of a large crowd how it hurts his rep.

This, along with the aforementioned fact that people will just not believe you or those who appear to support you independently means you will only serve to undermine your own arguments.

And when push comes to shove, comments which come on here that I consider to be coming from some EU machine (unlikely given my modest traffic) will simply be deleted.

That’s the other thing; I can delete you. You can’t delete me. I have the power, not you. Sucks doesn’t it?

Hopefully my little corner of the ‘net will do its bit to ensure your eventual and complete deletion.

It will only be a little bit though. For starters most people couldn’t give a pair of dingo’s kidneys about political blogging and tweeting – a fact most of us forget from time to time. Most people who do partake the intermong political thing are unlikely to be persuaded too far from their convictions.

If the EU thinks Twitter is responsible for Euroscepticism then they’re even more deluded than I thought. Not for one moment does it occur to them that it is their actions and attitudes that is turning people away from them in droves.

And I approve this message.

Posted on by
1

Well, your favourite lupine blogger is back from holiday, and a very nice time I had indeed.

I was in Florida where I spent the time riding rollercoasters, eating unfeasibly large burgers and generally behaving like a big kid, it was excellent. The place was in uproar as petrol has almost hit $4 p/gallon (gone over $5 in California) and a packet of smokes costs about the same. Poor darlings, I’d swap with them in a heartbeat.

The big news over the other side of the pond at the moment is, of course, the imminent Presidential election, there are also elections looming for the national and state legislatures, and these elections dominate the advertising on TV. I watched these adverts with a sense of disbelief. The same adverts were shown time and time again, the only other things being advertised were local car dealerships and adverts for pharma products where they say how wonderful their product is before going on to list every side effect. I must say I wasn’t going to go out and get their product prescribed on the strength of those adverts.

As an aside, it has never failed to amaze me that the whole country appears to be on medication for something, and that the pharma companies seem to spend an inordinate amount of cash in getting the patient to petition their doctor to put them on one drug or another. I’m no great fan of the NHS, but at least we’re spared that, and it makes me fear for Obamacare if this attitude of medication on demand is coupled with rampant consumerism surrounding medicines. I don’t know if prescription drugs are free or subsidised under Obama’s healthcare plans, but if they are it’ll be a week before the US is as broke as Greece.

Anyhow, back to the political adverts. In the just under a fortnight I spent in the country I did not see one advert, either for president or for one of the other offices, that actually asked the viewer to vote for the person who was behind it. Every single one was an attack on the opponent. In the local posts there were accusations of nobbling the junket budget, gross hypocrisy, changing of laws to allow the legislator to take the best personal advantage, etc. One of them spoke about how this bloke was something to do with Hooters, and portrayed him as a guy who had regular fist fights, was perpetually drink driving and was meaner to policemen than a Tory whip.

If you are working class then Romney is going to screw you over, if you are wealthy then Obama is going to screw you over, and if you are in the middle then your arse is going to be red raw as they both give you a damn good seeing to.

Not one of these campaign adverts featured a bloke standing for Congress saying ‘Hi, I’m Angus Slawotczyk, and I stand for x, y, z and want to do a, b and c’. Indeed none of them even mentioned who the advert was supporting until the very end when a garbled message would say ‘I’mangusslawotczykandiapprovethismessage.’ Well you know what? My response to those adverts was ‘if you approve that shit then there’s no way in the world I’d vote for you.’

Given the litigious nature of things over the Atlantic I have no doubt that there is a kernel of truth in the accusations (although one of the things referenced in tiny print on one of Romney’s adverts was quoting a document that was published in 2004, so how that can be relevant to Obama’s Presidency is a mystery to me) but it is all so negative, it screams ‘don’t vote for the other guy for God’s sake’. If I have to have political advertising on the TV, I want to see someone setting out reasons why I should vote for them, not against the other side.

It seems to me that were are going further down this road over here. There are elections looming here as well, I’ve seen an advert from, I assume, the Electoral Commission telling us we’ll be able to vote for our police and crime commissioners on 15th November and to please turn out because they’ve put quite a lot of effort into it.

However, with under a month until the big day I’ve had only one item of communication about the election, that being from the Conservatives, and I fear that with this being the first time the election has been run, there is nothing to attack the others with and we’ll only start hearing from most parties when there’s accusations to throw at the opposition.

