There are two large general hospitals within 10 miles of me. Both have charges for their parking. Both car parks are usually almost full. The parking cost is unwelcome but it does improve chances of getting a space. Free will lead to abuse. Lower charges would be the best way to go to test their effects on a case by case basis.
Seems to me the best way is to give free tickets at reception to genuine visitors/patients and charge big for peopl using the car park for shopping/commuting
And how exactly would you make that work? Any system, such as you suggest, would be open to abuse, would require all sorts of additional staff to implement.
How do you stop someone from being a visitor and then using the car park for 6 hours afterwards so they can go off and do other things?
How can someone check to see if a car is parked by a legitimate user or not?
And where is the money going to come from to pay for all the extra staff as well as having to make up the shortfall in income? Oh yes - clamping down on 'Health Tourism' - and what new measures do you actually propose to collect all of this extra money? Details are needed if you want to be taken seriously. Otherwise it is just a cheap bit of populism - right out of the New Labour spin book.
Ok lets just charge people to visit their family & friends in hospital as we do now
How about providing a free minibus service to the local bus/train station?
Then people have an alternative to driving. If people want to convenience of being able to drive, then they should be willing to contribute to the costs.
Here is a Tory MP arguing in favour of it, I agree with him. Frank Field is in favour too.
I think you're just on PB "auto argue with UKIP" mode
How will you replace th lost income for hospitals? A higher deficit, higher taxes or spending cuts elsewhere? If the last, what is less important than asking people to make a contribution to the cost of the NHS owning parking facilities?
Charging immigrants to use the NHS is their proposal, as outlined in the link I provided
Why don't you read that, written by ukip, instead of asking me, who isn't a ukip policy maker?
Cause I'm too busy to read press releases from political parties.
Lots of governments have already spent that money though.
Osborne is unpopular partly because he is the man who has to make the difficult announcements that are necessary to pay down the deficit.
But there's another reason. Osborne is unpopular because he is in thrall to the maoists at the treasury and HMRC who want to legalise the arbitrary confiscation of the monies of ordinary citizens.
Will Dave drop George to stay in power? he may need to.
2 of my workmates will be voting UKIP at the GE. One is a former Lib Dem, the other used to vote Labour.
Come join the Peoples Army; vote UKIP
It is the use of language such as 'People's Army' that makes UKIP deeply unpalatable for many.
Politics may be a battle of ideas and ideologies, a clash of personalities and policies - but to reference 'army' so explicitly is something that I, personally, find scary.
@DavidL Many of those people you mention need help from the state to survive, despite being in full time work. As for the part timers, those on zero hours contracts, and the newly self employed? The majority of the latter two are even more heavily dependent. (there were always positive benefits of them for certain sections)
Are they better off? Yes they are. The combination of earning and generous (compared to the alternative) in work benefits makes sure they are. 2 million of them. It is a remarkable achievement.
LOL, if only everybody could see the world from the viewpoint of the wealthy, next you will be saying they can eat cake.
I'm sure Waitrose will give you some old brioche if you ask nicely
Luckily I am not one of the unfortunate ones and can afford to buy the brioche fresh , no sell by bargains necessary. There are many many not so lucky , all that pooling and sharing does not seem to be working too well. Seems to be we do lots of pooling and some others share more like.
The explosion of food banks in Scotland under the SNP must make your heart bleed.
2 of my workmates will be voting UKIP at the GE. One is a former Lib Dem, the other used to vote Labour.
Come join the Peoples Army; vote UKIP
It is the use of language such as 'People's Army' that makes UKIP deeply unpalatable for many.
Politics may be a battle of ideas and ideologies, a clash of personalities and policies - but to reference 'army' so explicitly is something that I, personally, find scary.
2 of my workmates will be voting UKIP at the GE. One is a former Lib Dem, the other used to vote Labour.
Come join the Peoples Army; vote UKIP
It is the use of language such as 'People's Army' that makes UKIP deeply unpalatable for many.
Politics may be a battle of ideas and ideologies, a clash of personalities and policies - but to reference 'army' so explicitly is something that I, personally, find scary.
You're really, really not going to vote UKIP, are you?
@DavidL Many of those people you mention need help from the state to survive, despite being in full time work. As for the part timers, those on zero hours contracts, and the newly self employed? The majority of the latter two are even more heavily dependent. (there were always positive benefits of them for certain sections)
Are they better off? Yes they are. The combination of earning and generous (compared to the alternative) in work benefits makes sure they are. 2 million of them. It is a remarkable achievement.
LOL, if only everybody could see the world from the viewpoint of the wealthy, next you will be saying they can eat cake.
I'm sure Waitrose will give you some old brioche if you ask nicely
Luckily I am not one of the unfortunate ones and can afford to buy the brioche fresh , no sell by bargains necessary. There are many many not so lucky , all that pooling and sharing does not seem to be working too well. Seems to be we do lots of pooling and some others share more like.
My point was that even though Marie-Antoinette most likely never said "let them eat cake" even the original smear refered to brioche - which is bread, not cake.
OK, however the meaning behind it remains the same. It is very easy for someone who earns shedloads of money to be glib and say poor people should be grateful they have a zero hours contract instead of being unemployed. It is just a shuffle of benefits , which can cause issues , to make employment look good. Similar to Thatcher making everyone unfit for work and eligible for disability benefits. It merely masks the problems and does not help the poor but it appears to slave David's conscience OK.
How will you replace th lost income for hospitals? A higher deficit, higher taxes or spending cuts elsewhere? If the last, what is less important than asking people to make a contribution to the cost of the NHS owning parking facilities?
Charging immigrants to use the NHS is their proposal, as outlined in the link I provided
Why don't you read that, written by ukip, instead of asking me, who isn't a ukip policy maker?
Cause I'm too busy to read press releases from political parties.
Lots of governments have already spent that money though.
Maybe you should be a little bit less busy about the policy until you read the details
You will see much UKIP new policy, and reaffirmation of some old policies, being declared at the September UKIP conference in Doncaster. Not only that #oxfordsimon, you'll find plenty of established policy if you cared to look at the UKIP web sites. There you can 'scrute' as long as you like.
Mike, no word so far from the people you contacted about informing NGOs of stand availability/prices. We're still up for exhibiting (I've got a hotel room in Doncaster for it), but if much more time passes we'll conclude that UKIP doesn't want any stands and do something else instead.
Snow next week!! Looks like it'll be cold. But a fortnight of reading, beer drinking and bracing walks in beautiful country does not sound half bad to me.
If you want any local info or recommendations, feel free to contact me via Mike/Vanilla.
2 of my workmates will be voting UKIP at the GE. One is a former Lib Dem, the other used to vote Labour.
Come join the Peoples Army; vote UKIP
It is the use of language such as 'People's Army' that makes UKIP deeply unpalatable for many.
Politics may be a battle of ideas and ideologies, a clash of personalities and policies - but to reference 'army' so explicitly is something that I, personally, find scary.
You're really, really not going to vote UKIP, are you?
