It's clear that something has got under your skin here - I'd really go get a cup of tea rather than continue here. You're asking for the pee to be taken, which I suspect will annoy you even more.
JK Rowling donates £1m to Scotland's anti-independence campaign Harry Potter author backs Better Together campaign saying it would be a 'historically bad mistake' to leave the UK
Tim Montgomerie former Tory Leader's aide and creator of Conservative Home Tory luvvie and former candidate Iain Dale Mark Ferguson The Editor of Labourlist Mark Wallace Reporter & Commentator for Tory propaganda site Lord Ashcroft's Conservative Home
Hardly an an objective unbiased group one might say
Who are the supportive tweets from, I'm sure one must have flooded in.
I wouldn't know. I do not waste my time with Twitter. Support for the announcement could be trending and it would mean sweet FA to me!
So why post from a position of total ignorance? It makes you look silly.
The reactions are showing how carried away with the short-term news cycle people really get. £1million to UKIP is terrible news for the Tories who are already very likely to lose. And yet the fact that their leader just gave a speech they like and the donation was a bit overhyped- both extremely short-term points- has the Tories in high spirits
I can't believe UKIP would do this as a planned strategy. It seems more likely there was another defector who got cold feet, so they get their new donor to pay his planned donations early to save embarrassment.
Have to agree this seems more plausible.
Having said that I gather Aaron Banks plans to stand in Thornbury and Yate, which is near to Bristol. So maybe he really was the 'big show'.
My perfect result in 2015 is for UKIP to get at least 5 or 6 seats but Farage not to be one of them. Long term that would be better both for the party and for BOO.
Can UKIP have different national and parliamentary leaders?
@MSmithsonPB: Today's non-defection to UKIP has a touch of Brown's non-election in October 2007 about it. After that the media turned on Gordon.
The Defection That Never Was.....
Gordons election that never was was preceeded by a childish and petty and deliberate attempt to upstage the Tory conference by a surprise visjt to Iraq.
The pettiness of the kippers being motivated by trying to upstage the Conservative party conference (and it is notable that they did not do the same to Labour) confirms the unsuitability of Farage for high office. I hope he is replaced soon by someone of integrity like Carswell.
@MSmithsonPB: Today's non-defection to UKIP has a touch of Brown's non-election in October 2007 about it. After that the media turned on Gordon.
Tm Montgomerie, Mark Ferguson and Mike Smithson
hahahaha
Yup everyone's laughing at UKIP.
Take off your purple tinted specs, and read Richard Tyndall's comments on this thread and the ones discussing the potential defector.
Well at least someone has got their finger on the pulse
Mike Smithson @MSmithsonPB · 14m minutes ago To defect like this is massive. To do it after the PM's final conference speech before GE2015 was a step too far.
It's clear that something has got under your skin here - I'd really go get a cup of tea rather than continue here. You're asking for the pee to be taken, which I suspect will annoy you even more.
JK Rowling donates £1m to Scotland's anti-independence campaign Harry Potter author backs Better Together campaign saying it would be a 'historically bad mistake' to leave the UK
I can't believe UKIP would do this as a planned strategy. It seems more likely there was another defector who got cold feet, so they get their new donor to pay his planned donations early to save embarrassment.
Have to agree this seems more plausible.
Having said that I gather Aaron Banks plans to stand in Thornbury and Yate, which is near to Bristol. So maybe he really was the 'big show'.
Having paid ten times as much, does he get to stand in ten times as many constituencies?
@MSmithsonPB: Today's non-defection to UKIP has a touch of Brown's non-election in October 2007 about it. After that the media turned on Gordon.
Tm Montgomerie, Mark Ferguson and Mike Smithson
hahahaha
I'll ask you as well, where are the people who are lauding this master stroke?
To be fair, Mike thought it was a step too far
Mike Smithson @MSmithsonPB · 14m14 minutes ago To defect like this is massive. To do it after the PM's final conference speech before GE2015 was a step too far.
I can't believe UKIP would do this as a planned strategy. It seems more likely there was another defector who got cold feet, so they get their new donor to pay his planned donations early to save embarrassment.
Have to agree this seems more plausible.
Having said that I gather Aaron Banks plans to stand in Thornbury and Yate, which is near to Bristol. So maybe he really was the 'big show'.
Having paid ten times as much, does he get to stand in ten times as many constituencies?
