UKIP

[Dan Severn's Moustache]

It's absolutely terrifying how they're leading the European election polls.

For the non-Brits, UKIP are a right-wing party intend to pull Britain out of the EU...whilst indulging in racism, misogyny, homophobia and more "hijinks" along the way.

I'm just thankful Labour are leading the Welsh polls. Not that Labour is perfect, far from it, but they're a much lesser evil.

 

[Lee]

They always do, it's because people rarely vote in the European elections.

 

[Loveless]

They're a bunch of cocks but I'm voting for them on the basis that they'll give the other parties a much-needed kick up the arse. If this was a proper election, I wouldn't give them a 2nd thought but as it's an irrelevant European election, fuck it. Perfect for a protest vote and sending a message.

 

[Dan Severn's Moustache]

I guess the Welsh are more inclined to care about it because we get a lot of funding from the EU. The way things are looking, Labour will be getting two seats, UKIP one and either the Tories or Plaid Cymru getting the last.

This sums it up quite nicely:

 

[klunderbunker]

So they're the Tea Party of the UK?

 

[Loveless]

So they're the Tea Party of the UK?

Not that extreme. The best way to describe them is that they're the Conservatives without all the slick P.R. and media training. Basically, just another bunch of priviledged, out-of-touch cocks trying to appeal to the lower classes with populist drivel. For that reason, the racists have attached themselves to the party but the party itself is no more racist than the Conservatives.

 

[MrHashasheen]

So they're the Tea Party of the UK?

That's probably the BNP if I remember right.

 

[Danger Burger]

Was going to put up the UKIP video that was banned, but it has since been banned from Youtube. The add basically associated all muslims with terrorists and said the foreigners and the gays were stealing everyone's jobs. Pretty standard stuff, unfortunately.

 

[Gelgarin]

They did once portray the EU as a giant blue octopus attacking London in a party election broadcast - so I guess they aren't all bad.

Almost all though...

Everyone should vote for Nick Clegg. Seriously.

 

[Dan Severn's Moustache]

That's probably the BNP if I remember right.

Except they're more discreet than the BNP which makes them more dangerous.

They did once portray the EU as a giant blue octopus attacking London in a party election broadcast - so I guess they aren't all bad.

Almost all though...

Everyone should vote for Nick Clegg. Seriously.

Clegg isn't going to be winning any elections any time soon, which is a shame, as I don't mind the Lib Dems.

 

[Uncle Sam]

Their policies aren't massively racist, a good portion of their candidates and members are.

 

[Mr. Book This Section]

Nothing wrong with the UKIP. It's the Conservatives that we need to make sure don't get back into power.

 

[Dan Severn's Moustache]

Nothing wrong with the UKIP. It's the Conservatives that we need to make sure don't get back into power.

UKIP are basically Tories, but perhaps even worse.

 

[Miko]

Having a differing opinion on matters, especially when those things include non-English people, is a dangerous thing, you get the full blown "you're racist" brigade who think that because someone points out that the state of the coastal towns has detoriated since the Eastern Europeans took over, they're racist, or they're anti open door policy because immigrants flood building sites in particular and keep wages down for everybody, they're racist.

Then you get the ***** on the other end. I don't vote for this reason, I am too stupid. And probably racist.

 

[FitFinlay4Life]

UKIP won't have a chance over here - we still put bigoted voting ahead of racist voting

 

[Dirk]

Good luck, bro. Julius Malema's EFF (a leftist version of what you're describing) is the third most popular party and this was their third year. We had our election on Wednesday.

 

[Lee]

Everyone should vote for Nick Clegg. Seriously.

I'm not in Clegg's constituency so can't vote for Clegg.

 

[Loveless]

Clegg isn't going to be winning any elections any time soon, which is a shame, as I don't mind the Lib Dems.

He stabbed his voters in the back when he sided with the devil. I'm looking forward to his upcoming humiliation next year.

 

[Gelgarin]

What exactly was he supposed to do? Shut down the government?

 

[Dan Severn's Moustache]

He stabbed his voters in the back when he sided with the devil. I'm looking forward to his upcoming humiliation next year.

