UKIP poster boy is a racist immigrant, film at 11

[crazy canuck]

There's yellow, but who would vote for a yellow party? Think of the pee jokes

Back in the 80s a political party was started called the Pacific Party which was meant to attract the right wing vote from the Social Credit Party which was falling apart.  It only lasted a few weeks however after people figured out that being known as the PPs wasnt such a bright idea after all.

But if that party had survived yellow would have been the perfect colour for them.

[Agelastus]

Last couple of polls have Ukip in the lead for the Euro elections, up to 38% in the latest poll.

I'm surprised and shocked that a bunch of Oxbridge educated journalists and MPs shouting 'racist' at them hasn't worked.

[mongers]

Just a tool for the electorate to bash the established three parties with; if they gave them some engaging policies, UKIP would wither in pretty short order.

[Sheilbh]

Thought this was interesting:

Farage attacks backfire on Labour and Tories
Attacks have confirmed Ukip leader as anti-establishment candidate, according to telephone polling and focus groups

Patrick Wintour, Rowena Mason and Nicholas Watt
The Guardian, Wednesday 21 May 2014
Jump to comments (953)

Labour and Conservative polling is showing that attacks claiming Nigel Farage is a racist have backfired since voters do not regard him as such and see the assaults as a sign members of the political establishment are ganging up to undermine him.

The apparent backlash is coming to both parties from telephone polling and focus groups, which say that the attacks have raised Farage's profile and confirmed him as the anti-establishment candidate. It does not tally with published opinion polls that show the Ukip lead in the European elections narrowing slightly.

One source said: "Calling people names does not work. It confirms the old politics."

The findings on the penultimate day of campaigning before Thursday's European and local elections are especially acute for the Labour party, which has been locked in an internal battle about how aggressively to attack Farage. Ed Miliband has studiously not called him a racist and tried instead to offer policy solutions to the issues driving the Ukip vote. Other strategists within the party are arguing that only a more direct attack will bear fruit with traditional Labour voters.

The row over whether Ukip is racist spilled into the streets on Tuesday when Farage failed to attend his own mini-street carnival in Croydon, south London, after it descended into bitter rows and one of his local candidates, Winston McKenzie, described the area as an unsafe "dump".


A man argues with anti-Ukip protesters at a party rally for the European and local elections in Croydon. Photograph: Sang Tan/AP

The event was organised after a series of controversies over allegedly racist comments made by Ukip candidates and Farage's suggestion that people might not want to live on a street with Romanians.

Farage later insisted the organisers of the event had wanted him to go but he "didn't have time" and was busy.

At a rally later in Eastleigh, Hampshire, Farage quoted Gandhi as he dismissed criticism of his party by the political establishment and media. "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they attack you ... then you win," he said, predicting that Ukip would definitely come first in the European elections.

Miliband had his own personal nightmare when he appeared on BBC Wiltshire and tried to bluff his way out of the fact that he did not know the name of the Labour leader on the local Swindon council, one of Labour's key target councils.

He also looked uncomfortable when he appeared on morning TV and was asked how much he spent on groceries in a week.

The chancellor, George Osborne, is planning to mount an eve-of-poll attack on Labour and Ukip urging the country to "reject the forces of pessimism on the left and the populist right".

In a speech to the CBI on Wednesday he will say: "Political parties on the left and the populist right have this in common: they want to pull up the drawbridge and shut Britain off from the world.

"They want to set prices, regulate incomes, impose rent controls, wage war on big business, demonise wealth creation, renationalise industries – and pretend that they can re-establish control over all aspects of the economy. Whether from the left or the populist right, we now see a deeply pessimistic, depressing, anti-business agenda.

"It takes advantage of the understandable anxieties of a population unsettled by the pace of globalisation, and peddles a myth that Britain can stop the world and get off."

Farage's Ukip Croydon event started to go wrong when two members of the steel band hired to provide a carnival atmosphere said they were uncomfortable and had no idea they would be playing for Ukip.


Ukip candidate Winston McKenzie, right, speaks to a woman at the Croydon event. Photograph: Sang Tan/AP

Marlon Hibbert, 22, whose parents are Jamaican, said he thought Ukip was racist and he was upset about the booking. "They are something I don't like the idea of," he said. "My parents came over here to work. Our country is for everybody with opportunities for everyone."

Fellow musician, 16-year-old Kishan Shorter agreed, saying he was not happy with Ukip's views.

As the band played for a short while, one of the party's most prominent black activists, Winston McKenzie, a Croydon council candidate, used a loud-hailer to say he was proud to be a supporter.

But he was interrupted by two protesters, who claimed to be from Romania and declined to give their names, accusing Ukip of being a Nazi party and holding a banner saying "Nigel Farage Racist Scum".

Farage and Ukip were defended by several candidates from ethnic minority backgrounds, including Rathy Alagaratnam, who is standing in Merton. The former Labour activist, who tried to take her former party to a tribunal for racial discrimination, said accusations of racism against Ukip were "an excuse because people do not want to debate the European question".

Marjorie King, a black Ukip candidate in north Croydon, said she did not think Farage was racist and had not seen his comments about Romanians. She said she was attracted to Ukip because it was the only party "standing up for Christianity".

Asked whether Farage was frightened of attending, McKenzie, standing in Croydon North, explained : "If he hasn't turned up he is a very sensible man. Croydon, which was once the place to be, the place to shop, has now become sadly a dump ... How can you ask an international leader to turn up somewhere where he feels unsafe?"