@MSmithsonPB: Today's non-defection to UKIP has a touch of Brown's non-election in October 2007 about it. After that the media turned on Gordon.
Tm Montgomerie, Mark Ferguson and Mike Smithson
hahahaha
Yup everyone's laughing at UKIP.
Take off your purple tinted specs, and read Richard Tyndall's comments on this thread and the ones discussing the potential defector.
I don't get why you always cite what other UKIP leaning posters have said (when they agree with you), and expect it to be some kind of stunning killer line to use at me... I couldn't care less if I disagree with them even if we agree on which party we vote for
It's clear that something has got under your skin here - I'd really go get a cup of tea rather than continue here. You're asking for the pee to be taken, which I suspect will annoy you even more.
JK Rowling donates £1m to Scotland's anti-independence campaign Harry Potter author backs Better Together campaign saying it would be a 'historically bad mistake' to leave the UK
I can't believe UKIP would do this as a planned strategy. It seems more likely there was another defector who got cold feet, so they get their new donor to pay his planned donations early to save embarrassment.
I can't believe UKIP would do this as a planned strategy. It seems more likely there was another defector who got cold feet, so they get their new donor to pay his planned donations early to save embarrassment.
Have to agree this seems more plausible.
Having said that I gather Aaron Banks plans to stand in Thornbury and Yate, which is near to Bristol. So maybe he really was the 'big show'.
Having paid ten times as much, does he get to stand in ten times as many constituencies?
Is that legal?
IIRC - You can stand in more than one constituency.
However you can only represent one.
So if you win 2 or more, you have to decide which seat you want to represent, and in the others there's another election, which you cannot stand in.
Soup kitchens have never been so active so our PM offers tax cuts for those earning over £41,750 a year. If I hadn't just finished lunch in a restaurant in Cap Ferrat sitting next to a poodle I'd think Tory England was just a bad dream.
Quite right Roger, you should be paying 90% income tax and on your worldwide assets as well.
@MSmithsonPB: Today's non-defection to UKIP has a touch of Brown's non-election in October 2007 about it. After that the media turned on Gordon.
Tm Montgomerie, Mark Ferguson and Mike Smithson
hahahaha
I'll ask you as well, where are the people who are lauding this master stroke?
To be fair, Mike thought it was a step too far
Mike Smithson @MSmithsonPB · 14m14 minutes ago To defect like this is massive. To do it after the PM's final conference speech before GE2015 was a step too far.
Spot on. It killed the Dome stone dead. PR is about value, and you can't get expectations wrong like that - especially when it comes to trailing about to a venue.
"In political comms you work hard to be helpful and interesting - dragging tired journos hundreds of miles only to under-deliver not good"
Much as they would hate to admit it, but I think personal relations matter to journalists and many of them are now going to bear a grudge against UKIP for making them travel pointlessly for a small beer story.
For anyone who who remembers Millennium Night, I'm sure that the f**k up at Stratford Station, which left hundreds of journalists hanging about without a drink was why the Dome crashed as an attraction.
Thank you Ms Plato. I'm usually told (by journalists & PR people) that it was nothing to do with journalists thirst and all to do with the quality of the product.
My perfect result in 2015 is for UKIP to get at least 5 or 6 seats but Farage not to be one of them. Long term that would be better both for the party and for BOO.
Can UKIP have different national and parliamentary leaders?
It's clear that something has got under your skin here - I'd really go get a cup of tea rather than continue here. You're asking for the pee to be taken, which I suspect will annoy you even more.
JK Rowling donates £1m to Scotland's anti-independence campaign Harry Potter author backs Better Together campaign saying it would be a 'historically bad mistake' to leave the UK
Great speech by Cameron this afternoon, hitting all the right notes on raising the tax threshold for lower and middle income earners and allowing an EU referendum and replacing the Human Rights Act. Even Janet Daley was impressed http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/
The only error in my view was his commitment to ringfence the NHS, in my view that will just increase the burden on other departments like defence, transport, local government and home affairs and justice for cuts until 2018 when non frontline health spending could be cut too and the wealthy encouraged to take out insurance, though I recognise politically it will be popular.
