Rochester and Strood Latest

[WetAugust]

The white van has been transformed to a Harrods van and the England flag is now a Hammer and Sickle so Mrs Hyacinth Bouquet, Labour MP feels more at home

Why there is nothing they can do about UKIP

"Branding Ukip “more Tory than the Tories” does not cut the ice with blue collar voters who find Farage’s views appealing. Merely insulting Ukip, rather than addressing voters’ underlying motives for backing the party, is certainly not going to win back people who feel abandoned by Labour. If anything, it will reinforce their view that their votes are being taken for granted."

and why the UKIP Rochester victory against Cameron who threw the kitchen sink at it in a desperate Custer's Last Stand is so significant

"But what will David Cameron and the Conservatives do? Before Thursday’s results, everyone saw this by-election in the 271st most favourable seat for Ukip as an opportunity to stop the bandwagon in its tracks, and unite Conservatives around an epic victory in Rochester against an MP who betrayed his party.

Following Ukip’s triumph, however, some Tories might be tempted to resign themselves to another defeat and turn their focus to shoring up other marginal seats. If CCHQ piles resources into Rochester and doesn’t win, it will be a disaster for Cameron and could trigger a round of bloodletting just six months before the general election."

www.cityam.com/1412968613/both-miliband-and-cameron-must-bet-house-rochester-save-themselves-now

There are six months to go, panic will set in, MPs will cut and run, they will scramble for safety and some will defect to UKIP to save their skins.

Grant Shapps wil cry

"Don't Panic, Mr Camwaring, don't panic, sir"
"it'll be alwight on the night"

but of course it won't. It will be like the last days of Gordon Brown - howling at the moon, throwing mobile phones around the room, utterly manic, in sheer panic.

And Sky New shows pictures of Farage celebrating in a pub with the legendary leader of the Monster Raving Loony by his side laughing about "more defections" and the whole room cheers.

He's having a laugh, we're having a laugh, but the PPEs are going to cry.

But who will serve that coffee in London without immigration?

Seriously, London and the London NHS in particular, would cave in on itself without migrant workers. Now some UKIP supporters may like the sound if that but if London were to cave in on itself the entire country would be off to hell in a hand basket!

Because, yes, how hideous for your child to aspire to do PPE when they could nip off to Luton to buy a van and sell out the back. Both can be equally valid life choices in different circumstances.

Farage told the BBC

'I would love these by-elections to go on forever'

and so would the whole country. We're having a laugh.

Please, please good MPs (we know there are some), can some more of you defect so the laughter can continue.

Claig ... again with the puerile Soviet style propaganda - RATHER THAN SOAP BOX WHAT UKIP STANDS FOR, WHAT THEY HAVE THAT IS DIFFERENT, but you can't can you?

There is no political answer to UKIP, as UKIP isn't a real political party offering real alternatives, it is a far right wing Cult, it sells a 'magic purple dust dream' to voters pretending that IT has answers, especially on the EU and immigration - and using anti established party rhetoric to boost itself (as explained better below).

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/01/ukip-british-political-compass-authoritarian-right

“Rather, as I've explained before, Ukip flagrantly pilfers the most unpopular policies from both Labour and the Conservatives and frames them in a negative manner, making its manifesto a "bucket list" for the annoyed and offering easy, uncosted solutions.”

”Scared of immigrants? Vote Ukip. Insecure about the financial crisis? Vote Ukip. Hate the smoking ban, energy companies, HS2, Brussels, travellers, burqas, tax, Boris, debt, wind farms, bankers, quangos, foreign aid, crime, Abu Qatada, tuition fees, lazy people, Muslims, foreigners, the hunting ban? Vote Ukip.”

That lists above covers about 90% of your current rollocks Claig, and it was written quite a while ago.

Claig ... "Please, please good MPs (we know there are some), can some more of you defect so the laughter can continue."

Because the JOKE is, a UKIP candidate can't manage to win a Westminster seat on their own and thhey need to keep up the momentum. lol

UKIP I.G. Spread Betting company backer, calculated by taking out sitting Conservative MP's, leaving the replacement to try in weeks to establish constituency relationships, was a winner.

Managing the punters, what the fluck would you have done without them, with flip flop Farage?.

noddyholder, I know you don't like UKIP, so why don't you vote Green?
I think I might know the answer to that one, I'll come back later to see if I'm right .

