Category Archives: UKIP

No bregrets?

02 Friday Feb 2018

Posted by in Brexit, Local elections, Politics, UKIP

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As the shambles that is Brexit stumbles on from one train crash to another, more and more evidence is emerging that the British people are starting to wake up to the fact that the promised Brexit unicorns don’t actually exist – and never will.

The latest evidence may come from the result of a local council election in Sunderland’s Pallion ward yesterday, where the Liberal Democrats took the seat from Labour with a very sizeable swing.

bregret

Pallion is on the South bank of the River Wear and used to be known for its shipbuilding but the last yard closed in 1988. There’s still one yard which carries out ship repairs, but that’s all. Nowadays the Pallion’s a mixture of industrial estates and residential, bounded by a road ironically named European Way. It’s known as a very deprived ward with high unemployment. You can learn more about the ward from the ‘Britain Elects’ website.

Of course nowaday’s Sunderland’s known for its Nissan car plant rather than shipbuilding.

In the Brexit referendum Sunderland voted to leave the EU by 61% to 39% remain. UKIP had a strong presence in the area, even if they had no Councillors. In the 2014 local elections UKIP made their first appearance, putting up candidates in almost every ward. The election results left them in 2nd place in the vote after the Labour party  – including in Pallion. UKIP played on Sunderland’s shipbuilding past, pretending that they could somehow recreate those days.

pallion

UKIP also came second in 2015 and 2016. But that was then. This is now…

The fact that the ‘will of the people’ was swinging against Brexit was picked up by the local paper as long ago as December 2016 when they ran a poll that demonstrated people had changed their minds (link). Of course, newspaper polls are notorious for their inaccuracy, most are little better than clickbait. But that’s what makes the Pallion ward vote so interesting as it’s a genuine expression of the democratic vote.  Pallion had the same Labour member since 1997, so for the Lib-Dems to go from last in 2014 , leapfrogging UKIP to snatch the seat is amazing. That UKIP are a car-crash nowadays doesn’t account for the massive swing to the Lib-Dems, as Labour and the Tories have lost vote share too. Could a factor be Brexit? Why did both former UKIP and Tory voters switch to the Lib-Dems?

Is anyone in Conservative Central Office or Labour headquarters listening? Both parties are seemingly hell-bent on pursuing Brexit, whatever the cost, but they would be foolish in the extreme to ignore results like this. This is the Brexit heartlands remember, so where’s their support gone? To the one party that’s made it absolutely clear it opposes Brexit!

I wonder how many more results like this we’ll be seeing as the Brexit shambles continues and the consequences can no longer be ignored or denied?

 

 

UKIP. Schadenfreude’s such a lovely word!

21 Sunday Jan 2018

Posted by in Politics, StopHs2, The Green Party, UKIP

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I can’t help but look upon the imminent demise of UKIP without a certain frisson of pleasure. A party that’s done more to ruin the UK’s reputation abroad and helped deliver the shambles that is Brexit is about to get its come-uppance – as blogger Tim Fenton mentioned today.

Ukip’s most recent accounts show it was £380,630 in debt before the 2017 election which weakened the party’s finances even further. The party’s so skint it can’t even put up candidates in local elections. The parlous state of the party’s finance have been the subject of infighting in the past and an open secret amongst members (link).

Now UKIP can’t afford another leadership election, which might save the skin of the latest temprorary Leader (the 4th in 15 months), Henry Boulton, despite the revelations about his openly racist girlfriend – Jo Marney. Jo’s provided social media with an open goal, so I make no apologies for sharing this pic of the couple caught together on the London Underground after their supposed ‘split’. Oh, and the Twitter commentary from Scott Ballantyne is inspired!

human

Meanwhile, former UKIP leader Nigel Farage has got himself embroiled in the murky world of American politics, Trump, Assange and Russia…(link). There’s no chance of him riding to UKIPs rescue as there no money in it for him anymore which leaves the party stuffed. Even MEPs and some of the remaining local Councillors are jumping ship. John Arnott, the MEP  for the North East of England, said he had lost confidence in Mr Bolton but thought no better of those “jockeying” to replace him.

Here’s a list of recent desertions, with links. Arnott

All 3 Plymouth Cllrs quit

All 5 Hartlepool Cllrs quit

Will the last one to leave please turn out the lights?

Of course, UKIPs collapse spells even more trouble for another bête noire of mine, the Stop Hs2 campaign!

