to be grateful to UKIP

[drivenfromdistraction]

for terrifying me so completely with the possibility of them getting any sort of power, that I have actually pulled my finger out for once and voted. Not for them, obv.

I have been a shamefully lethargic voter all my life, but my inner suffragette has finally surfaced.

And we are off!

YAWN

You must be reasonably interested if you got your arse in gear to apply for a postal vote, though? (I assume that's what you've done, and i haven't missed the actual election...!)

Please please please stop these ukip threads. It's done, it's over, it's boring now.

Boring! Can't understand this obsession some Mumsnetters have with UKIP. They're a pretty mainstream party and we were a democracy last time I checked.

Indeed, driven.

CoffeeTea - may I introduce you to the scroll button?

Good for you OP, I am glad that they were good for something. Let's hope it has the same impact on others.

MaryLou - they are only "mainstream" if by that you mean "relentlessly promoted in the national media over a long period, but not elected to any national body". They don't have any MPs at all, and they make a mockery of the MEP places they do have by trousering the money but not actually putting the work in.

And surely the point of a democracy is that if you feel some of the people standing for election are racist, sexist douchenozzles, your democratic rights allow you to say so?

Yes, postal vote. I've been signed up for that for years, but usually don't get round to actually posting the thing.

Can't understand this obsession some Mumsnetters have with UKIP. They're a pretty mainstream party.
That's exactly what terrifies me, Marylou - that so many people consider them mainstream. To me they are the lunatic fringe, with grotesquely unpleasant and illogical 'policies'. It astonishes me that people will actually vote for them.

we were a democracy last time I checked.
Indeed. Hence my vote.

Oh goody another UKIP thread!
whilst your patting yourself on the back, and looking for all your chums to come and congratulate you on being such a wonderful compassionate human....

Your actually Keeping them in the public eye and advertising them...

Mumsnet is no way reflective of mainstream opinion in the UK. If it was, Labour would be in permanent government and the Guardian would be the best selling newspaper, actually it would just be delivered to everyones house automatically and paid for by taxation. Thankfully we live in a free country where those pissed off with the LibLabCon trifecta can vote UKIP to register their disgust and hopefully, get us out of the EU.

If it was, Labour would be in permanent government and the Guardian would be the best selling newspaper I agree...

:

Yes, no maternity pay, no trousers for women, forced abortion for disabled babies are all totally normal suggestions for political parties in this day and age to be making for UK women. Nothing at all that should be discussed on a forum aimed at women. Nope. Nothing to see here.

I don't understand the point of this thread. So you sent a postal vote for someone other than ukip erm congratulations?

I'm assuming this is so people will tell you how amazing you are and generally lick your arse

while your patting yourself on the back, and looking for all your chums to come and congratulate you on being such a wonderful compassionate human....

I have no chums on MN, beyond. As far as I know, anyway. And you're quite wrong if you think being anti-UKIP makes anyone 'wonderful' or 'compassionate'. IMO it's a much lower bar than that: 'sane' perhaps, or 'adequate'

Voting for a party to 'register your disgust' is a dangerous line. I would only ever vote for a party that I thought could actually run the country.

And I think getting out of the EU would be ridiculous/disastrous. As the comedian Sean Lock said recently, it's like Cardiff City saying they're going to leave the Premier League and arrange their own fixtures and assign their own prizes. We'd be a small fish in a pond of one.

pomm

It's been discussed numerous times on numerous threads.

This thread comes across as ' everybody look at me I'm just about to put a pound in the charity box. Praise me! Praise me!'

Well that's my interpretation anyway.

I don't understand the point of this thread.
Umm, passing the time? Conversation?

So you sent a postal vote for someone other than ukip
Yup.

erm congratulations?
Thanks, but not necessary. As I said in my OP, I am ashamed of what a poor track record I have in voting.

I'm assuming this is so people will tell you how amazing you are and generally lick your arse.
Strange assumption! But I did think there might be the odd person who would appreciate the irony of my being grateful to a party that I intensely dislike. And I thought that quite a few would tell me off for not having got my act together before. I'd be delighted if seeing my thread also prompted any other lazy voters to do the same, but that wasn't a prime motivation. Oh - and I thought there might be some amusing replies, because there usually are on any MN thread, that's why I stick around.

Well, you have one friend now driven

got - I do get that but I don't mind it as I think UKIP are genuinely scary in that people keep telling me in rl they are considering voting for them (my parents and PILS for e.g. seem to like them). The populist theories they are discussing mask a whole range of horrendous ideas that some people seem to not be aware of. I am grateful for as much discussion as possible even on internet forums!

I would only ever vote for a party that I thought could actually run the country.

What? these are local and European elections

Politics at a local level can be totally different to a national and European.

A party might not have particularly appealing national policies but very good local ones. Did you read the manifestos before voting?

Mumsnet is no way reflective of mainstream opinion in the UK. If it was, Labour would be in permanent government and the Guardian would be the best selling newspaper

Very true

I think when UKIP's own "rising star" (as labelled by Farage himself) has quit the party for being "racist" and "terrifying" only yesterday, I find it fascinating that some MNers are still beating the UKIP drum.

pomm
Yes I see what you mean. However OP hasn't actually mentioned anything about ukip other than that she hasn't voted for them. That to me is not encouraging an indepth conversation about policies.

PommedeTerre - exactly! I look at the UKIP poster in my neighbour's garden and think how they presumably wish I had been killed at birth or shut away in an institution. I genuinely cannot comprehend it. It's not the equivalent of putting a pound in the charity box at all. It makes me want to scream or cry.

It is not 'patting yourself on the back' to be absolutely terrified by the future for your friends and family bacause of racism and bigotry.