State of the parties as 2015 General Election looms.

[teamsaint]

Given the Mail's onslaught on 'The Man Who Hated Britain', Miliband's anger was presumably fuelled by dismay, predicting how the opposition could use this as another stick to beat Labour with.

And the homeowner said he didn't even realise there was a byelection on ... (Still, I didn't realise there was a World Cup going on).

there is no point in the 4 year football cycle when there aren't qualifiers for the World cup or European championships going on, apart from the 6 months build up to the two major tournaments, which may explain some of the folks who never take their flags down.

[jean]

I find it quite hard to believe that the man in question had been happy to be without light in his upstairs front room for months on end.

But we'll never know for sure unless we ask the neighbours.

[ahinton]

If, as http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...y-9691712.html appears to suggest, UKIP proposes to field a mere dozen candidates and anticipates gaining just 3 - 5 seats after the next General Election (in other words, failing in 7 - 9 constituencies and ending up with just 1 - 3 more MPS than it has now), its Parliamentary ambitions would appear to be in inverse proportion to the froth and pother that seems always to go with its terriroty; it would also be the case that such an anticipated result would pose a vanishingly small threat to any other political party and have scant effect on the make-up of HoC in the aftermath of that election. Doesn't this - in UKIP's own words - help to put it into perspective?

[amateur51]

When UKIP ran a candidate who wasn't the previous MP for the constituency they didn't win but came a very creditable second.

I hope the Greens start getting more 'sensible' coverage in the Press, and not just in the Guardian's environmental section.

[french frank]

there is no point in the 4 year football cycle when there aren't qualifiers for the World cup or European championships going on, apart from the 6 months build up to the two major tournaments, which may explain some of the folks who never take their flags down.

It may very well be the entire explanation but for me, not being interested in football, it would still seem very peculiar to be flying a flag for a country that isn't actually playing a match, on the grounds that at some point in the future it will be. Doesn't that lose any association the flag might have with football?

[Richard Barrett]

I hope the Greens start getting more 'sensible' coverage in the Press

It's not really surprising that the press ignore it, given that it seems to be the only party which doesn't attempt cynically to appeal to people's baser instincts just to get into power. The press would have to be interested in raising the level of political discussion in the country, which heaven forfend on current showing.

[Richard Barrett]

It may very well be the entire explanation but for me, not being interested in football, it would still seem very peculiar to be flying a flag for a country that isn't actually playing a match, on the grounds that at some point in the future it will be. Doesn't that lose any association the flag might have with football?

Maybe it was just there to conceal the goings-on in the upper rooms of the house...

[Beef Oven!]

It may very well be the entire explanation but for me, not being interested in football, it would still seem very peculiar to be flying a flag for a country that isn't actually playing a match, on the grounds that at some point in the future it will be. Doesn't that lose any association the flag might have with football?

England played an international match the night before, Wednesday.

They also played an international match game a few days before that too.

All of which is entirely irrelevant.

We know what Gordon Brown, Thornberry et al think of white working class English voters. Hopefully, white working class English voters will continue to tell them what they think of them, at the polling booths.

[Richard Barrett]

Hopefully, white working class English voters will continue to tell them what they think of them, at the polling booths.

By voting for UKIP? I thought that was supposed to have gone beyond being a protest vote.

[Beef Oven!]

Primarily, the fact that a shadow cabinet member should be so clueless as to make herself look like a caricature of the "liberal metropolitan elite" in that time and place, and that the party then goes into knee-jerk PR overdrive to neutralise her, none of which really has any bearing on the actual issue in question, ie. working-class patriotism and the possibility of coaxing it into xenophobia which was exploited so successfully by Enoch Powell back in the day.

Why am I not surprised by this reference?

[Richard Barrett]

Why am I not surprised by this reference?

Because clearly Enoch Powell was a racist.

[Serial_Apologist]

Maybe it was just there to conceal the goings-on in the upper rooms of the house...

My suspicions too...

One thing that puzzles me is that UKIP intends fielding only 12 candidates at the General Election, suggesting as it does the kind of lack of active base that typifies the "something must be done about it" mentality of the populist-supporting Right I always heard voiced by local Tory members when living with my activist parents, which is tantamount to "but I haven't a clue what - I leave that to people far wiser than myself".

Another possible explanation is maybe detectable in the tendency of Farage to backtrack and play down expectations whenever UKIP policies come up (rarely that this is), indicating how much the party's fortunes come to rest upon the Tories giving them the in/out referendum not in their own programme. Or maybe they just don't have the readies to hand to conduct a general election campaign.

[Serial_Apologist]

Because clearly Enoch Powell was a racist.

Which he denied, likewise.

[ahinton]

It's not really surprising that the press ignore it, given that it seems to be the only party which doesn't attempt cynically to appeal to people's baser instincts just to get into power. The press would have to be interested in raising the level of political discussion in the country, which heaven forfend on current showing.

Quite - although, on current showing, the press itself can for the most part be expected to do little better than our monsters in Westmaster in any case; there is, after all, no obvious shortage of self-serving among them.

[ahinton]

My suspicions too...

One thing that puzzles me is that UKIP intends fielding only 12 candidates at the General Election, suggesting as it does the kind of lack of active base that typifies the "something must be done about it" mentality of the populist-supporting Right I always heard voiced by local Tory members when living with my activist parents, which is tantamount to "but I haven't a clue what - I leave that to people far wiser than myself".

Another possible explanation is maybe detectable in the tendency of Farage to backtrack and play down expectations whenever UKIP policies come up (rarely that this is), indicating how much the party's fortunes come to rest upon the Tories giving them the in/out referendum not in their own programme. Or maybe they just don't have the readies to hand to conduct a general election campaign.

Yes, maybe a lack of sufficient funds is the main or sole reason why they're only expecting to field a dozen candidates. I have no idea how many the Greens anticipate fielding but, whatever the figure may be, at least they don't provide the electorate with loud-mouthed posturing disproporationate to their expected number of candidates and they do at least make more effort than UKIP to reveal their policies on non-environmental matters rather than conveying the one-trick-pony impression which seems to be UKIP's principal trademark.