In other news a Tory donor even PB political junkies had to google has given a donation to UKIP and is pissed off he is not getting enough attention for it, Cameron 1, Miliband and Farage 0
The reactions are showing how carried away with the short-term news cycle people really get. £1million to UKIP is terrible news for the Tories who are already very likely to lose. And yet the fact that their leader just gave a speech they like and the donation was a bit overhyped- both extremely short-term points- has the Tories in high spirits
Exactly
Look at the progress UKIP have made in the last 12 months, yet the haters on here deny anything has been positive for them... every defection/donation is bad news, every 2nd place from nowhere in a by election is a disaster, even winning the Euros was announced as disappointing compared to the polls
When Mike posted last years PPB and said UKIP had got the date of this years elections wrong was the most obvious example.. so desperate for a negative story he didnt check it out properly...and he has just done it again on twitter
Now let me see, what happened last time the PB Tories were unanimous that Dave had made an 'awesome speech'. lol.
To be honest, if Labour had pitched the tax threshold changes they'd have been eviscerated for uncosted commitments. But when the media is on your own side it all gets overlooked. And the Libdems must be gutted because Dave has totally stolen their clothes - lets face it, they weren't for even 10k in 2010.
And further, I do want more disposable income, but I want it through increases to basic and pensionable pay, that way the services that make mine and millions of other lives slightly more tolerable can be maintained, if not enhanced. This latest obsession with massive personal allowances just means there are fewer people paying in and less to share about.
@faisalislam: Tory source re: Ukip £1m exTory donor 'DC clear & firm roadmap for 5 years.. While Ukip are only interested in lining their party pockets.'
I don't know what's gone on today within UKIP - we may find out sooner or later. Defections are a funny thing as I've commented on here before. To turn round and attack the party which you've supported both financially and in terms of time for years not to mention the activists who have worked to get you elected seems disrespectful at best.
That said, if a Rubicon is crossed and you can no longer remain, the options are to leave in sorrow or in anger. The problem is, if you're a politician and you want to remain one, that means being in a political party so you have to jump from one to another (ratting, re-ratting or whatever).
Was there a third MP about to join Carswell and Reckless ? Perhaps - it does seem incredible that Farage would play the media game (which he did well for the other two) so badly on this occasion.
The regrettable part seems to be the vitriolic backlash and personal abuse that those who defect have to endure via social media and indeed the political blogosphere. I defy anyone to say they've never done anything to be ashamed of - to have the worst aspects of your life slung across social media simply because of a political decision (or indeed a personal decision) you've made seems grotesquely unfair. If you're an MP and therefore a public figure you have to accept the rough with the jagged - an unelected official or a personal donor to the Party - seems sour grapes to smear his personal life and even worse to tell everyone about it.
@MSmithsonPB: Today's non-defection to UKIP has a touch of Brown's non-election in October 2007 about it. After that the media turned on Gordon.
Tm Montgomerie, Mark Ferguson and Mike Smithson
hahahaha
I'll ask you as well, where are the people who are lauding this master stroke?
To be fair, Mike thought it was a step too far
Mike Smithson @MSmithsonPB · 14m14 minutes ago To defect like this is massive. To do it after the PM's final conference speech before GE2015 was a step too far.
The only ones on my twitter timeline that said it was great news were UKIP people, and I would hardly look credible if I quoted them as an unbiased source
I have a sneaking suspicion that a defector got cold feet if I am honest.. the 5pm press conference was about 5 mins late, which could be an indicator?
@PickardJE: A "pledge" to pay the money over the next 12 months. Not even an actual cheque. @tnewtondunn
This is becoming a PR stunt that is rapidly turning into a disaster. Upsetting the media in this way will do uncalculable damage to UKIP. Small mistakes will in future be magnified.
Well fed and drunk journalists are the best sort usually. Drunk and belligerently disappointed journalists - the worse. Sober and pissed off... a close second.
Spot on. It killed the Dome stone dead. PR is about value, and you can't get expectations wrong like that - especially when it comes to trailing about to a venue.
"In political comms you work hard to be helpful and interesting - dragging tired journos hundreds of miles only to under-deliver not good"
Much as they would hate to admit it, but I think personal relations matter to journalists and many of them are now going to bear a grudge against UKIP for making them travel pointlessly for a small beer story.
For anyone who who remembers Millennium Night, I'm sure that the f**k up at Stratford Station, which left hundreds of journalists hanging about without a drink was why the Dome crashed as an attraction.
Thank you Ms Plato. I'm usually told it was nothing to do with journalists thirst and all to do with the quality of the product.