This makes me sad, because I believe that in a good democracy people should be putting themselves forward for election and promoting themselves on the basis of what they stand for, not as an alternative to the bogeyman who wears the other side’s rosette.

Wolfers’ note:

As mentioned just before I went off, I’ve been having a spot of bother with spam comments  here. I turned moderation on during my absence to combat this, and sure enough I came back to a number of comments that were trashed in short order.

Just to re-state my comments policy; disagree with me all you like, call me an idiot or an nincompoop if you want, those comments are welcome. I will even tolerate ‘isms’ to an extent, however I reserve the right to edit or delete comments which I consider have crossed a line which is totally arbitrary and dependent upon my mood at the time.

I have now instituted a regime whereby your first comment will have to pass moderation, all subsequent posts should appear automatically. I’m unsure if those of you who have commented here previously will be covered by that or not, we shall find out.

Spam comments will not be published and will, if there’s any justice in the world, result in the fleas of a thousand camels infesting your groin.

This is my gaff, those are my rules. If you find them too onerous, then feel free to post elsewhere.

That’s not how it works.

Posted on by
1

Those silly Hellenic types, for all this time they’ve been doing the democracy thing, (well except for when they were part of various occupations, empires or under the control of their own military dictatorships) and they’ve somehow formed the opinion that just because you’ve voted for something it means you stand a better than average chance of getting it.

Fools.

Now, I can’t comment on the integrity of Greek politicians, but I’m certainly not naive enough to think just because a particular candidate for PM gets in that s/he’s actually got the intention of delivering upon their promises, but I can’t blame the Greeks for chucking out the political parties that sold their nation’s sovereignty. The fact that they’ve decided to back a group that wants a return to the pre-crash days of money for nothing and your chick(pea based dip)s for free is neither here nor there, it’s their country and their decision to make.

Not everyone is of that opinion though:

Germany’s Angela Merkel has made clear that Greece’s reforms must go on.

Well how many people in Greece voted for Merkel? As mad as I think they are for wanting to carry on without paying the credit card bill, they would be just as mad to carry on with the status quo.

The arrogance of these people who think they have the right to dictate to a nation how they must conduct themselves is amazing. The Greek people have decided and that is an end to it. Who the hell do you think you are, Frau Merkel? Even if Europe needed a supreme overlord, I bloody doubt it would be you, you’ve your own election coming up, and seeing how leaders have been toppled all over Europe I don’t much fancy your chances of holding onto the big chair.

More to the point, she’s gone wading into French politics as well, Hollande has made it quite clear that France has had enough of all this austérité and will go back to pissing cash away like a sailor on shore leave.

Angela doesn’t approve.

Mrs Merkel said she would meet France’s next president next week “with open arms” but told a news conference that “we in Germany are of the opinion, and so am I personally, that the fiscal pact is not negotiable”.

Do as you’re told, Froggies. One of the most amusing things about the whole financial situation is that France thinks it is bigger than the markets, they are very, very wrong and they will find this out to their cost. Hollande’s plan to institute a French ratings agency is downright hilarious, the fact that he would actually expect the global markets to give it even the merest shred of attention is nigh on incontinence inducing.

People criticise France for looking out for themselves. I do not and never have, I applaud them for it. Their ignoring of rules, directives and diktats whilst remaining within the machinery of the EU is a policy of amazing footwork, I only wish we would do the same. I do not criticise their self-interest just because we don’t have the gumption to do the same. A degree of Gallic arrogance is something to be aspired to on occasion.

There is little doubt in my mind that the policies of Hollande will be the ruination of France, but once again like a family addicted to benefits, the French public just won’t accept the fact that there’s no money, it is almost like Chekov’s Cherry Orchard on a national scale, a grand old family fallen on hard times with no intention of, and no idea how to go about, rectifying the situation because they honestly believe something will magically turn up.

They are deluded in the extreme. But I’m delighted to see him win. Because they will hasten the demise of the Euro and the EU.

