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Original poster

UKIP second in Eastleigh...anyone from Eastleigh care to comment?

214 replies

SequinsOfEvents · 01/03/2013 04:04

Bit tongue in cheek but wowsers! 11,000 votes! Crikey!

I am living abroad at the moment and am pleased to be! Can't come home with current political situation....how depressing

OP posts:
Original poster
SequinsOfEvents · 01/03/2013 04:09

Just noticed another thread on the Eastleigh by-election lower down, Confused possibly should have posted there...I'll join in on that one

OP posts:
claig · 01/03/2013 06:58

Sequins, please stop reading the Guardian, it's not good for you.

UKIP aren't a racist party. They are a protest party and they are likely to do very well in the May council elections.

'Can't come home with current political situation....how depressing'

What is depressing about voters who placed Labour 4th in the worst economic crisis since the 1930s? The voters of Eastleigh are ordinary people who don't want Labour and who voted UKIP as a protest against Tweedledee and Tweedledum (New Labour).

claig · 01/03/2013 06:59

It shows that the voters of Eastleigh aren't stupid.

claig · 01/03/2013 07:06

It is not good news for Cameron. The Tory voters in Eastleigh who defected to UKIP are sending a message that the Tories can't take their votes for granted. They need to start appealing to the people. I think the message will be much louder in the May local elections - maybe not up North, but definitely down South.

JakeBullet · 01/03/2013 07:10

Frankly I think it shows that people don't know who in the hell to vote for. I think Cameron is going to get his arse kicked in the local elections come May but Labour will do badly too as they are not a credible opposition. I am more appalled that so many voted LibDem who are nothing but puppets now and sold all their policies down the river to get a chance if being in Government....except they are not really.

fridayfreedom · 01/03/2013 07:12

LibDem have actually been quite good as in local govt which is why people voted for them, very little to do with National politics

claig · 01/03/2013 07:15

Agree, Jake. It would have been a far better message for UKIP to win their first seat. People are fed up with all the puppets and they want change.
Farage was just on radio and said that a poll showed that 25% of UKIP's vote in Eastleigh was from voters who had not voted in last few elections i.e. they are reengaging teh disaffected and bringing in new voters and young voters. It is a sign that democracy is alive and well and that people are fed up of the puppets and their yah-boo games.

JakeBullet · 01/03/2013 07:34

I accept that the LibDems might eell be very good locally. ....and I also think people vote differently in local elections than they might if it was going to influence a Government. ...as in who will govern parliament.

Agree with claig....people are fed up with yah boo politics.

claig · 01/03/2013 07:41

The problem is our democracy does not give us proportional representation because teh yah-booers won't give us real PR. They pretend that voters at election time vote how they really feel, whereas by-elections are not their true wishes. But at general election time, people who don't want New Labour are often forced to vote Tory just to keep New Labour out, but that doesn't mean that they really agree with the Tories, just that they disagree with New Labour.

One day, if we are lucky, we may get a real PR system that reflects the real wishes of the people, which is what democracy is all about. That is why protest votes are good for democracy, because they highlight the hypocrisy of the yah-booers who claim that they reflect the people's wishes.

nagynolonger · 01/03/2013 07:43

I always imagined UKIP voters to be the babyboomers who after a couple of drinks down the golf/cricket/rugby/football club could solve all the nations ills.

But I have been talking to my teenagers who will all vote in 2015 and at the moment UKIP seems the best option to them. I have always been a labour voter and DH a wavering tory.

I am a bit surprised by my DS views. They are a product of the times and area they grew up in and people are pissed off. They are not racist and their friends from asian backgrounds have similar views apparently.

Poorish middle England if anyone cares. Young people seem to hate the Condems......Tuition fees and EMA mainly. Kids who got EMA around here used it for bus fares not driving lessons.

Meglet · 01/03/2013 07:51

It doesn't make Eastleigh look good does it.

Mind you, I wouldn't put it past people to do the same stupid thing if we had an election in my town.

Abra1d · 01/03/2013 07:54

Is my Indian friend racist for considering voting UKIP?

claig · 01/03/2013 08:07

There have been some puppets on the radio this morning saying that the UKIP vote was an anti-politics vote. That is how they view the democratic will of the people who turned out at polling stations to make their voice heard.

It is not anti-politics, it is anti-puppet.

tiggytape · 01/03/2013 08:54

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

niceguy2 · 01/03/2013 09:17

UKIP is not a racist party. It is however anti-immigration. But that doesn't make them racist.