The reactions are showing how carried away with the short-term news cycle people really get. £1million to UKIP is terrible news for the Tories who are already very likely to lose. And yet the fact that their leader just gave a speech they like and the donation was a bit overhyped- both extremely short-term points- has the Tories in high spirits
Exactly
Look at the progress UKIP have made in the last 12 months, yet the haters on here deny anything has been positive for them... every defection/donation is bad news, every 2nd place from nowhere in a by election is a disaster, even winning the Euros was announced as disappointing compared to the polls
When Mike posted last years PPB and said UKIP had got the date of this years elections wrong was the most obvious example.. so desperate for a negative story he didnt check it out properly...and he has just done it again on twitter
Well I do broadly agree that UKIP mismanaged this one and as a result the reception has been more negative than it should have been. I just think it's so obviously such a minor thing that it shouldn't be changing moods, especially when the overall story (including the million pound bit!) is more positive for UKIP than negative.
@MSmithsonPB: Today's non-defection to UKIP has a touch of Brown's non-election in October 2007 about it. After that the media turned on Gordon.
Tm Montgomerie, Mark Ferguson and Mike Smithson
hahahaha
I'll ask you as well, where are the people who are lauding this master stroke?
To be fair, Mike thought it was a step too far
Mike Smithson @MSmithsonPB · 14m14 minutes ago To defect like this is massive. To do it after the PM's final conference speech before GE2015 was a step too far.
The only ones on my twitter timeline that said it was great news were UKIP people, and I would hardly look credible if I quoted them as an unbiased source
It is great news for UKIP's finances (if the money is actually paid).
Tim Montgomerie former Tory Leader's aide and creator of Conservative Home Tory luvvie and former candidate Iain Dale Mark Ferguson The Editor of Labourlist Mark Wallace Reporter & Commentator for Tory propaganda site Lord Ashcroft's Conservative Home
Hardly an an objective unbiased group one might say
Who are the supportive tweets from, I'm sure one must have flooded in.
I wouldn't know. I do not waste my time with Twitter. Support for the announcement could be trending and it would mean sweet FA to me!
So why post from a position of total ignorance? It makes you look silly.
Well if you look I didn't actually mention Twitter in my original post. You brought it up . I pointed out that all those who were critical have a vested interest in being critical because of their political views and their positions and one doesn't need Twitter to know that. Such knowledge is readily available in all forms of media
It is you who are being 'silly' for even suggesting I was talking from a position of ignorance. Strange as it may seem the world does not revolve around Twitter........
StereoTomy Money is not the Tories problem, they just had a ball filled with dosh from Tory oligarchs, winning the news cycle and providing an uplifting message for swing voters is, and Cameron just provided it
I was unfortunate enough to get roped into some of BT's efforts as a corporate sponsor - jeez. Decisions by Committee don't even come close.
Makes my blood run cold just thinking about all the navel gazing that went on. Oh - and the fecking Faith Zone...
My hubbie went to the auctions once it closed and was gobsmacked at the piles and piles of donated IT/flat screens etc that were just lying about still in their boxes. Millions wasted by the looks of it.
Well fed and drunk journalists are the best sort usually. Drunk and belligerently disappointed journalists - the worse. Sober and pissed off... a close second.
Spot on. It killed the Dome stone dead. PR is about value, and you can't get expectations wrong like that - especially when it comes to trailing about to a venue.
"In political comms you work hard to be helpful and interesting - dragging tired journos hundreds of miles only to under-deliver not good"
Much as they would hate to admit it, but I think personal relations matter to journalists and many of them are now going to bear a grudge against UKIP for making them travel pointlessly for a small beer story.
For anyone who who remembers Millennium Night, I'm sure that the f**k up at Stratford Station, which left hundreds of journalists hanging about without a drink was why the Dome crashed as an attraction.
Thank you Ms Plato. I'm usually told it was nothing to do with journalists thirst and all to do with the quality of the product.
Agreed. Some staff of mine in a past life used to ensure the media were well fed and supported at the time when they filed their reports , just to get the sponsor's name mentioned in the event title. Sponsor their communications centre with top services pays dividends with content hacks.
@MSmithsonPB: Today's non-defection to UKIP has a touch of Brown's non-election in October 2007 about it. After that the media turned on Gordon.
Tm Montgomerie, Mark Ferguson and Mike Smithson
hahahaha
I'll ask you as well, where are the people who are lauding this master stroke?
