I agree with everything KEMP has said I would never bring myself to vote for any left of centre party so UKIP is my natural choice as a protest viote! My vote has only been loaned to UKIP as I will be voting for the Conservatives again next year! My only fear is that there will be a split in the right wing vote allowing Milliband in by default! That is a nightmare scenario so I hope that many other voters will return back to the Tory fold next year. The Conservatives are the only party offering the electorate an in/out referendum and by god Cameron had better deliver it!
That's the thing Warky, no one trusts the main political parties to deliver on their manifesto promises anymore.
I used to be a Tory activist a foot soldier knocking on doors and delivering leaflets etc but I left the party soon after the 2010 general election! Cameron is not one of us! Labour were the most unpopular government in living memory and yet Cameron still couldn't win an out right majority!
Cannot agree with that Warky - For all Labours wasted opportunities after getting in, by 1997 nobody wanted another 5 years of the tories. John Major's term of office has to be the most unpopular government in living history, as proved by the landslide majority returned for Blair.
Living in Norwich I do not feel the need to vote UKIP. If I lived in other parts of the country, I may be a little more willing. I like foreign people coming over to live, its a good thing. What I don't like is mass communities being developed, it doesn't help us or them. I'm far more interested in a party that wants to eradicate religion and certainly religious education in this country, thats one thing I do agree with the French.
Labour got in with something like 35% of a 65% turnout in 2005. Even fewer voted for Cameron last time. The only people who seem to count come election time are floating voters in marginals. No wonder some people feel disenfranchised from the political process.
As for the thread at hand it does raise some really interesting issues in the political landscape and perceptions that people have. I have always had an interest in politics (it formed half of my degree!) and realised that the more I learned about the intricacies of political life the more disillusioned I became with ALL of the parties. I am not surprised by UKIPs surge of popularity because that is exactly what they represent - a populist idea. Scratch beneath the surface and their policies are ill thought out and pretty non-existent but that does not stop people from feeling they need to make a statement about how they are feeling ill treated, forgotten about and generally worse off - who do they vote for if they feel like this? Conservatives... they represent the elite in society - can hardly say they care for the people at the bottom. Labour... they ****ed things up royally when they had the chance and people haven't forgot that. Liberals... they compromised their principles to get a taste of power and that pissed off many of their voters from the last election... For all Farrage's spiel, he does know how to connect to his target audience and this cannot be understated. However, under a first past the post system it will be incredibly difficult for him to win enough seats at a general election - but who knows! I for one am pleased that it has at least given the main parties a good kicking.
Put into context that the Tories had been in power for 18 years the electorate was crying out for a change! For all the faults at least the Tories didn't leave the country in the bloody great mess that the last Labour government had done! It has always been the case that the Tories have to come in and clear up the economic mess left by a Labour government! There will be many more difficult economic decisions that will need to be taken after the election in order to reduce public spending and the structural deficit. I don't seriously believe that Labour will be up to the job of making these tough decisions! They have already committed millions on new spending but they haven't yet said where they will make these cuts! They don't have much to say on the economy full stop! Elections are won and list on the economy as Clinton once said "it's the Economy stupid!" Now that we are on the path of economic recovery I just hope that this will result in a Tory victory next year! The alternative is too hellish to contemplate!
Not sure about this, whilst I'm all for a more secular country, whilst religion exists it makes sense to educate people about them. If people don't understand something then it breeds distrust and fear, which serves to separate communities rather than bring them together. The GCSE syllabus I was taught was useless for this though, it focussed on Christianity for two years, rather than giving a broad understanding of all the significant religions present in the UK. Religious Education needs reform, but I don't think we can quite eradicate it just yet. Is your full stop key broken!
As I pointed out earlier, I did a joint politics degree so I don't need a sermon from you to try to justify your political stance. We all know Labour f**ked up the finances during their term of office but enough people still remembered what a ****heap the tories were in their 18 years of power meaning Cameron couldn't even form his own government. To be fair, you also reinforced the point I made which was that John Major's government was the most unpopular in living memory. As Kent says above Cameron's position is based on a turnout less than in 1997, polling 3 milllion less votes than than the Labour party in 1997. Spin it how you want Warky but facts are facts. John Major's government was the most unpopular in living memory
You will also know that John Major polled a million more votes in 1992 than Blair managed in his landslide of 1997 but Major only managed to secure an overall majority if 21 seats! The electoral boundaries as they are gives Labour a built in majority of 30 seats due to the boundaries. It takes far more votes to elect a Conservative MP then it does a Labour MP! Thanks to Nick Clegg reneging on the deal to redraw the election boundaries this could decide the next election. It will also be interesting next year if the Scots gain independence Labour will still be able to have their Scottish MPs majority in Westminster even though they would be from a foreign country!
Are you rounding figures up Warky? Major polled 600,000 more votes in 1992 than Blair did in 1997, yet Labour got over 2 million more votes coming second in 1992 than the tories of 1997. In fact the tory vote drop by over 4.5 million from 92 to 97. Now I would say that was disillusionment with Major's government rather than just disillusionment with politics in general which is what we are now facing.
When I say religious education I mean Faith schools, historical religious education is interesting, telling people (particularly kids) that God exists is not.
Sorry that is utter bollocks. Illegal war, unpopular yes, stupid Gordon Brown unpopular yes. 45,000 new nurses and Dr's (all now gone under tory cuts) unpopular? Setup tax credit system, unpopular? Yes they did some stupid stuff but hindsight is a wonderful thing and the banking collapse was not directly their fault (unless the fragile sub prime mortgage market in the US was their fault?) Depends on your pov if your wealthy or relatively wealthy then you're probably very happy right now. If you're on low pay or a benefit recipient then probably not. If you need the NHS then probably not. As for ukip: Tax policy of 31% over £11,500 for all Privatise the nhs Deny the vote to the sick, disabled and unemployed Immigration policy would decimate farming Cut state spending to 97 levels (despite inflation) 4 new nuclear subs with nukes Allow people to opt out of NHS Build more coal fired power stations Loss of 2 MILLION civil service jobs Whilst we're at it, do you want to vote for a party where people believe and spout: Abnormal pregnancies should be FORCIBLY terminated Make reference to someone being "a black ****" Links to despicable right wing extreme groups like True Finns SGP Lega Nord They bang on about deporting people yet actively oppose the European arrest warrant They are anti eu so they get seats and then fail represent us properly. As a protest vote it's utterly ****ing stupid. If they ever got power we'd descend in nazi-ism very quickly
yep. unless you truly believe in what ukip want (which is a worry in itself), voting for them as a protest is stupid but maybe i'm not that surprised how many stupid people we have in this country...