But who will serve that coffee in London without immigration?
I guess Brooklyn Beckham will be busier than he expected .

I have voted green twice previously. This is not about 'party' politics for me as I think thats finished as a successful system in the UK and so I don't want to take part in anything where I have to select from a bunch of people who show what they want and conceal the rest. No party is transparent enough imo I have just decided not to vote at all for now

Oh I thought you might have had enough of them for a lifetime due to where you live .
(wouldn't have said if it wasn't on your profile).

:) I actually like CL and think she has a lot of integrity but as I say for me at almost 50 I cannot get my head round the whole system of govt in this country

I'm quite despondent too. Quite depressed by the whole bullshit of 'I'll say this because it's what I think you want to hear.'
I don't want to hear any politician tell me I can keep 95% of my salary and with the tiny proportion they take they'll cut crime by 70% and upgrade our schools and hospitals and get all the lazy fevers back to work whilst supporting those who can't whilst also getting me back into a size 10 after 4 babies! You can't bloody do all that, it's fundamentally impossible so stop talking bollocks and treat me like an intelligent adult instead of presuming I expect or even want all that.

We are lucky to be alive in this time, because Britain is going through seismic, historic changes that were last seen in the 1920s. This is the most exciting time in politics in our lifetimes because we are witnessing the end of the two party system and the birth of a 6 party multi-party system and things will never be the same again. We are lucky that it is happening because the views of ordinary people will finally be listened to and the cosy cartel of Oxbridge graduates will no longer determine what happens in our country despite them throwing the kitchen sink at the people.

We will probably see the end of the first past the post voting system that keeps the cosy cartel in power and the emergence of a truly democratic PR system that will reflect the wishes of the people.

"Natalie Bennett: Green Party Adds 1,000 New Members a Week Because 'Two Party Politics is Clearly Dead'
...
"Two, or if we're being charitable two and a half, party politics is clearly dead. And that means, encouragingly, the first-past-the-post electoral system is on its last legs," Natalie Bennett, leader of the Green Party, told IBTimes UK."

www.ibtimes.co.uk/natalie-bennett-green-party-adds-1000-new-members-week-because-two-party-politics-clearly-1475836

politics in this country and many if the EU member countries has totally lost the plot!

It should be simple : the Govt raises taxes and spend those taxes to benefit the tax payers I.e. The UK tax payers.

Instead you have a govt that reuses taxes on its people, but turns a blind eye to non tax- paying multi nationals and gives a large chunk of the taxes collected to the EU, to Climate Control, to overseas countries that don't need our money

... While....

Telling us that the NHS dies nit enough enough money, that class sizes that class sizes cannot be reduced, the minimum wage cannot be raised to a realistic living wage etc etc.

Before we give away our hard-earned money we should ensure those that earned that money are taken care if.

But we dint. Instead we allow the EU to grudgingly hand back some if our money to us, to be didn't on hear they tell yes to spend it on. And we send lord hill to be our EU commissioner and the first thing he tells us us that his primary duty is to to the UK that sent him there, but his duty is yo the EU.

Incredible and depressing.

Which us why politics in this country needs to change.

But what we will get in May will be a Lab SNP coalition where the interests of the English will be ignored.

The Eton Cabinet can't believe their luck. While the People's Army are destroying what little vote they have left across their former Essex and Kent strongholds, the Labour Party is imploding.

"Top London Labour MP admits party HAS lost touch with core working class voters and feels 'adrift from large parts of Britain'
David Lammy said voters feel Labour's top MPs 'disapprove' of them
Said elite have no idea of working class problems caused by immigration
Added that attitude was driving voters into the arms of 'anti-politics' Ukip
Hazel Blears said there were too many Oxbridge graduates at top of party
...
'Large parts of the country feel that Labour not only disagrees with them, they think we disapprove of them too.’

He adds: ‘A sense of mutual disdain between the mainstream parties and working class England is driving voters away from politics, or towards so-called “anti-politics” parties such as Ukip.’
...
He writes: ‘By and large, modern Labour politicians come from liberal, professional backgrounds.

'They have benefited from globalisation – they mix in social circles with people who work in multinational firms, enjoy foreign travel and find diversity enriching.

‘Much of Labour’s traditional electoral base does not feel this way… Immigration becomes swept up in this story.
...
It was also claimed yesterday that Ms Thornberry walked out of a meeting of the Left-wing Fabian Society more than a year ago when a Labour politician attacked the ‘metropolitan elite who lead the party’.