Had Clegg not made that cretinous move, the Lib Dems could have had a major opening in this general election to rule alone.

Incidentally, is it just me, or would the Green Party be a million times better if they moved their environmental message as a sub-point of the party instead of the focus? They're left libertarian, which appeals to a large portion of the population and a lot of their policies are great.

 

[Loveless]

What exactly was he supposed to do? Shut down the government?

How about stick to your principles? No-one who voted Liberal wanted the Conservatives. Clegg had the option to put together a coalition with Labour and the Greens or let the Conservatives govern as a minority but instead he chose to side with the enemy.

 

[Loveless]

Incidentally, is it just me, or would the Green Party be a million times better if they moved their environmental message as a sub-point of the party instead of the focus? They're left libertarian, which appeals to a large portion of the population and a lot of their policies are great.

They would indeed but it really speaks to their lack of ambition that they'd rather play the hard-line, be a single issue party and maintain their small voter base than actually try to play the game properly and ostracise the hardcore.
I'd like to believe that they could actually do what UKIP have done and establish themselves properly but I can't ever see it happening in this country. The British "bulldog breed" mentality is far too deep to ever consider voting for the "hippy carrot munchers".

 

[Gelgarin]

Nobody who voted liberal wanted the Conservatives, but the biggest chunk of the voting population did. Insofar as FPTP affords anyone a mandate, the Tories had one. I for one am not wild about a state of affairs where the most popular party in the country is shut out of government by an opposition coalition with no democratic mandate.

Not that this was an option in the first place. A coalition between the liberals and the wildly unpopular Labor party (at its lowest national approval rate since the winter of discontent) would have had a majority of only eight seats in parliament. A coalition cannot govern during a financial meltdown with such a wafer thin majority even if it has its shit together - which Labor in its identity crisis and the Liberals with their tendency towards individualism would not have had.

Clegg had approximately three options. Join with Labor in an incredibly unpopular coalition that would be unable to govern. Remain isolated and trigger a secondary general election in which the liberal party would be all but eviscerated by the necessity of FPTP. Or join with the majority party in an incredibly unpopular coalition that would be able to govern relatively efficiently and actually achieve some key liberal goals.

The coalition government is 5/6 Tory, so of course it most closely resembles the conservative party - but over the part few years we've had a number of liberal policies that we categorically would not have got had Clegg made any other choice on election day. We would not have got an AV referendum. We would not have got the biggest elevation of the income tax threshold in national history (remember that Labor were trying to move it in the other direction before the election) which is probably the biggest socialist economic advance of our generation. We would not have seen Trident punted far enough into the long grass that we might actually have a chance against it the next time its on the table.

Over 10,000,000 people voted Tory, and it's their fault that we got lumped with a conservative government full of shits. Not Nick Cleggs. I voted Liberal and I got my money's worth out of it.

 

[Dan Severn's Moustache]

They would indeed but it really speaks to their lack of ambition that they'd rather play the hard-line, be a single issue party and maintain their small voter base than actually try to play the game properly and ostracise the hardcore.
I'd like to believe that they could actually do what UKIP have done and establish themselves properly but I can't ever see it happening in this country. The British "bulldog breed" mentality is far too deep to ever consider voting for the "hippy carrot munchers".

I'm kind of surprised that no-one has seized the opportunity to appeal to the left libertarian chunk of the population. The Green Party and the SDLP (Northern Ireland only) are the only two British parties of any significance that fall under it.
Obviously the SDLP can't do too much to change things, much like SNP and Plaid Cymru and the Greens are written off as jokes.

 

[Gelgarin]

It's an old political cliche that liberals can't cooperate - possibly on account of not being sufficiently evil (also nobody gives them money, but it's mostly the evil thing). It's not that nobody has tried to appeal to the left, there are usually more leftist parties on any given ballet than there are right wingers - but they don't band together like the right historically has.

Say what you will about the Tories, but they've got an incredibly diverse spectrum of interests, from lunatic Eurosceptics to Neocons. The Tories are famous for their infighting because they're a collection of different groups who have banded together for the sake of pragmatism.

The most sensible thing for the Liberals/Greens to do if they were serious about strengthening the left in the UK would probably be to join the Labor party.