DEM not gonna CON dis NATION: Rolling UK politics in the short-lived post-Murdoch era

^ was wondering same

Also, while we're here, re: Miliband: what kind of tosser makes a photocall out of offering a Jewish* guy a BACON SANDWICH?

*Seriously, unless the Jewish guy at the photocall is Jay PORK PORK PORK Rayner, NAGL.

Buying an ex-council property contrary to party policy, having been advised beforehand that it was coming up for sale. "I never saw that email." Making comments on social medi about how couldn't afford a flight to NYC (having since clarified he would be staying with the friend) while earning roughly double the minimum wage.

Personally I don't think either of them are that big a deal but both of them would be cause célèbre criticisms if they happened to one of the big parties - Geoff Hoon "didn't see that email" and was sacked, having been ridiculed as a minister not in control of the department. Michael Fabricant was sacked (he claims) for his twitter comments on Maria Miller leaving. So I guess I just want the same standards to be applied across the board.

Also part of the Bristol ire is that he's seen as the lapdog to Bristol's Eco-fascist (and I use the word fascist advisedly) Mayor George Ferguson and always votes with him even if he's the only one (such as the expansion of residents parking schemes, voted down 20-2 but still going ahead because the mayor and assistant mayor are in favour).

Not seen a single thing abt it in my Bristol-based FB tbf
Seems like a problem with one individual rather than party-wide problem

Greens made two gains in Bristol

(and one UKIP :( )

Entirely possible it's one individual, on the other hand the party has done nothing about the individual (which is the standard we'd expect elsewhere).

Thanks for the explanation, Aldo, I do appreciate it, and I do understand where you're coming from a lot better now. Sorry for doubting your intentions; ILX has made me over cautious.

When it comes down to choosing who to vote for, things like "used to be soft on homeopathy" is a little lower on my list of priorities than things like, y'know, promised the moon and just ended up propping up the Tories. Or, come to think of it "invaded 2 countries illegally without UN support" is quite far up there, too! And although I cannot show anyone the bit on the Green manifesto that directly says "homeopathy is actually bunkum, sorry about that" - until someone can show me the bit on the Labour manifesto that directly says "won't invade any more countries!" they're not getting my vote again.

I don't know that Greens are ever going to have any national power. But I do believe that they are capable of doing good work locally. Already our Labour MP (Chuka Umunna, I think he is one of the good 'uns) has been tweeting about working with our new Green councillor. I know Scott, I know he has a ton of great ideas and he's the kind of guy that will make them happen. I think that the good we can hope to accomplish is on the local level, as well as in terms of grass roots Greens tugging Labour leftward.

obviously as/if they grow, the greens will lose the promising glow of a party uncorrupted by power, & at the same time probably learn to get better at dealing w/ emerging scandals &c. I'm not sure how I feel about the somewhat conservative/static utopia they are gesturing towards, but for now at least, they seem like a worthwhile developing project & the best repository for the sort of broadly left-wing idealism I'm interested in

Also part of the Bristol ire is that he's seen as the lapdog to Bristol's Eco-fascist (and I use the word fascist advisedly) Mayor George Ferguson and always votes with him even if he's the only one (such as the expansion of residents parking schemes, voted down 20-2 but still going ahead because the mayor and assistant mayor are in favour).

i work in bristol.
and this hits home.
the stories i have heard in the office re the complete refusal to listen to local residents re his introductions of the parking schemes beggars belief.

The picture given seems to be that there was a lot of resistance to the current RPZs and now residents are all 'actually they're pretty good' (no idea if that's actually accurate, seems better where I am but that's not to say it should be a blanket move) so I guess they're taking that and running with it. Can't believe they can actually do that, though

He actually appeared on tv saying democracy had no part to play I his plans to make Bristol car-free. (C4 9pm documentary piece on Bristol's traffic chaos, can't remember the title. Although that reached new heights last week where a man got a ticket for getting out of his car to read the parking sign.)

This one?

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-cctv-traffic-wardens-caught-on-camera/episode-guide

Thought that was a one-off. The one I watched showed mainly cretinous drivers iirc. Would like to discuss Smooth Move Ferguson but not sure this is the thread...

That's the one. I agree there were some poor drivers in it, but the sheer volume of tickets issued in the short stretch I used to live just off was utterly ridiculous.

UKIP think they're on course to get the largest share of the vote in the Euro election - have topped poll in Hull, Doncaster and a bunch of other Labour-aligned places as well as Conservative strongholds. Tories are talking about an in / out Euro referendum in 2017.

UKIP got 5x more votes than Lib Dems in Yorkshire, 6x as many in East Midlands. They've absolutely collapsed.

Behind Greens in both, too.

is this quote legit?

Asked whether the people had rejected his party’s racist policies, [Nick Griffin] said: “They’ve voted for Ukip’s racist policies instead.”

According to The Guardian, yep.

burn

nick griffin doesn't need to say anything else, ever. can that be his epitaph please

Europeans Party 595 0.00 (0.00) 0 0

in seara asta, prietenii mei, suntem cu toții Bosko Balaban

LibDems appear to be about to descend into open warfare. It occurred to me the other day that Miliband could conceivably be the only main party leader to go into the next election. The knives seem to be out for Clegg, and if Scotland votes Yes then it will look like an enormous blunder on Cameron's part, and the anger from the press and from his own benches will be so intense that I can't see him surviving.

Scotland won't vote Yes.

Selfishly I hope they won't because its buh-bye anything other than a Tory victory in the UK for the foreseeable, right?

Not necessarily

UKIP got 5x more votes than Lib Dems in Yorkshire, 6x as many in East Midlands. They've absolutely collapsed.

What's actually happening here though - and in other Labour voting areas? I doubt the Lib Dem vote has gone over en masse to UKIP, I suspect what's happened is that it's gone (more or less) en masse to Labour and that, in turn, the Labour Party has somehow managed to lose a shitload of its core vote to UKIP, doh!

Alternatively, a lot of Lib Dem voters didn't bother showing up, i guess. I suspect that Labour would have lost a fair amount to UKIP, though.

A lot of people just didn't vote. I would guess that the vast majority of the UKIP-inclined took the opportunity to vote on Thursday (if they aren't going to vote then, when would they?), but turnout will be 20 percentage points higher in the general election and UKIP won't be picking up any more votes (if anything they'll probably lose some protest voters back to the Tories).

haven't poked around into the yougov figures quoted here, but they reckon 15% of Ukip voters were 2010 Lab, 14% 2010 Lib.

This was worth a read the other day: http://anotherangryvoice.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/local-election-results-2014-aav.html
(seems to have been written before the Euro results came out)

this is a perspective http://ramblingsofapr.com/2014/05/26/farage-victory-mirage-ukip-2014/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/2014/newsspec_7595/content/english/img/map_ukip.gif

reckon london should peel off and join scotland

Like West Berlin? Would the Scots have to airlift vital supplies to us?

*Scans perimeter wall for parcels from the Tunnocks factory*

If you could get me some tablet and some square sausage I would be well pleased.

no you continue to eat jellied eels ONLY

TABLET!

no you continue to eat jellied eels ONLY

― conrad, Wednesday, May 28, 2014 5:09 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

:((((

Looking forward to the London airlift.

Obama can say "Ich bin ein Berliner 'ere mate, I'm a Londoner"

"I am a blood sausage"

Saveloy

If Obama came over and went "I'm from Essex! IN CASE YOU COULDN'T TELLL!!"

Blood Sausage Party.

"Mr Farage, tear down this wall"

Steady on! (X-post)

this reductive exoticising has rather put a dampener on a calondonian union goodnight