Why would I? They have no coherent policy platform, no experience of running even a local council. I vote - or spoil my ballot paper - based on the candidates, their policies, their record and the national party platform. I have never seen any positive message from UKIP that can persuade me why they are worthy of consideration let alone my vote.
Yes, they want to pull out of the EU - but that is not a platform for government. There are many problems with Europe and the institutions, but walking away is not as easy as UKIP would have people believe.
Henry Clarke (solicitor from Tiverton) Matthew Doyle (former SpAd to Blair and Mandelson) Peter Dowd (Sefton council leader) Paul Edwards (Barnet Cllr) Owen Fields (teacher from Harrow) Alex Flynn (Unite head of Campaigns) Kevin Graham (former Hexham GE candidate) Kevin Hickson (Crewe Cllr, works at Liverpool University) Neil Humphrey (from Broxtowe, tried in Battarsea) Dave Landrum (work(ed) at the House of Commons, born locally) Julie MacManus (from Wirral, shortlisted in Ellesmere Port) Alex Mayer (Euro candidate in East of England) Luthfur Rahman (Manchester Cllr) Jacqueline Robinson (from Birmingham, shortlisted in Ellesmere Port, tried in Salford & Eccles) James Stewart Laing (2001 candidate in Thanet North, lives in Wallasey) Stephen Tudhope (from Woking) Lo Vincent (from Wembley)
Some more here: crosbywaterloo.wordpress.com/2014/08/05/new-mp-for-bootle-constituency/
It seems to me that UKIP are going quite big on localism... we have candidates standing in constituencies that they are from, despite perhaps being better placed elsewhere, councillors paying for parking tickets they feel were incorrectly issued, and now a policy to scrap parking charges for hospital visitors
Same as any other party policy there will be pros and cons, but I think it fits in with the findings from Goodwin and Fords book "Revolt on the Right" about big governments seeming distant and uncaring to the issues that worry people at a local level. UKIP know that and so are basing their approach accordingly IMO
There are two large general hospitals within 10 miles of me. Both have charges for their parking. Both car parks are usually almost full. The parking cost is unwelcome but it does improve chances of getting a space. Free will lead to abuse. Lower charges would be the best way to go to test their effects on a case by case basis.
Seems to me the best way is to give free tickets at reception to genuine visitors/patients and charge big for peopl using the car park for shopping/commuting
And how exactly would you make that work? Any system, such as you suggest, would be open to abuse, would require all sorts of additional staff to implement.
How do you stop someone from being a visitor and then using the car park for 6 hours afterwards so they can go off and do other things?
How can someone check to see if a car is parked by a legitimate user or not?
And where is the money going to come from to pay for all the extra staff as well as having to make up the shortfall in income? Oh yes - clamping down on 'Health Tourism' - and what new measures do you actually propose to collect all of this extra money? Details are needed if you want to be taken seriously. Otherwise it is just a cheap bit of populism - right out of the New Labour spin book.
Ok lets just charge people to visit their family & friends in hospital as we do now
How about providing a free minibus service to the local bus/train station?
Then people have an alternative to driving. If people want to convenience of being able to drive, then they should be willing to contribute to the costs.
While I'm a big supporter of public transport in general, and I recognise that making parking free in hospitals would make it impossible for the people who need to park there to find a parking spot, the charging for parking at hospitals does really rankle.
Particularly when you realise that - for obvious reasons - many of the people who are being driven to or from hospital are in no condition to use public transport. You're not able to walk home from a bus stop if you're less than 48 hours post knee operation, for example.
This is the sort of thing that is lost when central planners make decisions about centralising care in super-hospitals, that are even further away from where many of their patients live.
Henry Clarke (solicitor from Tiverton) Matthew Doyle (former SpAd to Blair and Mandelson) Peter Dowd (Sefton council leader) Paul Edwards (Barnet Cllr) Owen Fields (teacher from Harrow) Alex Flynn (Unite head of Campaigns) Kevin Graham (former Hexham GE candidate) Kevin Hickson (Crewe Cllr, works at Liverpool University) Neil Humphrey (from Broxtowe, tried in Battarsea) Dave Landrum (work(ed) at the House of Commons, born locally) Julie MacManus (from Wirral, shortlisted in Ellesmere Port) Alex Mayer (Euro candidate in East of England) Luthfur Rahman (Manchester Cllr) Jacqueline Robinson (from Birmingham, shortlisted in Ellesmere Port, tried in Salford & Eccles) James Stewart Laing (2001 candidate in Thanet North, lives in Wallasey) Stephen Tudhope (from Woking) Lo Vincent (from Wembley)
Some more here: crosbywaterloo.wordpress.com/2014/08/05/new-mp-for-bootle-constituency/
And yet *another* seat that Euan Blair was meant to be lining up (prompting yet more nepotism stories and posts here) seems to be selecting without him applying.
Seems to me the best way is to give free tickets at reception to genuine visitors/patients and charge big for peopl using the car park for shopping/commuting
And how exactly would you make that work? Any system, such as you suggest, would be open to abuse, would require all sorts of additional staff to implement.
How do you stop someone from being a visitor and then using the car park for 6 hours afterwards so they can go off and do other things?
How can someone check to see if a car is parked by a legitimate user or not?
And where is the money going to come from to pay for all the extra staff as well as having to make up the shortfall in income? Oh yes - clamping down on 'Health Tourism' - and what new measures do you actually propose to collect all of this extra money? Details are needed if you want to be taken seriously. Otherwise it is just a cheap bit of populism - right out of the New Labour spin book.
Ok lets just charge people to visit their family & friends in hospital as we do now
How about providing a free minibus service to the local bus/train station?
Then people have an alternative to driving. If people want to convenience of being able to drive, then they should be willing to contribute to the costs.
While I'm a big supporter of public transport in general, and I recognise that making parking free in hospitals would make it impossible for the people who need to park there to find a parking spot, the charging for parking at hospitals does really rankle.
Particularly when you realise that - for obvious reasons - many of the people who are being driven to or from hospital are in no condition to use public transport. You're not able to walk home from a bus stop if you're less than 48 hours post knee operation, for example.
This is the sort of thing that is lost when central planners make decisions about centralising care in super-hospitals, that are even further away from where many of their patients live.
" parking free in hospitals would make it impossible for the people who need to park there to find a parking spot,"
No it wouldn't.. . you could have a system at the barrier where people had to say who they were visiting to be allowed in. Staff could have passes.. this is hardly Rocket science, its just a good policy from a party that other parties don't like to be seen agreeing with, despite many in the commons already campaigning for it
Henry Clarke (solicitor from Tiverton) Matthew Doyle (former SpAd to Blair and Mandelson) Peter Dowd (Sefton council leader) Paul Edwards (Barnet Cllr) Owen Fields (teacher from Harrow) Alex Flynn (Unite head of Campaigns) Kevin Graham (former Hexham GE candidate) Kevin Hickson (Crewe Cllr, works at Liverpool University) Neil Humphrey (from Broxtowe, tried in Battarsea) Dave Landrum (work(ed) at the House of Commons, born locally) Julie MacManus (from Wirral, shortlisted in Ellesmere Port) Alex Mayer (Euro candidate in East of England) Luthfur Rahman (Manchester Cllr) Jacqueline Robinson (from Birmingham, shortlisted in Ellesmere Port, tried in Salford & Eccles) James Stewart Laing (2001 candidate in Thanet North, lives in Wallasey) Stephen Tudhope (from Woking) Lo Vincent (from Wembley)
Some more here: crosbywaterloo.wordpress.com/2014/08/05/new-mp-for-bootle-constituency/
One has to be careful not to confuse Luthfur Rahman with Lutfur Rahman.
I'm a lifelong non-Conservative (rather than anti-Conservative) but I certainly don't believe Conservatives are "indifferent" to people's fortunes - after all, they need said people to vote for them to stay in power and simply saying "it would be worse with Labour" simply isn't enough.
I know my living standards have deteriorated in the past five years under the Coalition - I also know that for all the grandiose promises we have, in a sense, been marking time in terms of dealing with the debt and deficit issue and it's perfectly clear we will need to set aside billions to pay down debt interest before dealing with the actual debt itself.
Economic growth has returned and the trumpetting of statistics notwithstanding it is clear we are no longer staring into the abyss as we were in 2008-09.
Henry Clarke (solicitor from Tiverton) Matthew Doyle (former SpAd to Blair and Mandelson) Peter Dowd (Sefton council leader) Paul Edwards (Barnet Cllr) Owen Fields (teacher from Harrow) Alex Flynn (Unite head of Campaigns) Kevin Graham (former Hexham GE candidate) Kevin Hickson (Crewe Cllr, works at Liverpool University) Neil Humphrey (from Broxtowe, tried in Battarsea) Dave Landrum (work(ed) at the House of Commons, born locally) Julie MacManus (from Wirral, shortlisted in Ellesmere Port) Alex Mayer (Euro candidate in East of England) Luthfur Rahman (Manchester Cllr) Jacqueline Robinson (from Birmingham, shortlisted in Ellesmere Port, tried in Salford & Eccles) James Stewart Laing (2001 candidate in Thanet North, lives in Wallasey) Stephen Tudhope (from Woking) Lo Vincent (from Wembley)
Some more here: crosbywaterloo.wordpress.com/2014/08/05/new-mp-for-bootle-constituency/
And yet *another* seat that Euan Blair was meant to be lining up (prompting yet more nepotism stories and posts here) seems to be selecting without him applying.
I think the public will excuse UKIP a few clunky slogans, given the economic strife that is going on in Europe/
As rcs1000 has pointed out many, many times - anyone who has bet on AEP being right would be very poor right now. He plays to the gallery, the Telegraph's readers want to see bad news about Europe and AEP delivers it in his own style. His articles are overly alarmist and almost none of his dire predictions/warnings have come true.
That's not to say the French saying "non" to the EU over deficit targets is a good thing, just that it won't make any difference. What will make a difference is if France can't get their economy growing and if inflation continues to fall from already dangerously low levels.
2 of my workmates will be voting UKIP at the GE. One is a former Lib Dem, the other used to vote Labour.
Come join the Peoples Army; vote UKIP
It is the use of language such as 'People's Army' that makes UKIP deeply unpalatable for many.
Politics may be a battle of ideas and ideologies, a clash of personalities and policies - but to reference 'army' so explicitly is something that I, personally, find scary.
Hahaha ah diddums
ARMY!!!!!!!
Its the 'People's ' bit I find tedious. Anything that has the word 'people's ' in it is usually patronising or communist or silly in general
Mr. F, I fear that's crossing the line from optimism to madness.
Alexander had the best cavalry and infantry in the world (and even his second and third class cavalry were fantastic) as well as numerous brilliant senior officers.
If Farage were Alexander or UKIP Alexander's army he'd already be Prime Minister, we'd be out of Europe and Calais would be ours again.
''saying "it would be worse with Labour" simply isn't enough''.
Some hard thinking ahead for certain tories on this site, then...
That seems to be the message from the Conservative-inclined along with "stick with us" and similar themes. I won't be voting Conservative and even if I did in East Ham it wouldn't make a scintilla of difference to the overall result. I'd rather waste my vote on my principles than the illusion of a tactical masterplan.
People are, I think, tired of austerity as defined by declining living standards and working longer hours for less. Vague promises of "jam tomorrow" won't cut it so Osborne's ploy will be to create the feelgood factor in his pre-election Budget and sort out the bill once he's back at No.11.
2 of my workmates will be voting UKIP at the GE. One is a former Lib Dem, the other used to vote Labour.
Come join the Peoples Army; vote UKIP
It is the use of language such as 'People's Army' that makes UKIP deeply unpalatable for many.
Politics may be a battle of ideas and ideologies, a clash of personalities and policies - but to reference 'army' so explicitly is something that I, personally, find scary.
Hahaha ah diddums
ARMY!!!!!!!
Its the 'People's ' bit I find tedious. Anything that has the word 'people's ' in it is usually patronising or communist or silly in general
To be honest I don't take any notice of it. Probably a bit patronising you are right... but if people respond I guess they will use it....
The whole kaboodle is about giving a voice to people who feel disenfranchised, that no one is listening to them, or tells them they are wrong to think the way they do.. so making it feel they are part of a movement of some kind probably appeals
Although I am not a member of any political party this morning I got dragooned into spending two hours in Hurspierpoint High Street wearing a UKIP rosette dishing out leaflets. I was stunned at the response.
Hurst is not a thriving metropolis and is widely regarded as a staunch Tory area. I ran out of leaflets and about 20% of the people who walked by came up to me and started conversations about how glad they were that UKIP was coming into the area and how fed up they were with the major parties. Dammit, I even, without trying, signed up four new members on the spot - they filled in the form including the payment/standing order details! I didn't even ask them, they asked me.
The local UKIP PPC turned up to see how we were getting on. A very nice chap, ex-RN, and he needs to make more of that, and even he was surprised.
An anecdote, from a rock solid safe Tory seat. Probably means not much but a straw in the wind I thought worth sharing.
I think AEP's musings on the Euro are exactly right. But...the timeframe over which things will unfold is very hard to call. It's not going to come apart tomorrow. But then again 10 years is not feasible either. Another recession/stock market collapse/bank run/government default/other macro nasty is going to happen sooner or later.
Italy cannot just keep ploughing ever deeper into debt/GDP oblivion without something snapping. Probably the pain of unwinding the Euro is too much to bear and we'll get QE big style with lots of money printing and ZIRP for a decade/the Eurozone becoming a real de facto EUSSR superstate/Germany & Bundesbank capitulate.
This would represent a less exciting outcome than AEP clearly postulates - which would be more along the lines of external shock->stock market collapse->debt market collapse-> EU bank runs-> bailouts->national insolvencies->ECB swallows the entire Eurozone govt bond market with printed money.
I'm a lifelong non-Conservative (rather than anti-Conservative) but I certainly don't believe Conservatives are "indifferent" to people's fortunes - after all, they need said people to vote for them to stay in power and simply saying "it would be worse with Labour" simply isn't enough.
I know my living standards have deteriorated in the past five years under the Coalition - I also know that for all the grandiose promises we have, in a sense, been marking time in terms of dealing with the debt and deficit issue and it's perfectly clear we will need to set aside billions to pay down debt interest before dealing with the actual debt itself.
Economic growth has returned and the trumpetting of statistics notwithstanding it is clear we are no longer staring into the abyss as we were in 2008-09.
Agreed Mr Stodge. But the problems of living standards deteriorating is a function of the terrible recession the tories inherited. If 'living standards' ,ie wages, were higher then so would inflation and so there would have been no one actually better off. In fact there has been a trade off. Workers have shown wage restraint and a) kept themselves in a job and b) facilitated the creation of more jobs. Wage restraint has in fact improved 'living standards' since people are immeasurably better off in work than being unemployed. On top of which the tax allowance has gone up.
Do people really think that when, by the time it left office, the Labour govt were spending £80 billion more than the economy could ever hope to sustain in revenues (ie a non cyclical ever present deficit - a structural deficit) that this could just be magicked away without pain?
Unfortunately, you can't explain Free Market economics to people using brief and emotive buzz phrases and catchy slogans. It will always be popular to promise "free" stuff and to say that the blame for everything wrong with your life lies with somebody else.
Although I am not a member of any political party this morning I got dragooned into spending two hours in Hurspierpoint High Street wearing a UKIP rosette dishing out leaflets. I was stunned at the response.
Hurst is not a thriving metropolis and is widely regarded as a staunch Tory area. I ran out of leaflets and about 20% of the people who walked by came up to me and started conversations about how glad they were that UKIP was coming into the area and how fed up they were with the major parties. Dammit, I even, without trying, signed up four new members on the spot - they filled in the form including the payment/standing order details! I didn't even ask them, they asked me.
The local UKIP PPC turned up to see how we were getting on. A very nice chap, ex-RN, and he needs to make more of that, and even he was surprised.
An anecdote, from a rock solid safe Tory seat. Probably means not much but a straw in the wind I thought worth sharing.
I stayed at a mates in Henfield a fortnight ago for Goodwood festival week, next time I am there maybe we can have a pint?
2 of my workmates will be voting UKIP at the GE. One is a former Lib Dem, the other used to vote Labour.
Come join the Peoples Army; vote UKIP
It is the use of language such as 'People's Army' that makes UKIP deeply unpalatable for many.
Politics may be a battle of ideas and ideologies, a clash of personalities and policies - but to reference 'army' so explicitly is something that I, personally, find scary.
Hahaha ah diddums
ARMY!!!!!!!
Its the 'People's ' bit I find tedious. Anything that has the word 'people's ' in it is usually patronising or communist or silly in general
To be honest I don't take any notice of it. Probably a bit patronising you are right... but if people respond I guess they will use it....
The whole kaboodle is about giving a voice to people who feel disenfranchised, that no one is listening to them, or tells them they are wrong to think the way they do.. so making it feel they are part of a movement of some kind probably appeals
Unlike Oxfordsimon I don't cower when the term comes out . More like a sigh. I explained why I find 'people's ' a bit tedious but the overall term reminds me of 'Dad's army 'which ,whilst I have affection for it, the joke was that they are well intentioned but incompetent. To many that sums up UKIP
"... people who feel disenfranchised, that no one is listening to them, or tells them they are wrong to think the way they do ..."
That's what I kept hearing this morning, and from all walks of life too. People off the local council estate, from the three bed 1970s semis and from some of the bigger houses. The story was exactly that, disenfranchised, ignored and fed up with it.
Although I am not a member of any political party this morning I got dragooned into spending two hours in Hurspierpoint High Street wearing a UKIP rosette dishing out leaflets. I was stunned at the response.
Hurst is not a thriving metropolis and is widely regarded as a staunch Tory area. I ran out of leaflets and about 20% of the people who walked by came up to me and started conversations about how glad they were that UKIP was coming into the area and how fed up they were with the major parties. Dammit, I even, without trying, signed up four new members on the spot - they filled in the form including the payment/standing order details! I didn't even ask them, they asked me.
The local UKIP PPC turned up to see how we were getting on. A very nice chap, ex-RN, and he needs to make more of that, and even he was surprised.
An anecdote, from a rock solid safe Tory seat. Probably means not much but a straw in the wind I thought worth sharing.
I stayed at a mates in Henfield a fortnight ago for Goodwood festival week, next time I am there maybe we can have a pint?
Unfortunately, you can't explain Free Market economics to people using brief and emotive buzz phrases and catchy slogans. It will always be popular to promise "free" stuff and to say that the blame for everything wrong with your life lies with somebody else.
Very true . I wish sometimes when various pressure groups want spending on their pet project some time is expended as to say ' That's nice where do you propose the money comes from, what will you cut?'
Mr. F, I fear that's crossing the line from optimism to madness.
Alexander had the best cavalry and infantry in the world (and even his second and third class cavalry were fantastic) as well as numerous brilliant senior officers.
If Farage were Alexander or UKIP Alexander's army he'd already be Prime Minister, we'd be out of Europe and Calais would be ours again.
Although I am not a member of any political party this morning I got dragooned into spending two hours in Hurspierpoint High Street wearing a UKIP rosette dishing out leaflets. I was stunned at the response.
Hurst is not a thriving metropolis and is widely regarded as a staunch Tory area. I ran out of leaflets and about 20% of the people who walked by came up to me and started conversations about how glad they were that UKIP was coming into the area and how fed up they were with the major parties. Dammit, I even, without trying, signed up four new members on the spot - they filled in the form including the payment/standing order details! I didn't even ask them, they asked me.
The local UKIP PPC turned up to see how we were getting on. A very nice chap, ex-RN, and he needs to make more of that, and even he was surprised.
An anecdote, from a rock solid safe Tory seat. Probably means not much but a straw in the wind I thought worth sharing.
I stayed at a mates in Henfield a fortnight ago for Goodwood festival week, next time I am there maybe we can have a pint?
Love to.
Great. Not sure when but will let you know. Lovely part of the world, must be great to live there
Although I am not a member of any political party this morning I got dragooned into spending two hours in Hurspierpoint High Street wearing a UKIP rosette dishing out leaflets. I was stunned at the response.
Hurst is not a thriving metropolis and is widely regarded as a staunch Tory area. I ran out of leaflets and about 20% of the people who walked by came up to me and started conversations about how glad they were that UKIP was coming into the area and how fed up they were with the major parties. Dammit, I even, without trying, signed up four new members on the spot - they filled in the form including the payment/standing order details! I didn't even ask them, they asked me.
The local UKIP PPC turned up to see how we were getting on. A very nice chap, ex-RN, and he needs to make more of that, and even he was surprised.
An anecdote, from a rock solid safe Tory seat. Probably means not much but a straw in the wind I thought worth sharing.
