State of the parties as 2015 General Election looms.

[Serial_Apologist]

shotage

I think you've invented a rather useful multipurpose word there, ahinton!

[teamsaint]

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.

75% of seats in 2015 will have a green candidate.

http://greenparty.org.uk/news/2014/09/22/general-election-2015-green-party-polling-at-7,-and-neck-and-neck-with-the-liberal-democrats/

Nige will be green with envy.

[french frank]

We know what Gordon Brown, Thornberry et al think of white working class English voters.

I'm not sure that we know anything of the sort, if you're implying that we 'know' what these people think of all, or even the majority, of such voters.

I'm sure they are well aware that a large proportion of such voters are 'hardworking' Labour supporters; I'm also sure that they would have no wish to insult them by implying that they were all right-wing racists &c. That does not preclude the certainty that some of them are - just as there are rich people with social consciences.

Nor do I think Thornberry's tweet was anything more than embarrassing stupidity.I'm not familiar with Rochester, or Strood, but the so-called 'terrace house' pictured looks rather more opulent than my 'terrace house' so I wouldn't have thought it typically 'working-class'. Are they so much better off in Kent?

[Serial_Apologist]

the one-trick-pony impression which seems to be UKIP's principal trademark.

Given the on-the-hoof impressions (excuse pun) gleaned from recent policy "revelations", they could just as easily be realities as mere impressions.

[ahinton]

I think you've invented a rather useful multipurpose word there, ahinton!

I had, but wisely uninvented it shortly thereafter, for all that shooting themselves in the foot is a skill not unfamiliar to certain politicians!

[Beef Oven!]

Because clearly Enoch Powell was a racist.

What is a racist? Is Thornberry a racist?

[ahinton]

75% of seats in 2015 will have a green candidate.

http://greenparty.org.uk/news/2014/09/22/general-election-2015-green-party-polling-at-7,-and-neck-and-neck-with-the-liberal-democrats/

Nige will be green with envy.

Mon Dieu! Quelle (et vive la) différence! Thanks for checking this. Perhaps it's not all about funding after all that UKIP are fielding candidates in less than 2% of constituencies - unless the Greens have some pretty heavy private funding. "Green with envy"? I'm not sure - but it should give him pause for a great deal of thought that a party which until recently had just one more MP than UKIP and now has just one less can expect to field candidates in three-quarters of UK's constituencies when his own party anticipates managing to stump up a mere two six-hundred and-fiftieths of them!

[ahinton]

What is a racist?

Do you not think it a good idea that someone who has admitted his probable intention to vote UKIP net time around should at least know what a racist is?

[Beef Oven!]

Nor do I think Thornberry's tweet was anything more than embarrassing stupidity.

It's a bit more than that, isn't it? She took a photograph of someone's home and published it. Quite a bit of forethought and deliberation. She obviously wanted to communicate this racial stereotype.

And while people in here are diverting us to Enoch Powell, The Daily Mail etc, Thornberry is at least sticking her hand up and saying she was wrong and apologising.

[jean]

...unless the Greens have some pretty heavy private funding...

They haven't.

[Beef Oven!]

Do you not think it a good idea that someone who has admitted his probable intention to vote UKIP net time around should at least know what a racist is?

Why?

And I admitted nothing. I merely said that, ceteris paribus, I will probably vote UKIP in the general election ('scuse the Greek term back there).

[Richard Barrett]

('scuse the Greek term back there).

Looks like Latin to me. (as in "timere kipperos et dona ferentes")

[Serial_Apologist]

They haven't.

One hopes that any electoral success for the Greens will not be dependent on gaudy expensive ads.

[Beef Oven!]

Looks like Latin to me. (as in "timere kipperos et dona ferentes")

Posters have been confusing Latin and Greek today and I thought I'd join in. Hilarious, isn't it?

[french frank]

It's a bit more than that, isn't it? She took a photograph of someone's home and published it. Quite a bit of forethought and deliberation. She obviously wanted to communicate this racial stereotype.

First you would need to admit that flying a St Geo's flag was the sign of a 'racial stereotype'. As in, that he was English?

She has apologised but it is by no means clear that she was apologising for conveying that Rochester had such flags flying. I would have taken that to mean that there were signs of a strong UKIP presence. I'm not sure where the idea came from that it was a statement on the 'white working class' - that seems to be the gloss put on it (along with the 'sneering' and 'champagne socialism') by the right wing press.

I think she would have been perfectly right to apologise to her Labour colleagues and to Ed Miliband.