Labour will be reviewing how it is briefing Miliband after he stumbled on radio and television.

He ran into trouble when he was asked on BBC Wiltshire for his views of Jim Grant by the presenter Ben Prater, who stopped short of mentioning that he is the leader of the Labour group on Swindon borough council.

"You will enlighten me I'm sure," Miliband said when he was asked by Prater whether he knew who Grant is.

Miliband then wrongly described Grant as the leader of the Tory-led council. "Well he is doing a good job as leader of the council – Jim is. And I think that is the case."

When Prater pointed out that Grant is not leader of the council, Miliband said: "Well, I think he is doing a good job for Labour on the council. He is doing a good job for Labour on the council."

Miliband's awkward radio interview came after he said he was well placed to focus on the cost of living crisis in Britain even though he appeared to underestimate his family's weekly grocery bill.

The Labour leader, who said it was right to place the issue at the front of his general election campaign even though he is "relatively comfortably off", told ITV's Good Morning Britain that his family spent at least £70 to £80 a week – and probably more – on groceries.

When he was told that the average weekly bill for a family of four was more than £100, he said: "Right, well it [the grocery bill] is more than £100."

I do love the idea that UKIP thought an ethnic minority carnival with steel drums would help get rid of the racist image

Having said that it's not that many years since William Hague was dancing at Notting Hill to show the Tories weren't racist.

[Josquius]

Somebody really needs to explain to the country that "racist" doesn't automatically mean "hates black people"

That carnival stuff does sound rather hilariously shambolic

[Tamas]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-29549414


IIRC the British conclusion over here was that nobody would vote for the  UKIP in a serious election. Well, here they are winning one out of 3 and getting prettttty close to winning the other two as well.

Back in Hungary I was part of (one of) the scapegoat group(s) for being liberal and pro-West, here I will be able to be in the scapegoat group for being from Hungary. Yay!

[Warspite]

What the hell is happening to my country 





I'm applying for two jobs in New York. I hope to God I get them.

[Gups]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-29549414


IIRC the British conclusion over here was that nobody would vote for the  UKIP in a serious election. Well, here they are winning one out of 3 and getting prettttty close to winning the other two as well.

Back in Hungary I was part of (one of) the scapegoat group(s) for being liberal and pro-West, here I will be able to be in the scapegoat group for being from Hungary. Yay!

You should be happy. Carswell is probabbly the only real libertarian in Parliament.

I think there were only two by-elections yesterday. Carswell winning is not a surprise but UKIP getting so close in Manchester is a real shock.

Remains to be seen how UKIP will fare once the public spotlight is truly on their policies. How Carswell's desire for a flat tax and the outright privitisation of the NHS play with the public?

[Sheilbh]

Or with Farage who's heading left as they try and challenge Labour. He's pro-immigration too.

I agree though Tamas should love Carswell. Except for Carswell's optimism and faith in democracy their views are very similar.

[Gups]

Quite. When Farage was effectively the sole leader of UKIP rather than primus inter pares, it didn't much matter that UKIP were a single issue party with hugely divergent views on a rnage of issues. But Carswell and Reckless (probably) will soon be thrust into the media spotlight and will be asked for their views on a range of issues which will often be very different to Franage's, and each others. It's entirely possible that the election of Carswell truns out to be a disaster for UKIP. Be interesting to see whether he's able to bite his lip.

[Tamas]

His economics may be libertarian, but you cannot be a libertarian if you want to kick immigrants around.

And that goes for the rest of their party: their economics can be as close to me as it gets (I honestly haven't checked it out), but they make me into a scapegoat for the UK's troubles, so fuck them.

[Gups]

His economics may be libertarian, but you cannot be a libertarian if you want to kick immigrants around.

He doesn't. But he doesn't think Hungarians or Germans should have a greater right to enter the UK than Americans or Inidians.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/douglascarswellmp/100247981/what-would-a-rational-immigration-system-look-like/

[Tamas]

His economics may be libertarian, but you cannot be a libertarian if you want to kick immigrants around.

He doesn't. But he doesn't think Hungarians or Germans should have a greater right to enter the UK than Americans or Inidians.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/douglascarswellmp/100247981/what-would-a-rational-immigration-system-look-like/

He raises a valid point (part of the "immigration problem" is that menial low skill jobs are not rational decisions for British job seekers due to different benefits), and then goes the wrong way about it. Yeah you might need different immigration rules, but instead of starting with that, cut back on the welfare and decrease taxes as a result, and you have a) more jobs b) more incentive for native Brits to work which in turn leads to less influx of immigrants because there will be less opportunities.

But of course "welfare is the big problem" doesn't win you elections. "Eastern Europeans are the big problem" does.

[Sheilbh]

But he wants to cut welfare and taxes too.

And I kind of agree. I don't necessarily get why just anyone from Europe is better than the thousands of Aussies, Indians and other nationalities who want to migrate here.

[Jacob]

But he wants to cut welfare and taxes too.

And I kind of agree. I don't necessarily get why just anyone from Europe is better than the thousands of Aussies, Indians and other nationalities who want to migrate here.

Because you've signed a deal with Europe that gives Brits the right to go to all of those Euro countries, but you have not made those deals with Aussies and Indians.

It's not that someone thought Euros were better per se, it's that you've signed on to the common market and the free movement of labour within Europe.