This is such a terrific image that I’ve stolen it.

We probably all do it to some degree, and we were probably very prone to it when we were in school – getting told off by a teacher for hitting a classmate, say, and trying to change the subject by saying, “Not fair, Johnny Bashforth hit me the other week and you never told him off!” writes Martin Odoni. Here are some more excerpts:

Yes, it probably is unfair, but at the same time that has nothing to do with you deciding to hit someone else altogether.

So let us now congratulate the UK Independence Party on its most remarkable achievement to date… that over the last year or so, UKIP has managed to increase the rate at which diversionary finger-pointing is employed in political discourse. I doubt it was intended, but that is some accomplishment, given that the phenomenon already appeared to have maxed-out.

Countering an accusation with grumbles about how badly other parties behave has proven to be, not just a standard tactic, but pretty much the only tactic that the party can employ with any consistency.

Farage cannot pretend one minute that UKIP is an ‘alternative’ to the mainstream parties, and then say the next that his party simply has the same types of idiots in it that all the others do. Either the party is different from the others or it is not, it cannot be both.

Farage never really explains, when saying “You think we’re bad? Look at that lot…” why it is particularly relevant… most of us already knew that. What we do not know is why that means we should vote for UKIP instead of them. Especially in light of Farage’s protestations that having idiots in the ranks makes UKIP no different from the other parties. That is just an admission that his party really is no different at all.

We’ll leave it there, but you are strongly urged to read the rest of the article. Not only does it go into much greater detail but it also mentions some of your favourite blogs and bloggers.

Follow me on Twitter: @MidWalesMike

Join the Vox Political Facebook page.

Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:

Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
bringing you the best of the blogs!
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:

The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here: