To be annoyed by Labour and Lib Dem voters in Rochester

[PhaedraIsMyName]

I'm not a Conservative voter but come on what were you thinking of? Neither Labour nor Lib Dem had a hope of winning. You could have prevented a UKIP win and that is far more important.

If I had been in that constituency there's no way I'd have voted anything other than Tory.

Disagree.

Total of 2 UKIP MPs in parliament = not in the least effectual.

Fucking great scare to remind main parties that, actually, you can't spend years pissing all over your constituents and have them still vote for you anyway = priceless.

(Although I wouldn't be saying this if it looked like any real power going to UKIP.)

What the main parties should now be doing is setting out a positive agenda addressing voters' legitimate concerns.

Sadly, what they'll probably do is continue to hack the NHS, cut disability benefits, fail to provide affordable housing, and try to out-UKIP UKIP by blaming immigrants.

For avoidance of doubt, I find UKIP repulsive.

But I'm pretty pissed off with the main parties' attitudes of "we can get away with anything, even privatising the NHS, because who ELSE could they vote for?"

Well, they could vote for the nasty, racist, homophobic thugs who promise them housing and GP appointments and haven't yet had the opportunity to fail to deliver.

Exactly pausing

I think UKIP needed to win another seat, as yet another wake up call to the other parties that people are sick and tired of being ignored.

Labour are perhaps the worst at acknowledging what the silent majority actually want imo. They are hugely disconnected from real people.

As shown so well by the ridiculous Emily.

I'd like to move that the area be known henceforth as Historic Racister.

I was going to the Christmas market there, but I'm not now. Obviously that will make zero difference to anyone anywhere ever, but it makes me feel better.

I think unless you live there you can't decide how people should have voted.
I wouldn't vote Labour or LibDem on principle. The former have, in the South East , lost their position as a working class party and are now the party of champagne socialist Guardian Readers, a demographic who I find to be completely out of touch with normality and "all talk and no action"; the latter are next to useless.
I do live in Kent and some of Strood is pretty rough and quite poor. A lot of Medway, Thanet and Swale has suffered from lack of investment and that is precisely the kind of environment which feeds a UKIP vote.
Have you been to Margate recently? I would not be surprised of a UKIP victory there. A lot of immigrant-related tensions and also a big drugs problem.
Until someone presents a viable alternative to the current status quo the main parties have only themselves to blame for a UKIP victory.

Although, I am slightly amused at the Tory narrative that they've been pushing so hard about immigrants and dole scroungers being responsible for the recession having backfired so hard. Well, a lot of people believed you, guys and now they're voting for a party who are promising to do more than just slander the unfortunate and foreign...

And the 'Racister' remark sort of proves my point.

The 'lovely' Emily Thornberry made the same observation but in picture form…

Problem is (I'm not from Rochester but did used to live in Kent) is that those of us who vote or in my case used to vote for Lib Dems or occasionally Labour as they are on or supposed to be on the left side of politics. There is no way with my leftist leanings I could ever vote Tory or UKIP even to keep the other out. I don't feel I could vote Lib Dem after they sold out to the Tories and Labour just seem to be in a mess. The main parties have completely lost touch and UKIP to be fair have picked up on some of more popular issues and are using very strong rhetoric to appeal to disillusioned voters especially in areas like Rochester, Thanet etc. where there has been under investment for years.

How so banana? Genuine question, not said in a rude way.

I'm afraid that people who vote for UKIP are going to be seen first and foremost as racist. Voting for the newest incarnation of the Fascist Party as a way to 'get back' at the current Government- which I detest with a fiery passion, to be clear- is not going to be perceived as a well informed and reasoned decision to the general public.

UKIP are a major political force now. The other parties need to sit up and find out why droves are feeling the need to turn to UKIP. You can't dismiss a huge section of the electorate by calling them 'racist'.Well you can, but at your peril.

Why would you vote for someone you don't want in. I wouldn't have voted Tory just to avoid UKIP getting their second seat.

"Although, I am slightly amused at the Tory narrative that they've been pushing so hard about immigrants and dole scroungers being responsible for the recession having backfired so hard. Well, a lot of people believed you, guys and now they're voting for a party who are promising to do more than just slander the unfortunate and foreign..."

^ This. But without the being amused at it bit. I'm fucking terrified of it.

I've seen this writing on the wall for a long time. The Tories had the aim of cutting the welfare state (parts of New Labour agree), and ramped up the scrounger/immigrant rhetoric to achieve this.

What they don't have is control of where that rhetoric goes next, when the UKIPs of this world take the ball and run with it.

(Sorry, immigrants not closely connected to welfare state - but just seen as a vote winner in certain sectors.)

People voted UKIP and you're blaming the Labour and (tiny number of) LibDem voters?

They're not the new 'fascist party' though, at least not on the surface of it.

They're tapping into the subjects that ordinary, everyday people have been affected by and are running with it.
I wouldn't vote for them, but I know plenty who would/perhaps will.

My hope is that, come the election next year, the other parties will have taken heed of the very loud message they are being given - the country is at breaking point in many ways and it needs to be fixed.

European immigration needs to be controlled - not stopped, not people 'sent home' - but controlled, fairly.
We need to negotiate a fairer deal and ties with the European union - not leave completely, just renegotiate our position to a better one, with less control given over.
We need to sort out housing, so that all Britons (including those who have emigrated here) have affordable social housing - so that young couples and families can afford to actually live.
We need to stop shouting 'racist' or 'bigot' or 'fascist' at anyone who dares to mention immigration, and actually listen to the point they are trying to make without attributing labels or assumptions to them.

People are fed up with their 'working class, just like you and me' Labour politicians being out of touch 'champagne socialists' who are all about 'sorting out the uneducated masses' and educating them as to what they are supposed to think and act.

Most people have very basic wants, needs and hopes:

1. A place to live that is safe and secure
2. A job, that pays fairly
3. Schools which are not overcrowded and under resourced
4. An nhs which is available and adequate when they need it, not understaffed, wasting money and not fit for purpose.

The silent majority want those things, that's all. UKIP are promising these things, no one else seems to be listening.

(Am painfully aware that I sound like an overly earnest 6th former with very basic ideals, but that is the way I understand the rise of UKIP - I have never been a Labour fan, I am more a right of centre person tbh. At the moment, the Tories are the only ones I trust to drag the economy up - Labour would piss it all away again I think).

Sorry for the very long winded reply!

^

That was in reply to silver btw (very overly long winded!)

I would never vote tactically.

And as UKIP a grows in support, the policies of its early years become ever more diluted and will become what it says on the tin.

So a right-wing party once again exists, and has WM seats. The current three main ones show no signs of ending their squabble for the middle. The gap is for a genuine left wing party that is capable of winning seats. The Greens are closest to that, but have never really moved out of their niche, and I'm not sure it'll ever happen now.

(I haven't included parties which contest seats only in one of the home nations. Though they might hold the 'balance of power' in a tight coalition).

I would rather stick pins in my eyes than vote Tory. Lib Dem and Labour votes in Rochester weren't "wasted" - they were indicative of people exercising their right to vote for a party of their choice. Because we, y'know, live in a democracy.

If I lived there I'd have probably been one of the Green voters who put yet another teeny nail in Nick Clegg's coffin.

But then I see little difference between the Tories and Ukip anyway.

YABU
Where are the political parties that actually represent the needs of the majority of voters? As Bananaetc points out it's not rocket science what we want!

I'm not surprised that UKIP is on the up, or (as I'm Scottish) that a massive percentage voted Yes. The current parties don't represent us and the political system needs to change. At the moment all we can do as voters is try to make the current establishment listen by going to extremes.

I had hoped that out of the referendum new parties would begin to come out & hopefully the rise of the extreme right will lead to more of us (ordinary citizens not politicals) coming forward to participate in politics.

It's the UKIP voters who need to look at themselves. Not the Labour or Lib Dem voters.

Surely you should be cross with the 49? % of people who didn't vote?

I'm used to voting tactically. I've been doing that since Holyrood's first election where my first choice has always been which party is most likely to defeat the SNP.

I doubt a UKIP candidate will stand much chance in my constituency but if there were any possibility I'd vote for the candidate most likely to defeat UKIP, even if that were the SNP.