If you think UKIP aren’t in trouble after the Stoke by-election, check out this specimen
Themselves as others see them: an anti-UKIP poster from 2014.
For the last few weeks This Writer has been helping to run a Labour Party street stall in my local town centre – and it has been a civilised experience, until now.
In advance of the Powys County Council elections in May, we have been running a simple survey in which passers-by get to vote for the three most important council-related issues, to give us guidance on how to run our campaign. The poster says something like “Vote for the most important issues!”
Today, a tall, thin man in his mid-20s turned up, scanned the stall and said: “Where do I vote for UKIP?”
I said Stoke-on-Trent Central could have done with him on Thursday, but this was not that kind of ballot; we were the Labour Party out seeking the views of the public.
So he gave me some views. There were a lot of F-bombs, C-bombs, arm-waving and ranting. The most readily-publishable was that his home town of Portsmouth was overrun with immigrants, with 600 Romanians working for one taxi firm. He clearly had it in for Romanians.
I’m not sure there are 600 EU migrant workers living in the whole of Powys, let alone my town. It just happens that I do know one Romanian who lives here, and she’s lovely. In any case, the UK isn’t being overrun with immigrants (as recent stories on This Site have shown); hate crime is driving them away, and this could cause trouble for the economy at some point because we genuinely need many, if not most, of the foreign nationals who work here. That’s what I told this man.
Mr UKIP didn’t like what he was hearing. In fact, he hated it so much, he decided to stand in front of the stall, trying to drive people away from it by screaming “White power! New world order!” at the top of his voice, at anybody passing by.
Inevitably, someone was going to take issue with him. It happened to be a very tall and burly bearded man who told Mr UKIP he needed to calm down, shut up, and find out the facts before believing everything his television told him.
They squared up in front of the stall. I wondered if this might be a good time to call the cops, then realised I hadn’t brought my mobile with me.
Fortunately the bearded man, having picked up a couple of leaflets, stalked off down the street… pursued by Mr UKIP, who seemed determined to provoke some form of violence, while (fortunately) unwilling to initiate any.
I breathed a sigh of relief and actually enjoyed at least five minutes chatting with somebody relatively sane.
And then he was back.
“What can your Labour do for me?” he demanded.
Oh well. At least it was a question I could answer.
“Have you got a job?” I asked.
“I’ve got an interview at the cheese factory tomorrow!” he seemed quite proud of this. I wondered whether he’d be cutting the cheese, or what. He was certainly doing enough of that here.
I ran through Labour’s employment policy. “Have you got a pension?”
“I’m 24! Why do I need a pension?”
“Ask me again when you’re 65! Have you got health insurance?”
“What?”
“You’ll need it under the Tories – or UKIP!” And I smiled at him.
Amazingly, that was what broke the guy. He stalked off – berating me for being “smug” and still muttering about white power and the new world order, whatever he thinks they are.
If that is the quality of supporter or member UKIP currently encourages, they can stay with UKIP – and ruin its chances at any future elections, just as Paul Nuttall – by virtue of his own qualities – ruined his chances in Stoke.
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While there are oiks like him being seduced by UKIP the short term outlook for Labour looks bleak.
Why? Does the Labour Party really need fools to support it?
Labour can do with all the support it can get, Mike, from whatever quarter.
Never mind about UKIP. Labour just lost a seat in Copeland which had be loyally Labour for nearly EIGHTY YEARS! And in Stoke, which Labour held, the only thing that really happened that was notable was and increase in support for the Liberal Democrats! All this is happening mid-term under a Conservative government with the NHS falling apart, prices rising, and BREXIT happening, which, as you might remember 48% of those who voted in the EU in-out referendum did not want to happen!
Labour is patently in very real and present danger.
Where is the leadership?
Where the policies?
The leadership is there and so are the policies.
Your problem is that you cannot see either because of the ranting of the Tories and their obedient media puppets – and you have decided to become one of them yourself, whenever you join in, as in your comment above.
A majority of Labour voters – not Labour party members, a much smaller group of people – don’t think that Corbyn can cut the mustard, Mike. Jezza hasn’t got a snowball’s chance in hell of ever becoming Prime Minister, which means that while he remains leader Labour looks set to lose ground and has no chance of being returned to power.
Labour has increased it’s membership, yes, but in the country and as an opposition a Westminster the party is going to the dogs under Corbyn and looks set to end up with fewer MPs, many fewer MPs, in the House of Commons after the next general election probably in 2020 because Teresa May has no opposition to speak of in parliament (other than the Scottish Nationalists) and a quiescent Tory party which doesn’t want to rock the boat while the Conservatives are winning new seats, doing so well politically, and sky-high in the polls – 18 points ahead of Labour in the most recent poll I’ve seen.
Wake up, Mike.
The party is teetering on the edge of an abyss,
Why do you keep doing this, Paul?
The majority of Labour voters you mention are hooked up to the same newsfeeds as everyone else and subjected to the same nonsense propaganda. They don’t think Corbyn can cut the mustard because they’ve got Tories telling them that 24 hours a day. And then YOU come along and tell them the same thing, for reasons known only to yourself.
You know that Labour’s current policies are the only way out of the mess the Tories have dumped on the country.
Why don’t you focus your bile on the real problems in the Labour Party – the divisive right-wing/Blairite/moderate/whatever-they-want-to-be-called-today elements who insist on snapping at his heels, grabbing media attention away from party policies and generally bringing the party into disrepute?
Theresa May has very powerful opposition in Parliament – watch Prime Minister’s Questions any week to see her getting her prime ministerial ass kicked hard.
And don’t give me any more of your silly talk about polls. You know they’re not worth the time it takes to read them because I’ve explained it to you in the past.
Silly, Paul. Very, very silly.
So many UKIP supporters don’t want to ask questions, or listen to fact-laden answers. Your guy obviously had exhausted the knee jerk rage fomented by the propaganda sheets, to the point where he had the dawning realisation that “the masses” were not going rally to his call and goosestep behind him. Well done for having he courtesy and patience to be able to get a few facts lodged. We have to turn them, one at a time if needed.
Mike. I don’t think it’s the time to concern yourself with how UKIP are doing. They did what they set out to do, without even needing to have more than the odd MP.
Paul Nuttal was a joke candidate,, that’s why he didn’t get in.
I’m more concerned with the trouble Labour are in.
There’s no opposition anymore. Labour is divided. Corbyn is a nice bloke but he needs to toughen up into a Dennis Skinner or a George Galloway.
The recent YouGov poll giving support to Sadiq Khan as a leader worries me. I heard him on Radio4 yesterday. He doesn’t care about the rest of the country.
Luvvie London Labour is not my Labour Party
It’s always a good time to show up UKIP.
I see the Liberal Democrats got only a few votes more than UKIP in Copeland and half the votes of UKIP in Stoke-on-Trent.
If there is a place that feels like home for those who want an alternative to the Conservatives or Labour, it doesn’t seem that the LibDems are creating it.
What on earth was the significance of this UKIP idiots “White Powder”?
Sorry, misread that. So the idiot from Portsmouth was just an ignorant racial bigot. Unfortunately, there are too many of them about.