to think it proves lots of people want change

[adsy]

That ukip are making such huge gains in the elections.
If mnetters could temper their hysteria of screaming racism, I think it is a clear indication that the fundamental principals of the party of no toEurope and no to continued mass immigration are very important to a lot of people

No, because the EU Parliament has almost no power. It cannot suggest Treaty change and it's political masters are not going yo propose it. Even if the EU Parliament could suggest Treaty change Any amendments would have to be ratified by all 26 member countries -which would take years

Which us why Dave us talking bollocks when he tells yes that he will obtain changes to the current set up. He can't with every member country agreeing and ratifying it.

Much better to invoke Article 41 and tell them "right - we're out". Then watch their faces as one of their biggest nett contributors stops funding the whole sorry fiasco. Only then would they even consider making any acceptable changes

'All Dave has to do is offer a referendum and then he's won the next election.'

Good point. Apparently, David Davis, has said that Cameron should offer an early referendum. It will be fascinating to see if the establishment will want that. I doubt it.

This is David Davies opportunity to seize power. The Tories have never really accepted Cameron and Davies is one of the few conviction politicians the Tories actually gave. I think he could muster sufficient support from a large number of low majority Tory MPs who will be seeing the writing on the wall

let's hope it doesn't turn into a Portillo moment

I agree David Davis is good and a conviction politician.

According to the Telegraph Dave is "frustrated" at having his hands bound by the coalition.

We'll ditch the coalition Dave and put your ideas to the country instead of hiding behind a leggy!s skirts

Oh and he's going to work harder "to deliver" benefit reform and immigration control

While all the time he knows that he can't control immigration as long as we're in the EU and he can't amend benefits as the EU also decrees that EU citizens working in thus country are entitled yo child benefit and stoking tax credits to send home when they are working here but not accompanied by their families.

Reform that Dave. But you can't can you.

If he were that frustrated by the Coalition he could have called an election ages ago, but he goesn't dare to.

AFAIAC the Coalition has at least served to curb even worse Tory policies than we've seen, but that's only my perspective. If I'd been a disaffected Tory I'd doubtless feel differently.

I think the coalition treaty thing fixed the length of parliament term.

I also consider the Coalition to have been a massive improvement over a potential 5 years of unchecked Tory rule.

Yes, I agree Sooty. He doesn't have the courage to ditch Clegg and go it alone. He's even less likely yo do do now that Ashdowns polling figures predict an overall majority for Labour in 2015

I must admit, if a Labour do get in, the consolation prize sill be watching Mr Bean as he attempts to fun the country

Yes, it is going to be fun. I am glad we can agree on that much.

Is this the kind of person UKIP supporters want to ally themseves with?

community.tes.co.uk/tes_opinion/f/31/t/696350.aspx

The thoughts of David Small, newly elected UKIP councillor in Redditch, selected from his Facebook account.

"Our once great country has become the dust bin for all the world wide money grabbing scum."

"Why on earth is this useless Goverment pandering to Puffs? I refuse to call them gays, as what has gay to do with Perverts like Elton John and Clair Balding who get their jollies in such disgusting ways. to sum up, they should not allowed to be married, they should go back to the closet."

"In February 2013, he referred to gay people as "perverts" and expressed opposition to "poofs and dykes" being allowed to marry."

"And he predicted that "thousends mor [sic] scroungers" would soon arrive in the UK from Mali as a result of a range of coalition government policies."

"Small also complained in a November 2012 post that he was not allowed to use the term "Paki".

"And, in June that year, he wrote: "I visiting the city of Birmingham recently and felt like a foreigner in the city of my birth, all around me I could hear the sound of jabbering in an alien voice … we also have the Pakistani' and the Somali's. Tell me Mr Cameron Why? the men wear their Pyjamas."

Wet - responding to you late, sorry. My point wasn't about the MEPs themselves, rather the relative willingness of other member states' governments to be willing to renegotiate the terms of the treaty. More likely if they are worried about anti-EU sentiment domestically than doing to to make the British happy.

Sooty, I've read that the UKIP machine is now investigating him.

Their comment said it might take a while as that committee has "quite a few cases pending".

Which, good, they're investigating but why wait until now? How long does it take? And what is it about UKIP that attracts seemingly a larger proportion of people who think it's acceptable to say things like this than other parties?

I agree Jassy It's a bit late to investigate him when he's just been elected isn't it? You would have thought they'd have discovered him to be unsuitable before he stood.

Too many EU states are beneficiaries of our EU contributions to expect those particular turkeys to vote for Christmas. Too many vested interests, hence the inability to make long needed reforms such as to the Common Agricultural Policy. Also, Brussels is stuffed to the brim with lobbyists. So you have them go overcome too in your attempts to make change.

No, I'd just pull the plug now instead of trying to battle my way through all those vested interest obstacles to change

I don't doubt you'd prefer that - but there is a large swathe of the population who'd like to stay in the EU (after all, our largest export market) but with a renegotiated treaty. Net contributors are one issue (though it is they who have to date taken the firmest line on treaty renegotiation). Quite a few of the net beneficiaries would like changes to some parts of the treaty, such as the social and employment policies, energy policy/single energy market issues, etc and if enough governments become persuaded by domestic mood that a treaty change would be expedient, you would have decent conditions for one.

As you say, the results tomorrow night will be interesting across Europe.

CBA to RTFT but this is interesting

snakeandpygmy, that blogger is well behind the times. He thinks that the BBC's politics programmes have just changed recently. They changed years ago. They dumbed us down years ago and it all started under New Labour.