She reportedly left during a speech by Lord Glasman, where he said there were ‘too many human rights lawyers and Oxbridge graduates with PPE [Politics, Philosophy and Economics] degrees at the top of the party’.

Before embarking on his career in the ‘bubble’, Mr Miliband studied PPE at Oxford. Ms Thornberry is a human rights lawyer."

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2845701/Top-London-Labour-MP-admits-party-lost-touch-core-working-class-voters-feels-adrift-large-parts-Britain.html

Journalists asked senior members of the People's Army for comment but were told they could not break off from the general revelry and celebrations that were taking place in pubs all over Essex and Kent.

'during a speech by Lord Glasman, where he said there were ‘too many human rights lawyers and Oxbridge graduates with PPE [Politics, Philosophy and Economics] degrees at the top of the party’.'

Lord Glasman sounds like the only sensible one in there. I've been saying much the same myself.

Tory MP David Davis writing in the Mail on Sunday

"We're aloof and out of touch, says senior Tory MP DAVID DAVIS, who warns: 'Stay that way, and we'll lose election'
...
"The Rochester result is not some bolt out of the blue. It is the inevitable result of the most dramatic shift in voter behaviour in our lifetimes. As it stands, 44 per cent of voters will back a different party at the General Election than in 2010. The biggest migrants are Conservatives joining Ukip, and Liberal Democrats joining Labour. But all parties are losing significant support to ‘don’t know’.

As a result, the Conservatives and Labour can no longer command even two-thirds of the electorate’s support. The sense of rejection of the establishment was put best by the victim of Emily Thornberry’s tweet when he said, ‘I’ve not voted and I’m not going to. No matter who you have in, it doesn’t matter.’

www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2845809/We-aloof-touch-says-senior-Tory-MP-DAVID-DAVIS-warns-Stay-way-ll-lose-election.html

The country's greatest political commentator and journalist, Peter Hitchens

The night a fleet of Tory snake-oil tankers sailed into Rochester... and sank

I wondered how our neutered, bootlicking, pro-Government media would manage to turn David Cameron’s devastating personal and political defeat in Rochester into a disaster for Red Ed.

Piles of money, tankers laden with snake-oil, five visits by the Prime Minister himself, even a frantic plea for Guardian readers’ votes could not save the Tories from what I reckon was the worst defeat in their entire history, losing a seat to a party that really believes in what the Tories pretend to believe in.
...
Like the former Tory MP and Cameron-boosting media figure Matthew Parris, who sneered at length about Clacton, Ms Thornberry was baffled and amazed when she actually visited modern England.

Presumably, in her smooth daily journey from her rarefied London district to her office, she has never before seen St George’s Cross flags draped on a house. The remarkable thing is that she thought such a sight was unusual and interesting enough to tweet.

But the incident is essentially trivial. Compared to the earthquake of the Rochester result, it is as weighty and significant as a seagull-dropping falling on to a politician’s greasy head.
...
The Tory Party has helped the Left for decades. It has blocked the creation of a strong pro-British parliamentary force. It has done so by pretending to love Britain when it doesn’t. Its every pose is a fake. All its principal figures are fakes as well. And they have got away with it.

For nearly eight years I have been in something close to despair at the continued willingness of patriotic British men and women to give their votes to the Conservative Party.

This weekend, for the first time, I begin to have a very faint hope that they have finally seen through the Tory fraud. Rochester has shown that a pro-British rebellion against the Tories could, if properly handled, sweep the country, elbowing Labour aside as it does so.

What I hope for is what the Establishment fear.

That is why they hope you will be distracted by the drivelling fate of a New Labour nonentity. Do not be."

www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2845812/PETER-HITCHENS-night-fleet-Tory-snake-oil-tankers-sailed-Rochester-sank.html

Woe

Wow! I have just read that Hitchens piece too Claig

How utterly revealing.

I had no idea that Peter Kellner was married to Baroness Ashdown.

I am starting to realise that there is a cross party political caste system operating in this country aided and abetted by beneficiaries such as the BBC.

Abyone who dares challenge that status quo is an Untouchable.

Applause to Hitchens for his best article ever.

'I am starting to realise that there is a cross party political caste system operating in this country aided and abetted by beneficiaries such as the BBC.'

