Not like the rest at all ?

[Beef Oven!]

Because it's pure spin on your part, that's why.

Please be sensible.

[french frank]

Well, come on, people - I think one should leave Beefy to enjoy the moment. There is a Real World out there, as he points out!

[Beef Oven!]

I stopped enjoying the moment when the moment finished, a day or so ago.
I think I'll leave 'you lot' to carry on in here for a few days until you've reconciled your cognitive dissonance. (smileythingymajig)

[ahinton]

The first time that a party other than the Conservatives or Labour has won a national election in one hundred years.

No spin.

Why not leave it at that?

Because, for one thing, the local authority elections were not "national" in that they did not take place everywhere within UK as they would do at a General Election and, for another, a party cannot "win" a local government election in the national sense, since the most that any party can hope to do is "win" the highest number of votes in any particular local authority area.

The real meaningful "spin" will become apparent when UKIP spins - as it won't surprise me if it does - out of control in the lead-up to next year's General Election, with the result that it secures few if any seats in HoC once the electorate has had more of an opportunity to consider what little it purports to offer the nation (whichever nation that might be at the time) besides undemocratically demolishing UK's EU membership and trying to stop as many Romanians, Bulgarians and newly independent Scots coming to England and taking the Poles' jobs.

UKIP has undoubtedly done well for a party of relatively recent origin. There is, however, a great difference between doing that in a limited number of local government elections and doing well in a General Election and, at the risk of further repetition, I should remind you that Mr Farage has stated that he does not expect UKIP to form the next UK government; a political party worthy of the name ought to prioritise a desire to form the next government if it's to field candidates in the majority of constituencies in a General Election and garner credibility as a consequence, so what instead does Mr Farage expect of his party next May and why? All that a modicum of success for UKIP at the next General Election is likely to achieve is a reduction in the possibility of any party forming a strong and stable government in Britain; whose best interets might that serve?

[Beef Oven!]

Because, for one thing, the local authority elections were not "national" in that they did not take place everywhere within UK as they would do at a General Election and, for another, a party cannot "win" a local government election in the national sense, since the most that any party can hope to do is "win" the highest number of votes in any particular local authority area.

The real meaningful "spin" will become apparent when UKIP spins - as it won't surprise me if it does - out of control in the lead-up to next year's General Election, with the result that it secures few if any seats in HoC once the electorate has had more of an opportunity to consider what little it purports to offer the nation (whichever nation that might be at the time) besides undemocratically demolishing UK's EU membership and trying to stop as many Romanians, Bulgarians and newly independent Scots coming to England and taking the Poles' jobs.

UKIP has undoubtedly done well for a party of relatively recent origin. There is, however, a great difference between doing that in a limited number of local government elections and doing well in a General Election and, at the risk of further repetition, I should remind you that Mr Farage has stated that he does not expect UKIP to form the next UK government; a political party worthy of the name ought to prioritise a desire to form the next government if it's to field candidates in the majority of constituencies in a General Election and garner credibility as a consequence, so what instead does Mr Farage expect of his party next May and why? All that a modicum of success for UKIP at the next General Election is likely to achieve is a reduction in the possibility of any party forming a strong and stable government in Britain; whose best interets might that serve?

You don't know when something's finished. See post #303, for guidance.

[french frank]

From the Times today (but found elsewhere ) :-)

"So, 27 per cent of 34 per cent. Nine per cent of the electorate. This is important, of course. Four million fellow citizens deserve to be listened to. And, indeed, for some time now they have been the only Britons (outside Scotland) anyone has been listening to. Their anger. Their resentment. Their feelings of alienation. Their genuine concerns.

But what about the 73 per cent who did not, despite everything, vote Ukip? You’d hardly believe, in the days since last Thursday, that they even existed. They are to be entirely taken for granted while the agendas of the panicking parties are trimmed and fashioned to appeal to the vocal minority that gets its rocks off by pretending that it is the silent majority." David Aaronovitch

Seems fair comment.

[Beef Oven!]

On reflection, I need to be more understanding. I was gutted when my football team lost the other day, and City won the Premiership.

I guess it's only human nature.

[ahinton]

You don't know when something's finished. See post #303, for guidance.

The only "guidance" there is as to what might be "finished" to or for you, not me.

That said, I don't think that UKIP is quite "finished" yet, in spite of what I wrote above!

[ahinton]

On reflection, I need to be more understanding. I was gutted when my football team lost the other day

Gosh! I didn't know that you owned a football team! That's mightily impressive, even if it did lose the other day. I imagine that you're far more hands on than the Glazers.

[Flosshilde]

I was gutted when my football team lost the other day,

Is that a prelude to being kippered?

Or is any election 'success' by the kippers just a red herring?

[ahinton]

Is that a prelude to being kippered?

Or is any election 'success' by the kippers just a red herring?

The bones of UKIP's seemingly somewhat threadbare policies on most issues might appear to suggest that it is indeed just that, but we'll know more after the next General Election when, if each party leader gets questioned on TV as did Broon, Cameroon and the other one in advance of the last one, Mr Farage will presumably be seen to be grilled and perhaps also skinned.

But perhaps we're rather thoughtlessly misunderstanding our Mr Oven!'s intended meaning when writing of his football team having lost the other day and that what he was seeking to tell us was that said team somehow contrived to lose a period of 24 hours...

[Richard Barrett]

Well, I see today that something resembling policies are beginning to seep out of UKIP: a grammar school in every town, and a 40% top tax rate. Further right than the Tories, what a surprise...

[MrGongGong]

Well, I see today that something resembling policies are beginning to seep out of UKIP: a grammar school in every town, and a 40% top tax rate. Further right than the Tories, what a surprise...

That seems to be their only "policy" for education so far ....... no surprise there then
more "received wisdom" bollocks i'm afraid

[Richard Barrett]

more "received wisdom" bollocks i'm afraid

Not only that, but both of these policies would clearly have the result of increasing inequality (see this report on grammar schools for example). So much for breaking with old-style politics, although I suppose the overt racism is an innovative feature for a UK party.

[ahinton]

That seems to be their only "policy" for education so far ....... no surprise there then
more "received wisdom" bollocks i'm afraid

Indeed - and that's only education. What about health, transport, social security, employment and all the rest?

One thing that seems evident at the outset is the party's provision of even less information about the means by which it proposes to fund implementation of its "policies" than it publishes about the "policies" themselves and, from all of that, it becomes ever more transparent that it has little to offer the British electorate beyond the undemocratic exit of UK from EU and swingeing cuts to immigration of the kind that reveals a stance that Richard Barrett rightly calls "overt racism"; hardly an inviting alternative to any other paty that might seek to be elected to form the next UK government - but then, for all his noisy barracking, the party's leader, Mr Farage, has already stated that he does not anticipate his party being able to form the next UK government anyway, in response to which one might be tempted to ask why UKIP's bothering to try to put forward an apology for a General Election "manifesto" at all...