At the time of writing (15:47) UKIP has won 78 seats and is averaging 25% of the vote in the wards where it is standing. That is quite something. Not only is it making the Tories look stupid and the Liberal Democrats look irrelevant, it makes Labour look like they haven’t the nous to be […]
Posts Tagged ‘UKIP’
Don’t exaggerate the UKIP threat
Mar 4th, 2013 by David Osler.British parliamentary contests are described as first past the post for a reason, and the reason is that coming second does not get you a seat at Westminster. Yet somehow UKIP is basking in a spectacular degree of favourable publicity through the simple expedient of losing the Eastleigh by-election. One factor at work is that many […]
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On Eastleigh, or the return of the right wing protest vote
Mar 1st, 2013 by Carl Packman.David Cameron, before Michael Gove announced that his brand of liberal Conservatism was not for turning, has been heard saying that the way in which to look at the Eastleigh by-election results is as a protest vote. With this much he is right, but perhaps not in the way he imagines. Firstly it should be […]
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Eastleigh – bad for Libs and Labs, disastrous for Tories
Mar 1st, 2013 by Jon Lansman.The result in Eastleigh may be a relief to the Lib Dems, but it is still a very bad result. How can losing more than 14% share of the vote be anything else? They may have won but, as the bleary eyed will have heard Prof John Curtice say after the announcement, it was with […]
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In remembrance of Sir Patrick Moore – the good and the daft
Dec 10th, 2012 by Carl Packman.Sir Patrick Moore, who Queen guitarist Brian May once described as the “father of astronomy”, died over the weekend, as many will have no doubt already heard. As I wrote something by way of a tribute to his work on Twitter and Facebook I was speedily reminded that he also had very hairy political views. […]
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Respect & UKIP after Rotherham & Croydon: Part 1 – Respect’s last gasp
Dec 3rd, 2012 by Jon Lansman.Last week, Labour, under Iain McNicol’s effective management, mounted an impressive campaign to defeat the perceived threat in Croydon and Rotherham by-elections from Respect. Though Labour’s continuing failure to develop an anti-austerity strategy and thoroughly reconnect with working class voters still leaves it exposed to some future threat from the left, it won’t come from […]
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Australia’s UKIP and the many incarnations of ‘One Nation’
Dec 1st, 2012 by David Osler.Not the least unfortunate precedent for Ed Miliband’s current attempt to rebrand Labour is the sorry saga of a 1990s wingnut populist outfit that also went by the moniker of One Nation. Its leader, a bigot called Pauline Hanson, occupied what was once a safe Labor seat during her thankfully brief spell in the Australian […]
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UKIP’s Foster Care “Scandal”
Nov 25th, 2012 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.There’s a stench in the air, the stench of opportunism. Rotherham Borough Council’s decision to remove foster kids from a couple on the grounds they are UKIP members has caused something of a stir this. Farage has been dribbling his outrage over the airwaves, describing it as “typical of the bigotry you get from the Labour […]
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Why the rise of UKIP should worry the left
Apr 13th, 2012 by David Osler.Two Tory MPs are on the brink of defecting to the UK Independence Party, Nigel Farage told the Independent this morning. He may or may not be bluffing, or course. The UKIP leader spoke after a recent survey put his outfit on 11%, the same degree of backing as the Liberal Democrats now enjoy. That […]
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Do UKIP put the dash in the Tories’ “Pebbledash people”?
Apr 11th, 2012 by Carl Packman.During the 2001 election, which Tony Blair went on to win securing a second term, pollsters from ICM came up with the phrase “Pebbledash people” as the group the Tories had to woo in order for them to have a fighting chance of winning. They were married couples aged 35 to 50, white-collar workers and […]
