The way to see if UKIP is actually winning is to see how wound up people in the Guardian are becoming, now that just ignoring them has not worked. So… lets see, I know… lets play the racist card! Again!
Well that message got out loud and clear last time too. And it will not make the slightest difference, because what the folks doing this think is their trump card really isn’t. Some UKIP supporters are racists, for sure. So are a great many Labour supporters (they just don’t tend to be white racists). But lots of people who are not racists will still vote UKIP for all sorts of other reasons that most of the commenters and writers at the Guardian can not even fathom, because in a very real sense they are the people UKIP supporters are going to vote against. A lot more people read the Mail than read the Guardian, and the bourgeois lefties are really no smarter than them, they just have a better wine list (or may be whine list?).
And by that measure, I have got to say I am starting to think Farage might be unstoppable. I have mixed feeling about that when I read some of the idiotic economic notions being bandied around by Farage… I can only hope it is just pandering without intent, as it may well be… but I will indeed enjoy the horrified squeals of incomprehension that are going to appear in the Guardian 😉
Well I’m voting for them. Why? they frighten the horses, as has been quite clear from the desperation of all the smear stories and calls of “Racist!” levelled against them. Do they have flakey members and candidates? You bet, but don’t the mainstream ones as well? When I look at the others… Mr Ed the marxist talking horses arse, or the Boy Clegg (the rest of you are ruled from Brussels but I’m ruled from Spain) or god help us iDave, the Potato faced putrification of principle that he is, I think… fancy another pint Nige?
I will vote UKIP for one reason only… They are the only party that promises to get us out of the fraudulent hell that is the European Union. Then when we have our country back we can start again, think again and decide for ourselves where our country should be heading. They may not win enough power to do that outright, but they will serve notice to the rest of the Westminster bubble blowers that they disregard our wishes (so called “Populism”) at their peril.
Farage came to my attention here in the antipodes a four years ago, I think after the appointment of Herman Van Rompuy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBGKoB6TjBM
That was a little gleefully over the top (especially the uncalled-for bit about Belgium), but he’s absolutely superb in things such as:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gm9q8uabTs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RjUJy7kDOM
I haven’t seen the “idiotic economic notions” mentioned by Perry. Perhaps I haven’t seen enough of Farage. But what I’ve seen I like. I think he’s got great instincts and is on the side of the angels. If he could do with slightly better advice on a few technical issues then I’m sure that is possible.
Bags being the first person to label a UKIP supporter a Ukipper!
Doesn’t the BNP get most of their support from disaffected Labour voters. After all, on economics the BNP and Labour are almost indistinguishable.
N(BtF)G, I’m a Ukipper, but to be honest I don’t see them as a governing party. I would love them to oust the odious Lib Dems and be in a position to form a coalition with the Conservative Party. The Tories really need a gadfly like Nigel to keep them honest.
Do wind farms qualify as an idiotic economic notion? Huge subsidies hurled at a “Clean” energy source that doesn’t really work, while sitting on huge reserves of natural gas.
Most definitely.
Opposing zero hour contracts also does.
Oh I dunno Perry. I work on a zero hours contract and they suck. However a ban is not the answer. The only reason they exist is because they allow employers to hire staff while dodging many of the requirements imposed on them by the government vis a vis NI, pensions etc. Zero hours workers are also useful for plugging the gaps left by diversity quote hires (e.g. part-time working mums, disabled part timers etc.). The solution to zero hours contracts is to allow the terms of employment to be an open matter for negotiation between employer and employee, without government interference. Zero hours contracts would all but disappear.
As to UKIP, weren’t there a whole bunch of LibLabCon councillors and MPs who were exposed as various sorts of criminals and/or degenerates with nary a whimper from the press? Every time some junior UKIP member farts in public, it’s front page news.
It is fair to point to the hypocrisy of the media over UKIP, given that all parties have their fair share of nutters, knaves and fools. It is worthwhile, however, to note that a reason why some folk like me are annoyed at UKIP is that it had a chance to fire a gun in favour of a more liberal (in the best sense of that word) political order, by opposing the EU Superstate, by supporting a more open economy, lower tax, etc. Instead, UKIP seems to be making anti-immigration its core, if not main, theme. So inevitably, such a party will attract racists, anti-semites, xenophobes of all stripes, etc. And yes, the MSM laps it up. But Farage, who isn’t a fool, must have been well aware of it, and aware of how vulnerable he’d be once the MSM started to unearth examples of fruitcakes in the ranks.
