Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

Aha....a voter...you're bagged !...

Ukip's angry, left-behind voters are not going away

Nigel Farage draws his support from financially struggling white people who have completely lost faith in the political system. They're anxious about the future, angry about inequality, and they will still be here after May 7



By Matthew Goodwin

12:13PM GMT 26 Mar 2015





Ukip has achieved remarkable things. Last year, at the European Parliament elections, Nigel Farage and his party became the first new movement to win a nationwide election for almost one hundred years, taking more than twenty seats in the European Parliament. It has more than three hundred local councillors and for much of the past year has been averaging around 15 per cent in the opinion polls — ahead of the Liberal Democrats.


Now, Farage and his party face the ultimate test — trying to win a handful of seats in the House of Commons. The results, and their broader impact, will tell us a lot about the power of this revolt but even if Ukip fail to live up to expectations there are good reasons to expect that its underlying support will remain firmly in place.



Ukip is not benefitting simply from things that have happened since 2010; its rise is a symptom of deep social and value divides in Britain. At a recent debate in Westminster the columnist Matthew Parris said that he had never before seen such a consensus in British politics — that when you boil down the arguments of the main parties there is actually little disagreement about the big questions. There is in modern Britain, he said, no big clash.


But what Parris and others overlook is that there is a big clash in our society, and it is over values. This is reflected in new research released today by the British Social Attitudes survey which tells a story consistent with that presented by myself and Rob Ford in Revolt on the Right. It paints a picture of a group of voters who feel economically left behind, politically cut adrift from Westminster, and intensely anxious about the direction of Britain.


The findings confirm that Farage and his party are being driven by supporters who share a very distinct social profile and are driven by clear set of motives. Support is more than twice as high among people aged over 55 years old than it is among those under 35, and is twice as high among those in working-class occupations as it is among those in salaried managerial and professional positions (though there is also support for Ukip among small employers and the self-employed). Those who identify themselves as English, who have not been to university and are white are the most likely to endorse Farage (less than half a per cent of people who describe themselves as black or Asian support Ukip). And when it comes to motives, these are voters who are intensely anxious about Britain's relationship with Europe and immigration.


That is not all. These left-behind voters are more likely than others to say that they are struggling financially, and to worry about inequality. As we previously argued in Revolt on the Right, when it comes to their outlook toward economic issues Ukip voters are not tribal Tories. On the contrary, they are often closer on economic questions to Labour voters than to Conservatives— and this is why Lynton Crosby and David Cameron are having such difficulty winning them back.

These are voters who neither feel the recovery nor expect to feel it in the future. They do not share Cameron's economic outlook and they loathe the values that are reflected back at them in Britain's media and political class. Large majorities of Ukip supporters think that there is one law for the rich and another for the poor, that ordinary people are not getting their fair share of the nation's wealth, that managers try to take advantage of employees, that big business benefits owners at the expense of workers.


There is a more significant difference on the idea of redistribution of income, although still 40 per cent of Ukip voters think that government should redistribute income (compared to 52 per cent of Labour supporters and 22 per cent of Tories). These voters might prefer to see a Conservative rather than a Labour government. But when Ed Miliband talks about tackling inequality, getting tough on bankers and energy suppliers, and making society fairer, most Ukip voters will agree. A reasonable implication of this is that they remain hostile to the Conservatives for the same reason that many voters are — they simply do not believe that the Tories are on their side.

Moreover, they will remain receptive to a radical outsider long after May 7. These are voters who feel completely disconnected from our mainstream politics; some 79 per cent think that the government does not care much about what they think, compared to 53 per cent among all respondents. They are also among the least likely to trust politicians and, when asked how democracy works in the country, to give the lowest score (even lower than those who do not support any party).

"In short," notes the report, "Ukip supporters appear to be well and truly 'fed up' with the way their country is run". This strongly felt sense of abandonment and alienation is unlikely to disappear on May 8 — whatever happens in Thanet South.


More:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/general-election-2015/politics-blog/11496607/Ukips-angry-left-behind-voters-are-not-going-away.html

Calling all you right wing miserable moaners and groaners on here, I've found just the club for you.

http://glenaftonfc.com/2013/09/30/moaners-and-groaners-club/

my dad's bigger than yours!
even though election fatigue has already started to creep in, it's hard not to notice the usually pie throwing antics of the two main party leaders


EM says
we'll stop any private contractor for NHS making more than 5% profit on those contracts

only thing wrong with that, is that even a quick glance at the outline sketched shows that it is full of holes and exceptions ...... above all, were it to be rigidly enforced, many companies would find it uneconomic even to tender
in conclusion .... another load of political bollocks to con some of the electorate



DC says
we'll ensure that we have a 7-day 24/7 NHS, blah blah blah

in effect we already have that, for if you get knocked down by a bus or have a heart attack, the hospital will still take you in and treat you, and there'll be consultants and surgeons on hand to do the necessary
without being too cynical (moi?), you'll almost certainly be triaged and dealt with well within an hour or two .... and yes, i also know of cases where that has not happened as it should
in conclusion .... another load of political bollocks to con some of the electorate

Have you applied yet Alf -):

good morning stan .... applied for what?