"Recently it seems that they have been regarding politics more as Light Entertainment than Current Affairs. The Marr Show is some kind of cross between the BBC News breakfast programme and the old Pebble Mill at One. Question Time invites more cheeky chappies, personalities, comedians and polemicists than academics or politicians, Farage appearing on that programme more than most, going almost back-to-back with appearances on Have I Got News for You. Andrew Neill’s programmes are peppered with cartoon graphics, clever quips and 5 min talking head shorts by celebs."

They took our treasured Radio 4 World At One 1 hour news programme and decided it was too boring for a modern audience and that we only needed 30 minutes of news, so we lost the in-depth interviews and reporting and just got the New Labour spin. They put actors and luvvies on what came before The Andrew Marr Show and they put cheeky chappies, Russell Brands and "comedians" and "actors" on our Question Time.

They dumbed us down and they did it deliberately, just as they dumbed us down throughout society in general. It was New Labour's time. We didn't want it. We liked it as it was. We were conservatives. We don't like dumbing down. We were like Thatcher who used to listen to Radio 4's Today programme every morning and phone them up on air when they annoyed her and got things wrong They don't make them like her anymore and we no longer listen to the BBC. It's politically correct, it's spin, it's all hip hop drum beat discussions instead of international news.

Even our conservative party became dumbed down and turned into a New Labour spin type machine. They changed their Conservative symbol and turned it into a squiggle of a tree. They said "vote blue go green", so now we no longer vote blue, we vote purple. They changed our BBC, then they changed our Conservative Party. They told us Thatcher was "nasty", just like they called UKIP voters "fruitcakes". So we left them, what was the point, they were no longer "one of us", they had joined the "one of them". They were all the same. The same dumbed down spinners in every party you looked at. They all believed the same, they all thought the same and they lectured us and wanted us to think the same.

But there was one thing they couldn't touvh. One last bastion of "common sense". That was our Daily Mail newspaper. That refused to be dumbed down, that wasn't the same as all the rest. So now we've left the Tories, we've gone to the "common sense" party, we're purple through and through.

And today we open our Daily Mail and this is what we see

"'Now I will destroy the Tory party': In a crowing interview, Nigel Farage reveals he will quit politics... once he's got the UK out of the EU"

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2638377/Now-I-destroy-Tory-party-In-crowing-interview-Nigel-Farage-reveals-quit-politics-hes-got-UK-EU.html

It is sad, but what does it really matter? They aren't real Tories anyway. Thatcher's era is gione and we are all gone too. Now they're progressive through and through and we all want something new.

"Mr Farage rejects claims by David Cameron that UKIP’s challenge will fade away in next year’s General Election, and says today’s gains mark the beginning of the end of the Conservative Party ."

Absolutely right. This is an earthquake, a revolution. It is the end of the old spinners and the start of something new. But the tragic thing is what they call "Tories" today, these Etonians returned to rule as if from a different age who look down on the people, don't really care if the Tory Party is destroyed, because they aren't real Tories, they don't care about the people. Who knows? Maybe they were all just part of Blair's "Project" - the spin, the lies, the dumbing down, the fake grins and oily spin, plus ca change, nothing changed.

But tonight's results will mark the beginning of change. An earthquake is on the cards. Someone told me

"There will be feathers everywhere"

They said there was a UKIP fox. Don't know what that is, but it seems it really rocks.

The Daily Mail, that bastion of academia? Christ Almighty. If someone wanted real news, whether from the left or the right, I don't think they would pick the DM.

'If someone wanted real news, whether from the left or the right, I don't think they would pick the DM.'

We didn't read the Daily Mail for the news, we read it for the "common sense".

Headlines in the Mail Online:

"My baby, Kim Kardashian West!' Kanye pouts and poses with his bride and friends after wedding in front of a wall of flowers... as guests dance the night away under Florence sky full of fireworks"

"Three bodies found in apartment of Hunger Games assistant director's son who slaughtered six - after posting embittered murder video manifesto because he was 'still a virgin at 22'"

The first is the top headline. THE TOP HEADLINE.

If you scroll down it's tits, tits, tits, some copy nicked from Reddit and scandalous and incorrect crap nicked from anywhere else.

You're reading a tabloid. Don't kid yourself you're reading some intellectual paper or, I dunno, an actually researched piece. If the Daily Mail is the voice of the intellectual Right, you got nothing.

'Don't kid yourself you're reading some intellectual paper or, I dunno, an actually researched piece. If the Daily Mail is the voice of the intellectual Right, you got nothing.'

No, it's not intellectual. It is "common sense" for the "common" people, not for the metropolitan elite. It is the paper of the people, not the paper of Cameron and his elite. I bet he doesn't read it, I bet he doesn't like it, I bet he doesn't even like its readers.

We don't want "intellectuals" making policy - like the chap they call "Two Brains Willetts", a don or something from Oxbridge who spouts crap about "the intergenerational divide" and "intergenerational injustice" - we just want ordinary folk with some "common sense" - we just want Farage with a fag and a pint.

I see what you're up to and will move swiftly away :D

I strongly dislike the Daily Mail, that's all.

I was going to write something psephological, or witty, or intelligent.

Nah. Labour won more seats than the Tories, the Libs and UKIP put together. UKIP's councillors are less than 10% of Labour's. They're going to be shit at their jobs too; thick angry racists don't do well in politics.

So it's a big "Ha ha! Losers!" from me.