The libertarian movement, broadly – very broadly – has a bit of a problem. There isn’t really any political party that consistently reflects its views. Those that occasionally do seem to have several problems. In the US, the LP has had its episodes where nutters seem to be involved, and the media have a merry old time with them. In the case of Ron Paul, this is a man whose choice of associates at times was so bad that he emasculated himself. In the UK, we can see some similar issues for UKIP. It is in danger at times of sounding like BNP Version 2.0.
Annoying the Guardian is nice, but I’d prefer to push the UK in a more liberal direction overall. I am not sure that voting for UKIP is going to achieve that.
In terms of scandal, politics, the reward of failure with appropriated money and property is the scandal, the antics and crimes of those who practice it are really incidental. However there is some list of 25 Labour politicians who are convicted paedos, a Lib Dem councillor and former mayor who started a bombing campaign in his own town, Nick Clegg’s mysterious cactus incident as a youth in Germany, and a number of allegations around the Conservatives and crime (try reading their 2010 manifesto).
I agree, and they exist for all the reasons you lay out.
The bizarre thing is that neither the Guardian or the BBC (really the same university crowd) understand that it was “Lenny” Henry who was being RACIST.
It was Mr Henry who was asking for people in the entertainment industry to be judged on the COLOUR OF THEIR SKIN (“I want more black people”) rather than how good they are at their jobs.
So Mr “Lenny” Henry got a sarcastic response from the UKIP man – if you hate white people so much, emigrate to a black country.
And it is THIS that gets presented as “racist”.
“Racist” has become similar to “fascist”: it’s an all-purpose term of derision signifying nothing more than intense dislike. Desiring to keep Romanians out of England can’t possibly be “racist” since both groups are of the same race. Similarly, opposition to Islam cannot be “racist” because Moslems come in all races. By any rational definition of the word Farage is not a “racist”; he is an ardent nationalist. But while the concept of nationalism may have fallen out of favor among the elites it doesn’t (yet, anyway) carry the same emotional weight as does “racist”. This explains why the latter term (rather than the more-accurate former one) is being applied to Farage.
Incidentally, I know very little of Farage other that seeing his occasional European Parliament rants which are sometime posted here. Those are quite enjoyable, though, so undoubtedly I would be a supporter if I lived in the UK.
Outside the BBC/Guardian bubble, the term “racist” has lost its power. It used to mean the sort of person who lynched blacks, now apparently you only have to mildly disagree with the sainted Lenny Henry. The BBC/Guardian elite don’t get it yet, for them it is still the nuclear option which shuts down all debate, but most regular people have seen through their right-on bullshit.
Indeed, that is exactly the point I am making. Their ‘trump card’ really ain’t.
That’s pretty much the entire reason why i oppose mass* immigration: because without “diversity” the ruling class cannot play the race card; and, as a corollary, cannot find any excuse for censorship.
If you are talking about the idiotic notion that the Greeks and other Southerners could solve their problems by printing money, then i entirely agree. Even the Greek Socialists are smarter than that.
OTOH this is a notion that i can pin on Dan Hannan better than on Farage.
*I can hardly oppose ALL immigration since i have been an immigrant for my entire working life.
In the US though, the charge of racism still carries a lot of weight. Evidence: the Donald Sterling affair.
Isn’t racism beyond the pale?
It is such an over used accusation it has lost most of its meaning. As a result, I have heard remarks about various people like “oh he is a racist apparently, but what are his other policies?”
I think that sort of thing is actually indicative of a significant shift in the culture that the folks within the Guardian/BBC bubble will be the last to see… much in the same way people who use remarks about “climate change” to trump an argument, indicating their news reading habits are so echo-chamber oriented that they didn’t get the memo announcing “that dawg don’t hunt no more” 😉
“So Ted, I hear you’re a racist now?”
From a libertarian standpoint, there is something to look forward to in the rise of any fourth force in politics, the possible fracturing of the mainstream parties and future of coalition governments, which would give libertarian policies a chance in a deeply embedded world of conservatism and socialism.