I’ve not seen any evidence that UKIP helped the campaign financially or practically, other then lending it support via social media & having members who had a foot in both camps. But UKIP did help draw attention to the campaign. Their opposition to Hs2 was nothing more than a cynical ploy to attract votes from disaffected Tories who lived on the HS2 route. The problem was that the Stop Hs2 campaign had always exaggerated how much support it had, so the avalanche of votes UKIP hoped for never materialised – even in the Chilterns, which was the ‘hotbed’ of anti Hs2 activity. They gained (and then lost) a couple of Council seats but never seriously threatened to unseat any MPs.

UKIPs demise will leave the Greens as the only party opposing Hs2 – and they’ve got their own problems as their standing in the polls and share of the vote in recent local elections has fallen dramatically. As an illustration of both parties troubles, here’s three local election results from Thursday.

green results

We live in interesting times…

Update: 22 Jan.

UKIPs National Executive Committee met yesterday and passed a motion of no-confidence in Bolton. Bolton refuses to resign, so now a ballot of the (remaining)members will take place. Meanwhile, social media has been kept amused by today’s antics as a series of UKIP ‘Front Benchers’ no-one’s ever heard of have resigned. Ds anyone even *know* UKIP had a spokesperson on Culture? Or Intelligence?  But the biggest ‘pot calling kettle black’ moment came from Neil Hamilton, disgraced former Tory MP, ex-jailbird & now UKIPs leader in Wales, who told the BBC;

“He’s made himself into a ludicrous figure by his own poor judgement and he should get out of the way and allow us to get on with rebuilding the party.”

They’re beyond parody!

Another stophs2 electoral disaster

19 Friday Feb 2016

Posted by in Anti Hs2 mob, Hs2, StopHs2, UKIP

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Remember the heady days before the general election? UKIP were convinced they’d win seats in the Chilterns as they’d done a volte face on their 2010 manifesto promise to build 3 high speed lines to oppose Hs2. They even produced this cartoon;

Farage Hs2

The stophs2 campaign had conned UKIP into believing Hs2 was a vital election issue and ran a risible ‘no votes for you with Hs2’ campaign. It was complete hogwash of course. The truth is that (even in the Chilterns) the only people who really care about Hs2 either live directly in its path or are just outside the compensation zone.

The 2015 election was a disaster for both sides as it exposed both were writing cheques neither could cash.

Despite this, both sides still cling to the same fictions. UKIP still think opposing Hs2 will win them votes & the anti Hs2 mob still pretend they’ve electoral clout. So last nights result in the local elections in Chesham (a supposed stophs2 stronghold) will come as a nasty reality-check for both sides.

UKIP

Meanwhile, over in Lichfield (another supposed anti hs2 stronghold & seat of Michael Fabricant, one of the few MPs to actively oppose Hs2), this was the result;

Lichfield result

Let’s see how the anti Hs2 mob explain these – other than by studiously ignoring them…

 

The anti Hs2 mob parade their bigotry

11 Sunday Oct 2015

Posted by in Anti Hs2 mob, Bigotry, Hs2, Islamophobia, UKIP

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There’s always been a deeply unpleasant side to the anti Hs2 campaign. It’s not just their willingness to lie and deceive, it’s the darker side. This manifests itself in their xenophobic & racist tendencies and willingness to use threats & intimidation. A good example of their bigotry has surfaced on the Facebook page of ‘Yorkshire doesn’t buy Hs2’

hs2

This unpleasant little group group appears to be run by UKIP supporters. Of course UKIP have been heavily involved with the StopHs2 campaign as (cynically) they saw it as a way of snatching votes. UKIP dropped its 2010 manifesto pledge to build three high-speed rail lines as they’d been conned by the anti Hs2 campaign into believing there was mass opposition to Hs2 & so lots of votes to harvest by opposing Hs2. Of course, the reality was very different & UKIP failed to gain a single seat in any area that Hs2 will pass through. Despite the general election humiliation, it’s clear UKIP & the StopHs2 campaign are still working together through groups like this. Not that it’s doing them much good, this Yorkshire group only has around 250 followers. Truth be told, there’s bugger all opposition to Hs2 in Yorkshire. There’s only a couple of anti ‘action’ groups in the county, neither of which are very active.

Rather typically, when I drew attention to this bigoted nonsense there was a deafening silence from anti Hs2 campaigners. Not a single one condemned it. Instead, one of the usual suspects (fond of resorting to bigotry himself) tried to accuse me of faking it, which is rather stupid when the post is still displayed on this groups Facebook page for all to see!