For ages Nigel Farage has been talking about how we’ve been shackled to a drowning man, I just wonder what will happen first? Will Germany come to the same conclusion and realisation that while they can trample all over Greece, their war guilt will never let them do the same to France, or will France storm off in a huff like a washed up old diva who hasn’t got her own way?

Things are about to get very interesting.

You’re doing what?

Posted on by
1

As I sit here, the Conservatives have lost a quarter of the councils they held before yesterday’s elections, haemorrhaging 300 councillors, the Lib Dems have been shipping councillors like they’re about to be made taxable. Labour have made a lot of capital, but this is in no way down to their excellence, it merely serves to underline the fact that they are not despised as much as the sitting government. Given their record in power and the general uselessness of Miliband, I can only question the sanity of people who turn out to vote for them if they honestly think there would be any improvement on offer from last term or the current government.

As their world falls down around their ears, you’d have thought that both top tables in the Tories and Lib Dems would be looking at what they’ve done to be so unpopular. I said at the time that the last general election was a good one to lose, and hasn’t that been proven true? A combination of utter stupidity, lack of thought and an inherited cluster fuck that even an extreme porn site would have second thoughts about putting online has done for them.

Instead of examining the reasons why they’re so unpopular and taking steps to redress that, they’ve decided that they’re going to meet with ISPs to discuss porn. Obviously for fear that the clusterfuck they’ve been involved in gets seen by a seven year old on a computer.

Yes, there is now a ‘consultation’, which means. . . well, we all know what it means, don’t we? Rather than sorting out rising inflation, huge fuel prices, high taxes, low employment, an increasing contribution to the EU and World Bank, a deficit of democracy both in Westminster and Brussels, an education system that doesn’t educate, power hungry civil servants in local authorities, inappropriate relations with media moguls, corruption, and a whole host of other things, they’ve actually decided to spend their time bullying ISPs because some sites show smut and some parents don’t supervise their children on computers and mobile comms devices, don’t password protect their machines or don’t use freely available screening software. This is like calling out the paper mill because someone left a copy of Razzle in a hedge.

If they think that is important, especially in light of the results coming in now, I can only assume that not only are they not fit to hold power (which is the case), but I must also assume that they don’t actually want it.

It seems to me that the politicians’ contempt for our opinions has now reached a point where they don’t care if we vote for them or not, they really are as mad as cheese. As we’re seeing today, that can have only one outcome.

I will point out that UKIP have polled around 15% where they’ve stood, and this constitutes around about a 6% swing in their favour. And to be honest, I’ve not been that impressed with their campaign here. What would they get if they tried? I guess we’ll see during the Europeans.

Wasted vote.

Posted on by
1

How I love election days. Seriously. I do.

Despite being a cynical old sod, and despite my dissatisfaction with the fare on offer, I do not blame the system. Certainly the system ain’t great, but it’s a damn sight better than the one they have in Saudi Arabia and North Korea. That doesn’t mean we should settle for how we do business, that we shouldn’t strive to make it more equitable, but by the same token I am grateful to live in a country where I can have tiny bit of influence.

There is no grand conspiracy. There’s monkey business with postal votes certainly, but we’re not talking about the 100%+ turnout you see in some Zimbabwean constituencies. The current malaise in the relationship between the politicians and the electorate is entirely of our own making. There are no giant space lizards rigging counts, the Illuminati are not beaming ballot papers into boxes, our prison is of our own construct.

The amazing thing is, we allow the established parties to pass us the construction materials and then we build the prison exactly to their specification. We do it. Not them. We have the chance to tell them to sod off, we just choose not to do it.

Already this morning I’ve heard the old ‘wasted vote’ line. You know the one, a vote for anyone but the LibLabCon is a waste. This is a line that is put forward by the LibLabCon. Well of course they say that, they would, wouldn’t they? Whichever one of the triturdvirate they represent, they want you to vote for them, but failing that, vote for one of the other two, because they play nicely, they’re part of the club.

What you are being told when you’re fed the old ‘wasted vote’ line is that your opinion and desires are irrelevant. Bad voter, naughty voter. You must vote for what you’re told to vote for. If you went out to the pub and the conversation turned to politics, you’d not be happy if someone told you ‘your opinion is worthless and you’re wasting your breath unless you agree with me and do as I tell you’, would you? So why put up with it in the polling station?