Dan Hodges better hope he can find a large Nigel Farage mask.
2 of my workmates will be voting UKIP at the GE. One is a former Lib Dem, the other used to vote Labour.
Come join the Peoples Army; vote UKIP
It is the use of language such as 'People's Army' that makes UKIP deeply unpalatable for many.
Politics may be a battle of ideas and ideologies, a clash of personalities and policies - but to reference 'army' so explicitly is something that I, personally, find scary.
Hahaha ah diddums
ARMY!!!!!!!
Its the 'People's ' bit I find tedious. Anything that has the word 'people's ' in it is usually patronising or communist or silly in general
To be honest I don't take any notice of it. Probably a bit patronising you are right... but if people respond I guess they will use it....
The whole kaboodle is about giving a voice to people who feel disenfranchised, that no one is listening to them, or tells them they are wrong to think the way they do.. so making it feel they are part of a movement of some kind probably appeals
Unlike Oxfordsimon I don't cower when the term comes out . More like a sigh. I explained why I find 'people's ' a bit tedious but the overall term reminds me of 'Dad's army 'which ,whilst I have affection for it, the joke was that they are well intentioned but incompetent. To many that sums up UKIP
I agree it does sum them up to many... but the people who have turned to UKIP think the other parties are not well intentioned towards them (racist/loonies) , as well as being incompetent (Wars/recession), annoying/interfering (Political correctness) and dishonest (expenses)
You will see much UKIP new policy, and reaffirmation of some old policies, being declared at the September UKIP conference in Doncaster. Not only that #oxfordsimon, you'll find plenty of established policy if you cared to look at the UKIP web sites. There you can 'scrute' as long as you like.
Mike, no word so far from the people you contacted about informing NGOs of stand availability/prices. We're still up for exhibiting (I've got a hotel room in Doncaster for it), but if much more time passes we'll conclude that UKIP doesn't want any stands and do something else instead.
I really am sorry about that Nick. all I can suggest is that you contact the organisers direct through the UKIP web page devoted to the conference. They really deserve a kicking.
There is a line further down the page that says: "To apply for individual media accreditation please click here'' Maybe that will help you.
If UKIP can get away with painting themselves as a party of honesty that's some spin job given the behaviour of several of their MEP's over the years. Something I think the other parties should bring up more if UKIP try and say they are cleaner than other parties.
As for not interfering, UKIP ,as far as I know, are the only party to insist on a certain design scheme for trains
UKIP membership reached 39,000 a couple of months ago. At the rate it was increasing, numbers should have easily hit 40K by now. I'm guessing that it already has, but they want to wait until the party conference to make the big announcement.
2 of my workmates will be voting UKIP at the GE. One is a former Lib Dem, the other used to vote Labour.
Come join the Peoples Army; vote UKIP
It is the use of language such as 'People's Army' that makes UKIP deeply unpalatable for many.
Politics may be a battle of ideas and ideologies, a clash of personalities and policies - but to reference 'army' so explicitly is something that I, personally, find scary.
Hahaha ah diddums
ARMY!!!!!!!
Its the 'People's ' bit I find tedious. Anything that has the word 'people's ' in it is usually patronising or communist or silly in general
To be honest I don't take any notice of it. Probably a bit patronising you are right... but if people respond I guess they will use it....
The whole kaboodle is about giving a voice to people who feel disenfranchised, that no one is listening to them, or tells them they are wrong to think the way they do.. so making it feel they are part of a movement of some kind probably appeals
Unlike Oxfordsimon I don't cower when the term comes out . More like a sigh. I explained why I find 'people's ' a bit tedious but the overall term reminds me of 'Dad's army 'which ,whilst I have affection for it, the joke was that they are well intentioned but incompetent. To many that sums up UKIP
I agree it does sum them up to many... but the people who have turned to UKIP think the other parties are not well intentioned towards them (racist/loonies) , as well as being incompetent (Wars/recession), annoying/interfering (Political correctness) and dishonest (expenses)
Indeed, I have found this attitude across GB and it applies to concillors and council officials as well as MPs, some Judges and civil servants.
The England football team has undoubtedly improved since the players got their tax cut. What further proof do you need that low taxes for the wealthiest incentivises better performance.
Agreed Mr Stodge. But the problems of living standards deteriorating is a function of the terrible recession the tories inherited. If 'living standards' ,ie wages, were higher then so would inflation and so there would have been no one actually better off. In fact there has been a trade off. Workers have shown wage restraint and a) kept themselves in a job and b) facilitated the creation of more jobs. Wage restraint has in fact improved 'living standards' since people are immeasurably better off in work than being unemployed. On top of which the tax allowance has gone up.
Do people really think that when, by the time it left office, the Labour govt were spending £80 billion more than the economy could ever hope to sustain in revenues (ie a non cyclical ever present deficit - a structural deficit) that this could just be magicked away without pain?
Indeed and labour capacity leading to wage-driven inflation has killed off many economic booms in the past - the 1980s being a good example. By the mid-80s there was full employment in the south-east - indeed, there was a shortage of labour and that led to increasing wages and in turn inflation.
Now, thanks to immigration (and I'll wait for the inevitable response to that comment), we are simply throwing more and more cheap labour into the mix which means companies don't need to improve processes or spend capital to improve how they do things when they can simply get some labour in for next to nothing.
Workers have been forced to show restraint because they know there are plenty of available replacements - witness the late 80s and the way unions were able to win strikes because labour was scarce (I took part in the public sector workers action in 1989-90 when we won a huge pay increase).
As to the "macro" aspects, most people neither know nor care. In simplistic terms, they had the library or the swimming pool or the youth centre during the Labour years and now the "nasty Tories" have closed it (and if it's been closed by a Labour Council you can be sure they've blamed the Conservative Government). By the way, it doesn't help when Conservative Councillors award themselves huge increases in allowances as has happened in Surrey and some other places.
You will see much UKIP new policy, and reaffirmation of some old policies, being declared at the September UKIP conference in Doncaster. Not only that #oxfordsimon, you'll find plenty of established policy if you cared to look at the UKIP web sites. There you can 'scrute' as long as you like.
Mike, no word so far from the people you contacted about informing NGOs of stand availability/prices. We're still up for exhibiting (I've got a hotel room in Doncaster for it), but if much more time passes we'll conclude that UKIP doesn't want any stands and do something else instead.
Mr. Observer, food banks began during the boom times under Labour and grew even before the crash. The idea they're due to wicked Tories eating babies and setting fire to nuns is entirely wrong.
Southam has his own set of prejudices, as we all do to a degree.
Anyone interested in constituency betting needs to take account of the politics of fracking.Today,Breast Cancer UK came out against it because of the carcinogenic chemicals used in the fracking process.Have the political parties really thought through the implications yet?
Have the political parties really thought through the implications yet?
Good point, but I'd have thought that the conflagrations in Russia and the middle east have one a few converts to increased domestic energy security, too.
I think India must have lost mental concentration after winning at Lords, just assuming they'd at worst draw the series.