DD bigotry

I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions about what this says about the anti Hs2 campaign, its members and their tactics…

This week’s most bonkers anti Hs2 mob message- No 4.

03 Wednesday Jun 2015

Posted by in Crazy kippers, Hs2, UKIP

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The combination of Hs2 and crazy UKIP supporters has always been a powerful one but the parties abject humiliation in the general election has meant most crazy kippers have crawled back under their rocks. However, today one has thrown their tinfoil hat away and tweeted this gem!

Bonkers

As this one shows, Kippers have never let facts get in the way of their crazy EU paranoia. The ability to deliberately misunderstand what an EU Directive really is isn’t unusual in their world. Unluckily for them the UK electorate saw through them & halved the number of MPs they have.

Hopefully, the party will have disappeared through a combination of internecine warfare and the attentions of the Grim Reaper* by the next election.

*The Grim Reaper should be the party’s logo due to the fact their age demographic is mostly on the wrong side of 65…

On the road again..

30 Thursday Apr 2015

Posted by in Politics, Railways, UKIP

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– well, rails really, but you know what I mean!

After a day at home I’m heading South on Grand Central’s 08:04 from Halifax to Kings Cross. I’m actually on my way to Norwich as Abellio Greater Anglia are showing off the first of their refurbished Mk3 sets to the press tomorrow. Norfolk’s county town isn’t the easiest place to get to from West Yorkshire so I’m heading down a day early & using the time to get pictures for my library. For once I’m not working over a bank holiday & I’m looking forward to having some quality time at home on my return.

Before I left this morning I remembered to get my postal ballot in for the general election. The list of candidates caused a wry smile. Despite the range of parties they all (bar one) had something in common. They all live in Yorkshire. The one that doesn’t is (yep, you’ve guessed it) the UKIP candidate, who actually lives in that well known Yorkshire town of Canterbury, Kent!

20150430_065014

I dunno, coming up here, taking our votes…

Election special: Farage’s fag packet calculations are more porkies.

15 Sunday Mar 2015

Posted by in Hs2, Railways, Transport, UKIP

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This month all the major political parties reiterated their support for building Hs2, much to the frustration of the anti Hs2 campaign who’ve clearly had their bluff called. The antis may be busy on social media pretending otherwise but in the real world it’s clear their campaign’s unraveling rapidly. None of the major political parties see them as a credible political force they’re going to lose any sleep over. Only UKIP & the Greens oppose Hs2 & this week UKIP unveiled their Hs2 campaign poster. I have to say, it’s stunning in its blandness. ‘UKIP will stop Hs2 before it runs out of control’ it whimpers.

Nigel Farage travelled to the Chilterns to launch the poster along with UKIPs local Candidate, Chris ‘imaginary friends’ Adams (of Twitter fame, see previous blog). Here’s a report from the Western Morning News;

http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/UKIP-scrap-HS2-says-Farage-8211-highlighting-poor/story-26168763-detail/story.html

Note Farage’s claim that “Penzance is five hours 11 minutes from Paddington. It was quicker to get to Penzance before the First World War”.

Really Nigel? Let’s examine that claim shall we?

Today’s fastest service between the two is the 10.06 Paddington – Penzance which takes 5hrs 5mins (not 5hr 11mins as Farage claimed, no train service takes that time). It stops at Reading, Exeter, Newton Abbot & Plymouth before it enters Cornwall.

Sim Harris, the Managing Editor of Railnews (and a Cornishman himself) tells me this: “The best London-Penzance times in 1902 and 1947 were c.9h30 and 7h00 respectively. In summer 1960 (still with steam) the 10.30 ex Padd managed 6h05 (but this was non-stop as far as Plymouth, where an engine change was required). In 1971 the best time was 5h35, but that was again the 10.30. (*others were still taking 6h00+).

Only the BR Intercity 125s made the present timings possible”.

So, Farage is caught out telling porkies yet again. There’s a surprise!

UPDATE at 18:44.

A few hour after I’d written this, Virgin Trains East Coast MD @DavidHorne had done some research through copies of the old Bradshaw timetables & tweeted this;

“Bradshaws 1922 timetable has the Limited dep Paddington 1030, arrive Penzance 1700. Stops at PLY, TRU, Gwinear Rd & St Erth.”

That’s 6hrs 30mins – far short of the current 5hr 05mins. David’s second tweet revealed some genuine pre WW1 timings:

“From Oct 1906 after Westbury route opened, best Pad-Pz journey time was 6h35, cut to 6h30 in 1914 (on the 1030). Now it’s 5h05”

So, there we have it – Farage’s factoid farrago. Once again UKIP haved proved that – as far as they’re concerned, facts are what you make up.

