to feel very proud of the Scots' reaction to Nigel Farage?

[HeadFairy]

Particularly the man who yelled at him "foreigners are welcome in Scotland, you're not!"

:o

What 'other stuff'?

HMO's can blight whole neighbourhoods- the landlords buy up entire buildings, split them into HMO's and run them into the ground. Years ago they were vey dangerous, and costly to the tax payer as the buildings would fall into such disrepair the council would have to provide a grant to fix the roof etc ( and the landlords know this)

We are a local family finally able to buy a big enough flat due to to the enforcement of HMO contracts - hallelujah.

Freedom to contract = freedom for the respective parties to arrange things in their mutual best interest. This is generally not achieved by a one-size-fits-all solution.

Issues relating to dilapidated buildings sounds more like a case of landlords not adhering to existing obligations; suggesting the Gvt should enforce existing laws rather than passing even more laws.

claig

I have enjoyed debating this topic with you.

I think UKIP's most likely success is to force the Tories quietly to the right. If history is any guide, they will need to get 30% in the election before they start picking up seats, as the Liberals/SDP demonstrated in 1983 and 1987. Any less, and all they will achieve is the defeat of Tory candidates in favour of Labour and Lib Dem candidates who, in all probability, will be more Europhile.

And I really don't think they will get 30% come an election or anything like it. Not if you consider what happened to the Lib Dems at the last election. As soon as the media spotlight was on them - seriously on them - their policies and senior politicians got scrutinised far more closely than before. The result? A heck of a lot of their policies weren't robust, and not enough of their top-rank politicians were robust enough to defend them. Because of this, and because of their maladroit, if not downright naive manoeuvres after the election, their vote will probably get cut in half - regardless of whether it turns out that the Coalition was right on the economy after all. Sure, the Lib Dem vote went up in 2010, but on polling day it was a fair bit down from halfway through the campaign when, according to some polls, the Lib Dems were actually out in front.

If this is what happens to a party that is pretty well seasoned, it'll be a bloodbath for UKIP unless they can poach a few senior Tories over to their side.

Toadinthehole, you are probably right.

The establishment media will probably attack UKIP and they will start to lose voters. But I think that the gulf between the Tory chumocracy and the Tory voters is now so large that it will not be able to be healed unless some of the chumocracy lose their positions of influence.

Tory voters will not switch to New Labour, many will not vote for the chumocracy which holds them in contempt, so if they don't vote for UKIP, they may abstain.