They should play Scotland: (NZ A batting)
47.6 Sharif to Watling, SIX, driven classically over long-off, and that is a stunning hundred from the skipper. His second fifty off just 14 balls.
47.5 Sharif to Watling, SIX, more punishment, over cover for another maximum. 47.4 Sharif to Watling, 2 runs, DROPPED oh dear, mis-timed over mid-off and the skipper Machan puts it down. Not easy, but not hard... 47.3 Sharif to Watling, FOUR, walks across his stumps and pulls a ball outside off stump over backward square leg. 47.2 Sharif to Watling, SIX, another shovel sweep over fine leg, and it's gone a long long way. 47.2 Sharif to Watling, 1 wide, slower ball bouncer, with third man and fine leg up. Fortunately for him, it was down leg side, missed and called wide. 47.1 Sharif to Watling, FOUR, different bowler, same result. On a length, and slapped over cover.
46.6 Wardlaw to Watling, 1 run, short and wide but with a third man this time, and they only get a single this time. A productive over nevertheless. 46.5 Wardlaw to Watling, no run, well bowled, slower ball bouncer deceives the batsman. Gets his dot. 46.4 Wardlaw to Watling, FOUR, short and wide, and the pitch doesn't have the pace for that to be effective. The upper cut comes out and beats the fielders chasing. 46.3 Wardlaw to Watling, SIX, down the track, and hit over point this time, for another maximum. This is sheer power at this point. 46.2 Wardlaw to Watling, SIX, flat-batted over cow corner, clearing the ropes by a few metres, but staying out of the neighbouring gardens. 46.1 Wardlaw to Watling, FOUR, sliced over short third man. Pretty fortunate, but that's just the way things have gone for Scotland in the last 15 overs.
Indeed and labour capacity leading to wage-driven inflation has killed off many economic booms in the past - the 1980s being a good example. By the mid-80s there was full employment in the south-east - indeed, there was a shortage of labour and that led to increasing wages and in turn inflation.
Now, thanks to immigration (and I'll wait for the inevitable response to that comment), we are simply throwing more and more cheap labour into the mix which means companies don't need to improve processes or spend capital to improve how they do things when they can simply get some labour in for next to nothing.
Workers have been forced to show restraint because they know there are plenty of available replacements - witness the late 80s and the way unions were able to win strikes because labour was scarce (I took part in the public sector workers action in 1989-90 when we won a huge pay increase).
As to the "macro" aspects, most people neither know nor care. In simplistic terms, they had the library or the swimming pool or the youth centre during the Labour years and now the "nasty Tories" have closed it (and if it's been closed by a Labour Council you can be sure they've blamed the Conservative Government). By the way, it doesn't help when Conservative Councillors award themselves huge increases in allowances as has happened in Surrey and some other places.
For virtually everybody, except those parkd on benefits, immigration helps. It provides services it keeps inflation down. We still have many people on benefits who could work. But are they employable? In broad terms we could price ourselves out of a sustainable recovery. At the moment we are not. Wage restraint is good news, it keeps the lid on inflation and makes us more competitive.
If UKIP can get away with painting themselves as a party of honesty that's some spin job given the behaviour of several of their MEP's over the years. Something I think the other parties should bring up more if UKIP try and say they are cleaner than other parties.
As for not interfering, UKIP ,as far as I know, are the only party to insist on a certain design scheme for trains
I think the MEP thing has been tried countless times and failed miserably.
True or not, and annoying as it may be for diehards of other parties, UKIP are seen as an alternative to the normal parties that have let them down by a significant minority of the public
Have the political parties really thought through the implications yet?
Good point, but I'd have thought that the conflagrations in Russia and the middle east have one a few converts to increased domestic energy security, too.
The people of Balcombe,and many other places across the UK,inc Northern Ireland,are clearly not convinced by that argument.
True or not, and annoying as it may be for diehards of other parties, UKIP are seen as an alternative to the normal parties that have let them down by a significant minority of the public
It's not so much annoying as amusing. In particular the ideas that UKIP somehow have been cleaner on expenses, or are more honest in their policies, are hilarious.
Of course it will no longer be funny if it leads to a Miliband government.
True or not, and annoying as it may be for diehards of other parties, UKIP are seen as an alternative to the normal parties that have let them down by a significant minority of the public
It's not so much annoying as amusing. In particular the ideas that UKIP somehow have been cleaner on expenses, or are more honest in their policies, are hilarious.
Of course it will no longer be funny if it leads to a Miliband government.
Why blame UKIP for Cameron's failings ?
If we have a Miliband govt. it's because Cameron can't make himself electable.
If we have a Miliband govt. it's because Cameron can't make himself electable.
If, God forbid, we get a Miliband government, it will be because voters want one, or at least are prepared to accept one, in preference to a Cameron government. That's up to them, of course, but it would certainly be a perverse decision.
'the other lot will be much much worse' is no way to win an election, as stodge points out below.
Partly true, but that's certainly not the way the Conservatives are trying to win the election: they will be standing on the excellent record of the Conservative-led government, one of the best of the post-war years.
If we have a Miliband govt. it's because Cameron can't make himself electable.
If, God forbid, we get a Miliband government, it will be because voters want one, or at least are prepared to accept one, in preference to a Cameron government. That's up to them, of course, but it would certainly be a perverse decision.
Why ? For most people there's little difference between Cameron and Miliband. That's not perverse it's the default position.
@TCPoliticalBetting Sorry for the late reply. The new benefit regulations for self employment are meant to undo all those mythical jobs that the agencies found for the long term unemployed (for a handsome reward) The government knows it is a con, but it suits them at the moment despite being unsustainable. With the new reforms to combat this, it will make genuine business start ups almost impossible without external capital. Here is your starter for ten, google is your friend. http://www.prowess.org.uk/universal-credit-self-employed
'the other lot will be much much worse' is no way to win an election, as stodge points out below.
Partly true, but that's certainly not the way the Conservatives are trying to win the election: they will be standing on the excellent record of the Conservative-led government, one of the best of the post-war years.
Conservative majority in Scotland nailed on; must be, they're that good.
@TCPoliticalBetting Sorry for the late reply. The new benefit regulations for self employment are meant to undo all those mythical jobs that the agencies found for the long term unemployed (for a handsome reward) The government knows it is a con, but it suits them at the moment despite being unsustainable. With the new reforms to combat this, it will make genuine business start ups almost impossible without external capital. Here is your starter for ten, google is your friend. http://www.prowess.org.uk/universal-credit-self-employed
Thanks, but this looks to be a very good thing in removing a lot of subsidies particularly at a time when we move closer to full employment.
If we have a Miliband govt. it's because Cameron can't make himself electable.
If, God forbid, we get a Miliband government, it will be because voters want one, or at least are prepared to accept one, in preference to a Cameron government. That's up to them, of course, but it would certainly be a perverse decision.
Why ? For most people there's little difference between Cameron and Miliband. That's not perverse it's the default position.
Nonsense. Not true and not true in the polls. Did the Tories make you pay some tax or something?
If we have a Miliband govt. it's because Cameron can't make himself electable.