For those who enjoy such things, here are the 1902 & 1922 timetables;

1902 GWR TT A

1922 Bradshaw

Why the anti Hs2 campaign won’t be celebrating Hs2’s 5th birthday..

11 Wednesday Mar 2015

Posted by in Green Party, Hs2, Michael Dugher MP, Politics, Railways, Transport, UKIP

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Ironically, today the campaign against Hs2 is ‘celebrating’ the 5th anniversary of the announcement of the project.  You would have thought they’d have known better as all they’re doing is drawing attention to their five years of failure in trying to stop it!

With nothing new to say & having no cunning plans now all their previous ones have ended in disappointment & failure StopHs2 are trying to bring back their ‘No votes for you with Hs2’ campaign from the dead.  Bad move. The rotting corpse is too far gone to resuscitate, not least because the anti Hs2 campaign has too few supporters who command too few votes.  I’ve looked at this in two previous blogs;

https://paulbigland.wordpress.com/2015/01/17/the-anti-hs2-campaign-dying-by-degrees-pt1/

&

https://paulbigland.wordpress.com/2015/02/22/the-anti-hs2-campaigns-numbers-dont-add-up-again-social-media-edition/

In the intervening time, things have got worse for their campaign.  The Hs2 Hybrid Bill Committee continue to plough through petitions & remain on course for the Bill to gain Royal Assent by December 2016.

On the political front, all three major parties remain committed to the Hs2 project. The anti Hs2 campaign constantly predicted party political U-turns.  None have ever materialised as no-one is actually frightened by their campaign.  There might be a couple of nervous Tory MPs on the Chilterns Hs2 route but even there the challenge from UKIP seems to be receding after UKIP’s hopeful Chris Adams was exposed in the national media for packing his Twitter feed with fake followers;

https://paulbigland.wordpress.com/2015/02/08/ukip-the-anti-hs2-mob-are-at-it-again/

You can see why UKIP & the anti’s get on, can’t you? Both groups largely rely on imaginary friends!

Meanwhile, Labour’s Shadow Transport Minister gave an interview to February’s ASLEF Journal, where he said: “We are absolutely committed to HS2”

Click to access 1502aslefjournal.pdf

Absolutely no sign of a U-turn there then…

The national opinion polls offer nothing positive either.  The real political race is between parties who all support Hs2, whilst the two that oppose UKIP & The Greens have both had a torrid time.  There’s an almost weekly drip of stories about racism within UKIP (where trying to stop them popping up is like playing a game of ‘whack a mole’) & the Greens have had their Leader, Natalie Bennett, implode in a radio interview that’s gone viral.  The Greens rail policy doesn’t exactly stand up to scrutiny either.  I’ve dissected it here;

https://paulbigland.wordpress.com/2015/03/08/the-greens-rail-policy-is-a-dogmatic-mess/

UK polling reports predict that, between them (at best) the Greens & UKIP will have less than half a dozen MPS. That’s meant to Stophs2?  Oh, please…

Meanwhile, things continue to get worse at home.  At the Hs2 Committee hearing on the 10th March, Denham Against Hs2 Chairman Frank Partridge let the cat out of the bag about the number of Hs2 ‘Action’ groups.  The likes of Hs2aa are still pretending there are over 90.  Frank admitted to the Committee that the real number is ’40 to 50′ – around half the numbers claimed!  More proof (if it were needed) that the campaign’s been exaggerating the size of its activist base.

All this leaves the anti Hs2 campaign with bugger all to celebrate on Hs2’s 5th birthday.  If I was Joe Rukin, I’d be too busy looking through the ‘situations vacant’ columns to be boasting about how a lot of imaginary voters are going to Stop Hs2….

UKIP & the anti HS2 mob are at it again (aka stitched up like a kipper!)

08 Sunday Feb 2015

Posted by in Hs2, Politics, Transport, UKIP

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My previous blog about UKIP & the anti Hs2 campaign both being a bunch of fantasists caused some squeals from the certain quarters. So, you can imagine my amusement when today’s events in the media only proved what I was saying.