It may be that like Sadbutmadlad over at Anna’s, you look at the options on offer and decide you don’t like any of them. The sadlad cast a blank paper. Here in my town we had the locals alongside the general election, I was heartened to discover that the parade of only big 3 candidates gave exactly enough boxes to write the word CRETIN nice and neatly with a letter in each box.

Alternatively, stay at home. Is it your vote. Not their’s. It does not belong to them, they have no right to tell you how or for whom you should vote. I always choose to use mine, but that’s my decision, I’ve also got one of those toasted sandwich makers, but I rarely use it, that’s my decision too. They can campaign and ask for your vote, that’s fine – although I’m betting in the local council elections they’ve not even bothered to do that – but never let yourself be bullied into voting one way or the other.

If you want Labour, vote for them, if you want BNP then do the same, or for the indie who wants a badger underpass built. If you don’t like them, don’t vote for them, if you do, then do. I would ask that you don’t use your vote to vote against someone, really if the only argument someone can come up with is ‘vote for me, or the other guy will get in’, then I think that tells you all you need to know about that person’s ideas, character and integrity. When you vote against someone, you’re being played like a cheap violin.

But hey, it’s your vote. Nobody else’s. Only you can escape the prison of your own construct, but it is as easy as standing up and walking out. There are no bars or guards beyond the ones you allow to exist in your mind.

Wow Nic, things that desperate?

Posted on by
1

I’ve criticised both the current PM and the cretin that came before him for pretending that they can get a grip on immigration whilst remaining subject to EU freedom of movement rules. You simply can’t do it.

However, neither of them, not even Brown at his most unhinged would have done this:

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said there are too many foreigners in France and the system for integrating them is “working more and more badly”.

In a TV debate, Mr Sarkozy defended his plan to cut the number of new arrivals in half if he is re-elected next month.

Wow. Really Nicolas? How do you intend going about that then?

He’s finished. Toast. Over. Put a fork in him, he’ done. There’s one thing the French aren’t and that is stupid, they are politically very savvy. They have a great deal more connection with the political process in France than we do. It is true to say that the same old commentators trot out the same old orthodox lines on TV, and have done for donkey’s years. France is almost homogeneous in its political dealings as far as I can make out, and that orthodoxy is lapped up by a sagely nodding public. Certainly the Front Nationale are a player, and despite the BBC’s (reasonably accurate) assessment of them being a far right party, Marine le Pen, daughter of Marie le Pen, has softened the stance of the party somewhat bringing them a deal closer to the centre, and Sarko has to be worried about losing votes to them.

But this really does smack of desperation from Sarkozy, and there’s not a hope in hell of the French public swallowing it. A good number of French would agree with the sentiment, otherwise Le Pen wouldn’t have the support she does, but all of them know that if Sarkozy intends to keep France in the EU, which he most certainly does, then he may as well be promising to give everyone a pet unicorn.

He is really, really desperate.

Reform? Absolutely.

Posted on by
1

Just a quick one this evening, I’ve been a little busy.

I note that Francis Maude has stepped back from his calls to introduce tougher union laws.

Now, as I’ve made clear on here previously, I don’t have a lot of love for the unions, but the ballots to strike have been carried out in a perfectly democratic fashion. I don’t think it is right that a small portion (in percentage terms) of the population can hold the government to ransom, but by the same token, a parliament of around 650 regularly hold the rest of the country to ransom, and I ain’t too keen on that either.

The parallel between government and unions is an important one to draw. I understand that Maude was demanding that in order for a strike ballot to be acceptable that the union concerned would have to have at least a 50% turnout. As an aside, I think the main reason turnout wasn’t higher in this round of industrial action ballots was because the result was a foregone conclusion.

And here really is the point; that is exactly the same reason why turnouts are so poor in general, by, local authority and European elections in this country – for many constituencies and wards the result is a foregone conclusion.

So, what’s good for the goose must also be good for the gander and any calls for a 50% turnout to legitimise a union industrial action ballot must also be met with a 50% turnout threshold in any constituency or ward for that constituency or ward to return an MP, MEP or councillor.

Not only would it make the unions think a little more about how they conduct business, it would also focus the minds of the politicians a little more.

Just saying. . .