If, God forbid, we get a Miliband government, it will be because voters want one, or at least are prepared to accept one, in preference to a Cameron government. That's up to them, of course, but it would certainly be a perverse decision.
Why ? For most people there's little difference between Cameron and Miliband. That's not perverse it's the default position.
Nonsense. Not true and not true in the polls. Did the Tories make you pay some tax or something?
@TCPoliticalBetting Whatever floats your boat, your idea of "full employment" is whatever the Tory spin tells you it is, Yes the rules need tightening, but like so many of George's little wheezes, smoke and mirrors are hiding a great deal from the gullible
If we have a Miliband govt. it's because Cameron can't make himself electable.
If, God forbid, we get a Miliband government, it will be because voters want one, or at least are prepared to accept one, in preference to a Cameron government. That's up to them, of course, but it would certainly be a perverse decision.
They will have reached this decision after something like four years of having the alternatives argued out in front of them between Miliband and Cameron. If Cameron can't win that debate that isn't the electorate's fault.
Comments
I think you're just on PB "auto argue with UKIP" mode
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-28211781
Lots of governments have already spent that money though.
But there's another reason. Osborne is unpopular because he is in thrall to the maoists at the treasury and HMRC who want to legalise the arbitrary confiscation of the monies of ordinary citizens.
Will Dave drop George to stay in power? he may need to.
Politics may be a battle of ideas and ideologies, a clash of personalities and policies - but to reference 'army' so explicitly is something that I, personally, find scary.
ARMY!!!!!!!
It merely masks the problems and does not help the poor but it appears to slave David's conscience OK.
Personally, I think it's a clunky and naive use of language, but not indicative of anything more than that.
And it's worth mentioning nobody thinks twice about referring to a Praetorian Guard when it comes to a leader's close allies*.
*Ironic, given Praetorian Guards probably killed more Emperors than they saved. Varangian Guard would be a lot more loyal.
I think the public will excuse UKIP a few clunky slogans, given the economic strife that is going on in Europe/
Yes, they want to pull out of the EU - but that is not a platform for government. There are many problems with Europe and the institutions, but walking away is not as easy as UKIP would have people believe.
Henry Clarke (solicitor from Tiverton)
Matthew Doyle (former SpAd to Blair and Mandelson)
Peter Dowd (Sefton council leader)
Paul Edwards (Barnet Cllr)
Owen Fields (teacher from Harrow)
Alex Flynn (Unite head of Campaigns)
Kevin Graham (former Hexham GE candidate)
Kevin Hickson (Crewe Cllr, works at Liverpool University)
Neil Humphrey (from Broxtowe, tried in Battarsea)
Dave Landrum (work(ed) at the House of Commons, born locally)
Julie MacManus (from Wirral, shortlisted in Ellesmere Port)
Alex Mayer (Euro candidate in East of England)
Luthfur Rahman (Manchester Cllr)
Jacqueline Robinson (from Birmingham, shortlisted in Ellesmere Port, tried in Salford & Eccles)
James Stewart Laing (2001 candidate in Thanet North, lives in Wallasey)
Stephen Tudhope (from Woking)
Lo Vincent (from Wembley)
Some more here: crosbywaterloo.wordpress.com/2014/08/05/new-mp-for-bootle-constituency/
Same as any other party policy there will be pros and cons, but I think it fits in with the findings from Goodwin and Fords book "Revolt on the Right" about big governments seeming distant and uncaring to the issues that worry people at a local level. UKIP know that and so are basing their approach accordingly IMO
Particularly when you realise that - for obvious reasons - many of the people who are being driven to or from hospital are in no condition to use public transport. You're not able to walk home from a bus stop if you're less than 48 hours post knee operation, for example.
This is the sort of thing that is lost when central planners make decisions about centralising care in super-hospitals, that are even further away from where many of their patients live.
Quite, but O'Flynn taking on Cambridge?? Booming, techy, student rich Cambridge?
One of UKIP's most lucid performers, he must have better chances elsewhere.
No it wouldn't.. . you could have a system at the barrier where people had to say who they were visiting to be allowed in. Staff could have passes.. this is hardly Rocket science, its just a good policy from a party that other parties don't like to be seen agreeing with, despite many in the commons already campaigning for it
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Cambridgeshire_(UK_Parliament_constituency)#Elections_in_the_2010s
I'm a lifelong non-Conservative (rather than anti-Conservative) but I certainly don't believe Conservatives are "indifferent" to people's fortunes - after all, they need said people to vote for them to stay in power and simply saying "it would be worse with Labour" simply isn't enough.
I know my living standards have deteriorated in the past five years under the Coalition - I also know that for all the grandiose promises we have, in a sense, been marking time in terms of dealing with the debt and deficit issue and it's perfectly clear we will need to set aside billions to pay down debt interest before dealing with the actual debt itself.
Economic growth has returned and the trumpetting of statistics notwithstanding it is clear we are no longer staring into the abyss as we were in 2008-09.
http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/local/ukip-pays-fine-to-end-misery-for-pensioner-1-6237951
Some hard thinking ahead for certain tories on this site, then...
That's not to say the French saying "non" to the EU over deficit targets is a good thing, just that it won't make any difference. What will make a difference is if France can't get their economy growing and if inflation continues to fall from already dangerously low levels.
Alexander had the best cavalry and infantry in the world (and even his second and third class cavalry were fantastic) as well as numerous brilliant senior officers.
If Farage were Alexander or UKIP Alexander's army he'd already be Prime Minister, we'd be out of Europe and Calais would be ours again.
So long as it is his own money I don't have a problem with it.
People are, I think, tired of austerity as defined by declining living standards and working longer hours for less. Vague promises of "jam tomorrow" won't cut it so Osborne's ploy will be to create the feelgood factor in his pre-election Budget and sort out the bill once he's back at No.11.
The whole kaboodle is about giving a voice to people who feel disenfranchised, that no one is listening to them, or tells them they are wrong to think the way they do.. so making it feel they are part of a movement of some kind probably appeals
Before it there will be the selection in Ashton under Lyne on September 6th
Selection process just started in Neath with the timetable set.
Other seats with Labour MP retiring and no PPC yet selected are
Sheffield Brightside & Hillsborough (Open)
Bradford South (AWS)
Warkington (AWS)
Swansea East (AWS)
Cynon Valley (AWS)
Holborn & St Pancras
Target seats still to select
Bradford East (Open)
Bradford West (AWS)
Although I am not a member of any political party this morning I got dragooned into spending two hours in Hurspierpoint High Street wearing a UKIP rosette dishing out leaflets. I was stunned at the response.
Hurst is not a thriving metropolis and is widely regarded as a staunch Tory area. I ran out of leaflets and about 20% of the people who walked by came up to me and started conversations about how glad they were that UKIP was coming into the area and how fed up they were with the major parties. Dammit, I even, without trying, signed up four new members on the spot - they filled in the form including the payment/standing order details! I didn't even ask them, they asked me.