The Sunday Times ran a piece on some politicians packing their Twitter accounts with fake followers. One of the folk featured was none other than UKIPs candidate for Aylesbury Chris Adams, who tweets as @_Chris_Adams. He’s often tweeted nonsense & downright deceit about Hs2. Today the Times revealed that Adams claimed 30,000 Twitter followers whilst following 25,400 others whom he claimed to have ‘checked manually’. Yet, within a day of the ST contacting him he’d removed 25,200 people, leaving him following just 200. How odd. Unsurprisingly, he soon started hemorrhaging followers! One is forced to ask, what is it about UKIP & fake numbers? If it’s not Romanians, it’s…

This tactic of packing your Twitter account with either fake followers or following accounts who guarantee to follow you back to make yourself look important & have influence seems to be common to the anti Hs2 mob too. I’ll highlight one of their more laughable Tweeters in another blog.

You have to wonder. If the anti Hs2 campaign really does have the genuine mass support they claim. Why do so many of them have to resort to faking figures?

 

 

 

Link

UKIP and the anti Hs2 campaign. Fantasists who are well suited

28 Wednesday Jan 2015

Posted by in Hs2, Politics, Railways, Transport, UKIP

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One of the many laughable claims from the anti Hs2 campaign is that there’s millions of people who will ditch all other political considerations & priorities to vote for any party that opposes Hs2. Antis try & pretend they have an army of supporters up & down the country who are ready to cause a political earthquake because of Hs2. Like their other claims, this one’s another load of hot air.

UKIP, being the cynical vote chasers they are have ditched their 2010 manifesto pledge to but not one but THREE high speed lines & come out in opposition to Hs2, hoping to hoover up all these votes that are supposedly waiting to be had. The problem is, they don’t exist. UKIP have been lied to by the anti campaign that doesn’t command anything like the level of support they claim & certainly doesn’t have a massive vote bank to hand to UKIP.

Evidence of this is all around us.

Firstly, let’s look at people’s main concerns. Here’s a recent Guardian poll that asked voters what issues most concern them:

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/9/23/1411459719741/MoriIssues.png …

And where’s Hs2 on that list? Nowhere. It doesn’t even rate a mention. People have other prorities. The only people who really care enough to change their vote are some of the people who are directly affected because they live on the route of Hs2. But, many of these people aren’t that die-hard either.

Another good example is the supposed anti Hs2 ‘heartlands’ of Warwickshire & the Chilterns/Bucks.

In 2013 UKIP were confidently expecting they’d gain a massive amount of new Councillors as people voted for them to show their opposition to Hs2. So, how many seats did they win in Warwickshire? Not a single one! The biggest gains were made by Labour – a party that actively supports Hs2. In other areas (such as the North-West) UKIP didn’t even bother campaigning on Hs2, preferring local issues instead.

And in Bucks & the Chilterns?

UKIP did gain seats there. But it was clear that the ‘Hs2 effect’ was confined to the areas the route will actually pass through.

Interestingly enough, the picture for UKIP in the Chilterns has got worse, not better since 2013. In December 2014 there were elections for two Councillors in the Aylesbury Vale district (another supposed anti ‘stronghold). Both were won by, the supposedly unelectable Liberal Democrats!

http://www.aylesburyvaledc.gov.uk/news/2014/dec/liberal-democrats-win-gatehouse-southcourt-elections/

To add to UKIPs woes, both their rebadged former Tory MPs voted FOR Hs2 & one, Mark Reckless put Farage in the firing line by restating his support for Hs2 as a UKIP MP.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/ukip/11170215/Mark-Reckless-refuses-to-back-scrapping-HS2-in-first-public-split-with-Ukip-leader-Nigel-Farage.html

Farage was forced into admitting that Hs2 is not a ‘big ticket issue’ for the party.

2015 has got off to an even worse start as a Chilterns UKIP Cllr has defected to the Tories.

http://www.bucksherald.co.uk/news/more-news/updated-ukip-defector-i-m-not-right-wing-enough-for-party-1-6544468

This has exposed the fact that neither UKIP or the Tories are really that worried by the anti Hs2 campaign. It’s been clear for some time that anti’s have been writing political cheques they can’t cash by promising levels of support they don’t have. It seems that fact has finally dawned on UKIP too. The antis also seem to have quietly dropped their ineffective ‘no votes for you with Hs2’ as it scared no-one & didn’t persuade a single MP to change sides.

The forthcoming general election has the potential to be a disaster for the anti Hs2 campaign who’ve firmly nailed their flag to the UKIP mast. The party’s been battered in the media & the polls as their extremist tendencies, fruitloop membership & infighting has attracted negative attention, the idea that it will be in any position to deliver on its promise to ‘StopHs2’ looks more & more ridiculous as time goes on.