I refere you to post 58097, what else -):

i'm very happy for the irish to remain in ireland without my help, though i'm sure MrT would set up a fund to shift more of them back them

mind you, i'ld be happy to see the back of the travelling bands of crooks-in-caravans, many if not most of whom seem to hail from that side of the water

If you can take a bit of time out and stop whinging, here's something you can make for your own or next door's dog. It's a bit 'bangy' so would be best for 'outside' but it should keep it amused for hours:

If there is any political group that moans incessantly, it is the left. That includes the Greens as well.

i wouldn't mind a young lovely rather than a dog who was a bit bangy outside!

Haystack Send an email to Haystack View Haystack's profile - 28 Mar 2015 10:07 - 58104 of 58105

"If there is any political group that moans incessantly, it is the left. That includes the Greens as well."

==-=-=-=-=-=


Somebody seems guilty of projection!


It is not us Guv, it's them over there!

Congratulation is due to David Cameron, Osborne and Crew!

Before there is another loss of reality!





----=-=-==-=

Food banks are better then Labour's soap kitchen's , why don't they shop at poundland ? my local Co op sell's still fresh food after 3pm , sandwich's priced£2.75 for 49 p , bread for 39p for a large [l]oaf [ Stan ],

Nice to see Labour MP's in tune with the electorate, Ben Bradshaw quoted in the MOS '' You want to know what austerity Britain looks like? It's being forced to drink Prosecco instead of Champagne. These are tough times.''
2517

it was also good to see that KFC have now started to pass on their only just cooked but more than 15 minutes ago to their local foodbanks and similar .... and before you ask, they chill it off!

why don't supermarkets make an effort to do so?
because they're afraid of being sued if they pass on food that is beyond the stupid and very arbitrary sell-by date
i had a first hand experience of that with some ground coffee that had only just been delivered but had clearly just been mislabelled!

The horror, the horror



Sturgeon Is On Course To Be A Kingmaker

The SNP leader delivers a tough message to Ed Miliband about the price she will demand for keeping the Tories out of power.





Jon Craig

Chief Political Correspondent

17:43, UK,
Saturday 28 March 2015


She may be only 5ft 2in, but Nicola Sturgeon packs a powerful political punch.


In a blockbuster of a speech to a conference packed with 3,000 SNP activists, she delivered a tough message to Ed Miliband about the price she will demand for keeping David Cameron out of 10 Downing Street.

Scotland's new First Minister's demands include an end to austerity spending cuts, scrapping "the obscene status symbol of Trident", abolition of the House of Lords and reform of the voting system.

And with her party surging ahead in opinion polls, she issued a chilling warning to Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats that there will be no "no-go" areas in Scotland for the SNP on 7 May: all 59 seats are up for grabs.

"No constituency is off limits for the SNP in this election; we will fight for every vote and every seat," she declared in a 45-minute speech that was constantly interrupted by cheers and applause and earned her a six-and-a-half minute standing ovation at the end.



More: http://news.sky.com/story/1454601/sturgeon-is-on-course-to-be-a-kingmaker

We should have got rid of the Scots while we had the chance.

Thankyou Nicola, the best lady to come along since Maggie Thatcher. Death Knell for Labour in Scotland. The biggest incentive in England for anyone with half a brain to avoid voting Labour. LOL!!!!

George Osborne: Life would be hell under Ed Miliband
The Chancellor ridicules the Labour leader’s attempt to position himself as a statesman who is 'tough enough' to represent Britain

By Matthew Holehouse, Political Correspondent6:00PM GMT 28 Mar 2015
George Osborne led an intensely personal Tory assault on Ed Miliband’s fitness to lead Britain, saying life would be “hell” under his premiership.
The Chancellor used the launch of the Conservatives’ election campaign to ridicule the Labour leader’s attempt to position himself as a statesman who is “tough enough” to represent Britain on the world stage.
In a three-pronged attack, Grant Shapps, the Tory chairman, said Ed Miliband is the least prepared Labour leader since Neil Kinnock, while David Cameron said voters must question whether he is strong enough to handle “make or break calls in the middle of the night.”