The local UKIP PPC turned up to see how we were getting on. A very nice chap, ex-RN, and he needs to make more of that, and even he was surprised.
An anecdote, from a rock solid safe Tory seat. Probably means not much but a straw in the wind I thought worth sharing.
It's already in the pipeline. Have a look at the new regulations for the "self employed" due to come into force after the elections. ;-)
Anyway, I am off for a bit.
I think AEP's musings on the Euro are exactly right. But...the timeframe over which things will unfold is very hard to call. It's not going to come apart tomorrow. But then again 10 years is not feasible either. Another recession/stock market collapse/bank run/government default/other macro nasty is going to happen sooner or later.
Italy cannot just keep ploughing ever deeper into debt/GDP oblivion without something snapping. Probably the pain of unwinding the Euro is too much to bear and we'll get QE big style with lots of money printing and ZIRP for a decade/the Eurozone becoming a real de facto EUSSR superstate/Germany & Bundesbank capitulate.
This would represent a less exciting outcome than AEP clearly postulates - which would be more along the lines of external shock->stock market collapse->debt market collapse-> EU bank runs-> bailouts->national insolvencies->ECB swallows the entire Eurozone govt bond market with printed money.
But the problems of living standards deteriorating is a function of the terrible recession the tories inherited. If 'living standards' ,ie wages, were higher then so would inflation and so there would have been no one actually better off. In fact there has been a trade off. Workers have shown wage restraint and a) kept themselves in a job and b) facilitated the creation of more jobs. Wage restraint has in fact improved 'living standards' since people are immeasurably better off in work than being unemployed. On top of which the tax allowance has gone up.
Do people really think that when, by the time it left office, the Labour govt were spending £80 billion more than the economy could ever hope to sustain in revenues (ie a non cyclical ever present deficit - a structural deficit) that this could just be magicked away without pain?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-28785700
Unlike Oxfordsimon I don't cower when the term comes out . More like a sigh. I explained why I find 'people's ' a bit tedious but the overall term reminds me of 'Dad's army 'which ,whilst I have affection for it, the joke was that they are well intentioned but incompetent.
To many that sums up UKIP
That's what I kept hearing this morning, and from all walks of life too. People off the local council estate, from the three bed 1970s semis and from some of the bigger houses. The story was exactly that, disenfranchised, ignored and fed up with it.
There is a line further down the page that says: "To apply for individual media accreditation please click here'' Maybe that will help you.
http://www.ukip.org/doncaster
If UKIP can get away with painting themselves as a party of honesty that's some spin job given the behaviour of several of their MEP's over the years. Something I think the other parties should bring up more if UKIP try and say they are cleaner than other parties.
As for not interfering, UKIP ,as far as I know, are the only party to insist on a certain design scheme for trains
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2632671/Englands-World-Cup-squad-raise-whopping-362-000-charity-gala.html
Now, thanks to immigration (and I'll wait for the inevitable response to that comment), we are simply throwing more and more cheap labour into the mix which means companies don't need to improve processes or spend capital to improve how they do things when they can simply get some labour in for next to nothing.
Workers have been forced to show restraint because they know there are plenty of available replacements - witness the late 80s and the way unions were able to win strikes because labour was scarce (I took part in the public sector workers action in 1989-90 when we won a huge pay increase).
As to the "macro" aspects, most people neither know nor care. In simplistic terms, they had the library or the swimming pool or the youth centre during the Labour years and now the "nasty Tories" have closed it (and if it's been closed by a Labour Council you can be sure they've blamed the Conservative Government). By the way, it doesn't help when Conservative Councillors award themselves huge increases in allowances as has happened in Surrey and some other places.
Sent the form off ?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-28774052
Good point, but I'd have thought that the conflagrations in Russia and the middle east have one a few converts to increased domestic energy security, too.
47.6
Sharif to Watling, SIX, driven classically over long-off, and that is a stunning hundred from the skipper. His second fifty off just 14 balls.
47.5
Sharif to Watling, SIX, more punishment, over cover for another maximum.
47.4
Sharif to Watling, 2 runs, DROPPED oh dear, mis-timed over mid-off and the skipper Machan puts it down. Not easy, but not hard...
47.3
Sharif to Watling, FOUR, walks across his stumps and pulls a ball outside off stump over backward square leg.
47.2
Sharif to Watling, SIX, another shovel sweep over fine leg, and it's gone a long long way.
47.2
Sharif to Watling, 1 wide, slower ball bouncer, with third man and fine leg up. Fortunately for him, it was down leg side, missed and called wide.
47.1
Sharif to Watling, FOUR, different bowler, same result. On a length, and slapped over cover.
46.6
Wardlaw to Watling, 1 run, short and wide but with a third man this time, and they only get a single this time. A productive over nevertheless.
46.5
Wardlaw to Watling, no run, well bowled, slower ball bouncer deceives the batsman. Gets his dot.
46.4
Wardlaw to Watling, FOUR, short and wide, and the pitch doesn't have the pace for that to be effective. The upper cut comes out and beats the fielders chasing.
46.3
Wardlaw to Watling, SIX, down the track, and hit over point this time, for another maximum. This is sheer power at this point.
46.2
Wardlaw to Watling, SIX, flat-batted over cow corner, clearing the ropes by a few metres, but staying out of the neighbouring gardens.
46.1
Wardlaw to Watling, FOUR, sliced over short third man. Pretty fortunate, but that's just the way things have gone for Scotland in the last 15 overs.
In broad terms we could price ourselves out of a sustainable recovery. At the moment we are not. Wage restraint is good news, it keeps the lid on inflation and makes us more competitive.
True or not, and annoying as it may be for diehards of other parties, UKIP are seen as an alternative to the normal parties that have let them down by a significant minority of the public
Of course it will no longer be funny if it leads to a Miliband government.
If we have a Miliband govt. it's because Cameron can't make himself electable.
'the other lot will be much much worse' is no way to win an election, as stodge points out below.
http://conservativehome.blogs.com/goldlist/2006/08/the_costs_of_be.html
Paul Nuttall @paulnuttallukip 22h
You might not agree, but I wasn't expecting this! http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/08/14/Student-newspaper-editor-tells-ukip-to-f-his-mother … @UKIP #ukip
http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/722387.html?CMP=OTC-RSS
It's not a misapprehension which will survive many months of a Miliband government, of course. But by then it will be too late.
Sorry for the late reply. The new benefit regulations for self employment are meant to undo all those mythical jobs that the agencies found for the long term unemployed (for a handsome reward)
The government knows it is a con, but it suits them at the moment despite being unsustainable.
With the new reforms to combat this, it will make genuine business start ups almost impossible without external capital.
Here is your starter for ten, google is your friend.
http://www.prowess.org.uk/universal-credit-self-employed
George is WORSE than Dave ??????
Well I've always said he's fairly useless, glad to see you agree. ;-)
is that really the best you can do ?
Whatever floats your boat, your idea of "full employment" is whatever the Tory spin tells you it is,
Yes the rules need tightening, but like so many of George's little wheezes, smoke and mirrors are hiding a great deal from the gullible