Back in the 80’s I wondered if the left would fracture into a militant proto-communist party and a lukewarm democratic socialist party whilst Thatcher remained ensconced, but Blair eventually managed to patch up the rifts, it could still happen though. Socialists could easily break up into Christians, Greens, Commies, etc.
A highly partisan democracy leaves very little room for libertarian ideologies to take root, not just in a political sense, but the basics of small government and free market are a dream when the race is dominated by rent seekers of all sorts, having the field open to a few right minded individuals who might get power via coalition would be a start.
I tend to agree with Runcie. Whilst I do not see UKIP as an Unmitigated Good Thing, I cannot see how it is really worse than the odious existing order and in many ways it is preferable, with much potential to create opportunities for a more genuine classical liberal thread.
Gee, Paul, not many people seem to have got your joke! I liked it. Got any others?
Yes it was a good one. Almost no one knows that the Pale was the English Imperialist outpost in Ireland, just don,t blame the Normans, because that would be…., er, racist?
i thought of pale, as in fair, as in not black. Wow, a joke that almost works on so many levels!
This is indeed extraordinary. Apparently in the course of an argument with his mixed race girlfriend, which she recorded without his knowledge, he told her that he didn’t mind her sleeping with black men, so long as she didn’t bring them to his basketball games. For this, the NBA commissar apparently has the power to fine him $2.5 million, deprive him of his $1 billion franchise and ban him for life from the sport. It seems maybe the USA is doomed after all.
It is argued that the editing has been clever (I do not know the truth of this)
Mr Stirling’s defenders argue that it has been made to appear that Mr Sterling did not want black people at his games at all – rather than specific black people that his girlfriend was involved in (the argument being that she was shoving her younger lovers, who happened to black, in his face). Again I do not know if this was true or not.
However, let us assume that the media coverage is truthful – that Mr Donald Sterling is in fact a vicious racist.
He is also a long time supporter of the “National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People” (named in a time when the word “coloured” was not considered “institutionally racist”) and “liberal” (read big government) Democrats in general – donating large sums of money and so on.
Why do the media npt report “PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRAT Donald Sterling……”.
Nick wrote “Gee, Paul, not many people seem to have got your joke! I liked it. Got any others?”
I’m afraid I have literally hundreds, mostly I keep them to myself and my long suffering wife 🙂
The elections in May are for the E.U. Parliament
People who vote for pro E.U. candidates(or do not vote at all) will be assumed (by the media) to support the additional layer of government that is the E.U.
So the duty of people who oppose this additional layer of government is obvious.
I agree completely Paul, I can see absolutely no downside to voting UKIP in the EU elections and the upside is obvious.
Have you not heard the squealing of the political class as smears and ridicule seems to make no difference, has someone wasted their time making a picture of Nigel Farage as a punk rocker c. 1983 circulated on social media, saying that UKIP tried to ban the picture?
Some people are clearly not going to be happy if UKIP do well, where might it all end? They might have to find real jobs, and ruin some good businesses before they are discovered.
Some people are clearly not going to be happy if UKIP do well,
It makes me intensely happy that they are unhappy. I just watched Channel 4 news (I know I shouldn’t, it’s bad for my blood pressure, especially Jon, crappy tie, Snow) and they have tried to rubbish UKIP seven ways of sideways in the space of half an hour, and failed dismally. The scales are finally falling from the electorate’s eyes, I believe. They just will not believe the same old officially sanctioned bullshit anymore, when they can see the truth staring them in the face.
Some have argued that Sterling’s funding of the NAACP and the democrats was simply a cynical ploy to ward off charges of racism, and generally it proved sufficient (the liberal media gives a pass for Dems and supporters of NAACP) until this most recent furor which his donations and membership couldn’t ward off.
The US is doomed by its black undertow. There was a window of opportunity in the 50s and 60s where they could be kept on the straight and narrow, and if their cognitive skills were lagging behind the other ethnicities, at least cultural factors could keep them on an upwards trajectory. But that window is closed. To open it again? Impossible given the prevailing ideologies. Or maybe it may open, but not without a lot of bloodletting.
This is a chilling passage from an avowed ‘racist’ blog, http://stuffblackpeopledontlike.blogspot.sg/2014/04/even-in-america-commissar-vanishes.html
The US is doomed as a coherent entity. Portions of it will survive though, as long as their demographics and state ideologies hold up.