Mr Cameron asked voters to give him five more years to “finish the job” and said that the “sunlit uplands” are now “in sight” as the economy recovers.
He said the Tories are the only party that care about would-be home owners, retirees and apprentices, adopting a new refrain: “We are with you.”

Addressing party members in Manchester, Mr Osborne ridiculed Mr Miliband’s boasts during Thursday’s leaders’ interviews that he had defied President Obama over airstrikes on Syria with the words: “Hell, yes, I’m tough enough.”
Mr Osborne said: “I was listening to Ed Miliband, with all that legendary statesmanship of his, saying: ‘Hell, yeah, I’ll be a leader!’”
“I’ll tell you where that leads. A return to rising unemployment. A returning to rising debts. A return to economic chaos. Hell? Yes, indeed,” he said.
Grant Shapps said a Labour government would produce a “Britain diminished.”
“This is not a nightmare scenario, because you wake up from a nightmare. This would be a five year sentence. Day after day, it would get worse and worse.”

Mr Cameron, introduced by Mr Obsorne as a “patriot and a leader”, devoted much of his half-hour speech to painting Mr Miliband as a “hypocrite” incapable of “facing down our enemies abroad” .
He denounced the Labour front bench as “Hampstead socialists” who “sneer” at the aspirations of working families and who had betrayed the legacy of Clement Attlee, Harold Wilson and John Smith.
Mr Miliband’s wife, Justine, has spoken of fears of a “nasty” and “brutal” Tory campaign on his character.


But Mr Cameron insisted that in a “high stakes, high risk” election, criticism of Mr Miliband is entirely justified.
“I know what this role needs – and frankly, I don’t think Ed Miliband has it,” Mr Cameron said.
“Some might say ‘don’t make this personal’, but when it comes to who’s Prime Minister, the personal is national.
“The guy who forgot to mention the deficit could be the one in charge of our whole economy.
“The man who is too weak to stand up to the trade unions at home could be the one facing down our enemies abroad.
“The leader who thinks leadership is climbing aboard the latest bandwagon – he could be the one taking the make-or-break calls in the middle of the night,” he said.
The remarks are reminiscent of Hillary Clinton’s famous advert in her 2008 campaign against Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination.
It asked Americans who they wanted “answering the phone” in the White House at 3am during a crisis.


n a pitch to lower-middle class families, Mr Cameron said the Tories’ economic plans are not “dry and dusty words on a page” but would “make a difference to people’s lives”.
“We’re saying to the young couple who are saving each month – we are with you.
“To the teenager who wants an apprenticeship – we are with you. To the pensioner who put money aside for decades – we are with you.
“This is the point, the purpose, the whole reason for the Conservative party."
By contrast, he said, the Labour Party had lost sight of its founding purpose.
He said: “What is Labour’s message? Who are they with? What are they for?
“What is the point of them? To be honest, it's increasingly hard to tell.
“They're not the party of Clement Attlee, who built the NHS. They’re the party that wants to ‘weaponise’ the NHS.
“They’re not the party of Wilson and his ‘white heat of technology’. They’re the party with not a single idea about Britain’s industrial future.
“Just last week they were threatening to rip up the plans for high speed rail between Manchester and Birmingham. What’s more, they don’t have a single good thing to say about wealth creators. In fact – the party that cannot remember the name of a single businessman.
“They’re not even the party of John Smith either – who believed so passionately in the dignity of work. They’re the party who have opposed everything we have done to get nearly a million people off welfare and into a better life.
“No longer the Labour party but the welfare party, the party whose shining city on a hill, whose new Jerusalem is a load of dead-end lives and poverty handed down through the generations. “What a betrayal of everything that party once stood for.
He continued: “There must be Labour supporters up and down this country who work hard, pay their taxes, see the abuse of the welfare system and Labour’s defence of it and think: ‘how did it come to this?’”
The Tories are the “party of the hardworking low paid once more,” he said.
Labour’s opposition to Right to Buy and tax cuts shows it is the “about telling you what to do - the same old condescending, bossy, interfering, we-know-best attitude of the Hampstead socialist down the ages.”
He said: “This isn’t the party of working people. It’s the same old party of hypocrisy, the party of two faces, the party of two Jags, and now – yes – the party of two kitchens.”
In a rare breach of the slick presentation that characterises Conservative events, Mr Cameron was heckled by a party member of 35 years who was angered by the scant mention of Europe and immigration in the speech.
Mike Howson, 59, from Staffordshire Morelands, shouted that Mr Cameron had “betrayed the country” by failing to cut immigration. He voted Ukip at the last election.