Absolutely and they are subservient to an international political caste which is itself subservient to a business and banking and oligarch and billionaire elite who run the whole climate change scam and the push for the end of nation states and greater globalisation. There is a puppet class whose strings are pulled by global banking and business.

A band of mavericks and "fruitcakes" is taking them on and trying to restore national sovereignty and real democracy to the people and because the people have had enough, they are following the"fruitcakes" without really understanding what the battle is all about.

'Anyone who dares challenge that status quo is an Untouchable'

Yes they are called 'Little Englanders', racists and "fruitcakes" to try and shut them up. But what is remarkable is that the British people have seen through it and have not fallen for it. As Hitchens says

"This weekend, for the first time, I begin to have a very faint hope that they have finally seen through the Tory fraud. Rochester has shown that a pro-British rebellion against the Tories could, if properly handled, sweep the country, elbowing Labour aside as it does so."

"What price the new democracy? Goldman Sachs conquers Europe"

While ordinary people fret about austerity and jobs, the eurozone's corridors of power have been undergoing a remarkable transformation

The ascension of Mario Monti to the Italian prime ministership is remarkable for more reasons than it is possible to count. By replacing the scandal-surfing Silvio Berlusconi, Italy has dislodged the undislodgeable. By imposing rule by unelected technocrats, it has suspended the normal rules of democracy, and maybe democracy itself. And by putting a senior adviser at Goldman Sachs in charge of a Western nation, it has taken to new heights the political power of an investment bank that you might have thought was prohibitively politically toxic."

www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/what-price-the-new-democracy-goldman-sachs-conquers-europe-6264091.html

Some people say that the real reason Thatcher was toppled because she was standing up against Europe and bcominmg ever more Eurosceptic

"Thatcher's dramatic 1990 fall - "Stabbed in the front"
...
Only months before her exit from Downing Street, Thatcher was riding high, confident of election to a record fourth successive term. Her reforms had transformed the creaking British social structure and she stood tall as a world figure who had helped win the Cold War.

Despite political setbacks that left her trailing in some opinion polls, she was already thinking beyond the next election. "There was still much that I wanted to do," she said in her autobiography "The Downing Street Years".

Then in late October 1990 the issue of European integration, which Thatcher fiercely opposed but many in her party supported, blew up in her face, triggering a sequence of events that allowed two fellow Conservatives to bring her down.

Sir Geoffrey Howe, her mild-mannered, owlish former minister for finance and foreign affairs who believed deeply in European unity, was finally provoked to revolt by her dismissive rejection of integration at an EU summit in Rome.
...
SCENE ONE: A PACKED HOUSE OF COMMONS

As she said in her autobiography, in a chapter she pointedly titled "Men in Lifeboats", the critical blow came from Howe, then deputy prime minister, in his resignation speech to parliament on November 13.

For those of us listening in the press gallery in the packed House, the only sound apart from the portly Howe's measured speech came from intakes of breath by members amazed by the attack after his decades of deference to the steely Thatcher.

The speech was couched in courteous terms - even with some cricket analogies. But its barbed thrusts condemning Thatcher's refusal to budge on Europe sliced down on her as she sat grimly on the front bench. "Underneath the mask of composure, my emotions were turbulent," she said.

uk.reuters.com/article/2013/04/08/us-britain-thatcher-fall-idUSBRE9370IF20130408

"Returning from a European Community meeting in Rome, she gave a speech in Parliament that attacked plans from the European Commission (the Community’s executive branch) for a politically integrated Europe. “No, no, no,” she said. Her exasperated deputy prime minister, Geoffrey Howe, decided to quit. Howe, until then a Thatcher loyalist, was one of the most boring speakers the House of Commons ever produced—a former Labour minister once said that facing his criticism was like being “savaged by a dead sheep”—but his resignation statement was electrifying. It dispelled the illusion of Thatcher’s power and sparked the rebellion that brought her down.

Here’s the question Britain is still wrestling with almost 25 years later: Was Thatcher right about Europe?
...
Howe accused her of seeing “a continent that is positively teeming with ill-intentioned people, scheming, in her words, to ‘extinguish democracy,’ to ‘dissolve our national identities,’ and to lead us ‘through the back door into a federal Europe.’?” He was right: That’s what she saw. Many British voters saw the same, and still do."

www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-04-11/margaret-thatcher-britains-prime-euro-skeptic