I'm from an ethnic minority and I agree with quite a few of their policies. Where we differ is I think leaving the EU would be a long term disaster for the UK.

Anyway, the UKIP vote has really thrown a big spanner in the works mainly for the Tories.

UKIP voters seem to be disaffected Tory voters so they are drawing votes away from the Tories. Those who hate the Tories will probably think this is a good thing except UKIP seem to be a more right wing version of the Tories so I can't see that being particularly good. It will force the Tories to be even more anti-Europe and even more right wing to try to win back their core voters.

For Labour it is also v. interesting that they've been beaten into fourth place. OK Eastleigh isn't a Labour stronghold but given the austerity over the last few years, the debacle of student loans and the fact that mid-term govt's tend to get punished. Well you'd think Labour would have done better than fourth place. It seems that when push comes to shove voters don't think Labour have anything to offer them and would rather vote for the incumbents or UKIP.

It would seem to me that the only way for all the parties to proceed now is to cool towards Europe. UKIP is pretty much a two policy party. Immigration is bad. Europe is bad.

Personally I would argue that uncontrolled immigration is bad and that on Europe, the good outweighs the bad.

MNHQ
HelenMumsnet · 01/03/2013 09:39

Morning. We're going to edit out the "you all look like total racist idiots now" bit out of this thread title.

We welcome discussion about UKIP and its anti-immigration policies but it would be unfair - and potentially libellous - to label the entire party, and everyone who has voted for them, as a racist.

tiggytape · 01/03/2013 09:46

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Alibabaandthe40nappies · 01/03/2013 09:51

There is nothing racist about voting UKIP.

We live not that far from Eastleigh and the UKIP vote is gaining ground here, and what they are saying resonates with people.

A lot of Tory voters are worried about another possible Coalition, which would be a disaster.

scaevola · 01/03/2013 09:52

I would have expected Labour to do better; it's a bad indicator on their ability to present a credible alternative agenda.

RaisinBoys · 01/03/2013 09:53

A party represented by Neil Hamilton is not a credible alternative to anything.

It's a byelection - it means just a smidge more than nothing.

Labour victory in 2015. In the meantime: Dave Cameron out & new leader in; Nick Clegg out & new leader in. Economy fails to grow & more people lose their jobs. Cameron & Osborne continue to waste precious time defending their banker mates bonuses whilst regular people get no (or below inflation) pay rise.

Are the people of Eastleigh racist? Only they know.

Callofthefishwife · 01/03/2013 09:54

Am not an Eastleigh resident but am intrigued to know what the Beer,Baccy and crumpet party policies were??

They came 7th with 23 votes beating amongst others the Elvis loves pets party!

Naranji · 01/03/2013 10:13

noone knows who to vote for. UKIP are the only party that have a very simple message that people can grasp (whether they agree or not is another matter). Labour have come out of this the absolute worst IMO. To not be able to gain ground from this awful coalition government just shows how in trouble they are. Mainly down to a terrible leader IMO.

claig · 01/03/2013 10:14

'Labour victory in 2015'

I used to think that because the Coalition is not doing a very good job, but I no longer think Labour will win. This Eastleigh result shows that many ordinary people do still not see them as a viable alternative even in these terrible economic times. But what really convinced me that Labour will not win is when I saw Jon Cruddas, their policy chief, on Newsnight recently.

He is a well-intentioned guy and Labour have some good people who say some good things, but when I saw his strategy, I knew that it was set up to fail. He said something like all of teh following: that "food banks are here to stay" and we need to find ways to work with them etc. He said he favours the Big Society, just that the Tories aren't doing it right. He saw putting public money into community organisations such as gyms as a good way of finding employment for people rather than DWP offices, because the community knew more about where jobs and work was than the staff in DWP offices.

I thought it was something out of Monty Python, but it was Labour strategy and their policy chief.

Naranji · 01/03/2013 10:20

i agree. He sounded like someone living in cloud cuckoo land. Labour are so unbelievably weak and they've lost my vote because they no longer have any intellectual big hitters and spend their entire time bleating on about how bad the coalition are. Also as a rural dweller I cant STAND Ed Miliband and his ridiculous london centric policies.

claig · 01/03/2013 10:21

Cruddas had a worker with him in a cafe, and the worker said that taxes were too high. It seemed that Cruddas didn't want to hear that, because that is what the Coalition and their voters believe. Instead he started on about the "living wage", which he and the worker knows will never be adopted by private industry without legislation. It will probably only be in the state sector and workers in the private sector will have to pay for it.

Labour's thinking is trapped in their box, they can't break from their dogma and that is why the public won't see them as the answer.