To be fair, Mike thought it was a step too far
Mike Smithson @MSmithsonPB · 14m14 minutes ago To defect like this is massive. To do it after the PM's final conference speech before GE2015 was a step too far.
The only ones on my twitter timeline that said it was great news were UKIP people, and I would hardly look credible if I quoted them as an unbiased source
I have a sneaking suspicion that a defector got cold feet if I am honest.. the 5pm press conference was about 5 mins late, which could be an indicator?
Nobody is saying that it isn't good news for UKIP, they are saying, correctly, that the handling has been a total abortion, more so now it appears they haven't even got the cash.
I can't believe UKIP would do this as a planned strategy. It seems more likely there was another defector who got cold feet, so they get their new donor to pay his planned donations early to save embarrassment.
Have to agree this seems more plausible.
Having said that I gather Aaron Banks plans to stand in Thornbury and Yate, which is near to Bristol. So maybe he really was the 'big show'.
Having paid ten times as much, does he get to stand in ten times as many constituencies?
Is that legal?
IIRC - You can stand in more than one constituency.
However you can only represent one.
So if you win 2 or more, you have to decide which seat you want to represent, and in the others there's another election, which you cannot stand in.
Interestingly, the only reference I can find on 'Net for him standing in Thornbury is The Insurance Times, but as he works in insurance perhaps they would know more than others. Looks like Steve Webb will be one of the LibDems that we can fit into a mini after the GE.
Still got Clegg's speech to look forward to. I anticipate it'll be a combination of light mockery of Miliband (bit of an open goal) and a lot of "We stopped those Tories eating babies!"
I was unfortunate enough to get roped into some of BT's efforts as a corporate sponsor - jeez. Decisions by Committee don't even come close.
Makes my blood run cold just thinking about all the navel gazing that went on. Oh - and the fecking Faith Zone...
My hubbie went to the auctions once it closed and was gobsmacked at the piles and piles of donated IT/flat screens etc that were just lying about still in their boxes. Millions wasted by the looks of it.
Tim Montgomerie former Tory Leader's aide and creator of Conservative Home Tory luvvie and former candidate Iain Dale Mark Ferguson The Editor of Labourlist Mark Wallace Reporter & Commentator for Tory propaganda site Lord Ashcroft's Conservative Home
Hardly an an objective unbiased group one might say
Who are the supportive tweets from, I'm sure one must have flooded in.
I wouldn't know. I do not waste my time with Twitter. Support for the announcement could be trending and it would mean sweet FA to me!
So why post from a position of total ignorance? It makes you look silly.
Well if you look I didn't actually mention Twitter in my original post. You brought it up . I pointed out that all those who were critical have a vested interest in being critical because of their political views and their positions and one doesn't need Twitter to know that. Such knowledge is readily available in all forms of media
It is you who are being 'silly' for even suggesting I was talking from a position of ignorance. Strange as it may seem the world does not revolve around Twitter........
All the people you listed commented on Twitter, no other medium, you would be wise to stop now.
It's clear that something has got under your skin here - I'd really go get a cup of tea rather than continue here. You're asking for the pee to be taken, which I suspect will annoy you even more.
JK Rowling donates £1m to Scotland's anti-independence campaign Harry Potter author backs Better Together campaign saying it would be a 'historically bad mistake' to leave the UK
Just watched the Nick Robinson report on BBC1 News on Cameron's speech. Cameron was very very impressive.
Let's be fair - this is the Prime Minister's annual speech to the friendliest audience he has to deal with a year before an election. It's not a difficult speech to make to be honest because no one is going to heckle or boo you.
Cameron is good at generalities but suffers from the politician's curse of wanting and needing to be liked. He'll say things that people want to hear or at least the people that matter to him want to hear. For those of us outside the circle, the content is more significant than the tone. It was a typical "jam tomorrow" speech full of rhetoric but short on credible answers to the nation's problems.
@MSmithsonPB: Today's non-defection to UKIP has a touch of Brown's non-election in October 2007 about it. After that the media turned on Gordon.
Tm Montgomerie, Mark Ferguson and Mike Smithson
hahahaha
I'll ask you as well, where are the people who are lauding this master stroke?
To be fair, Mike thought it was a step too far
Mike Smithson @MSmithsonPB · 14m14 minutes ago To defect like this is massive. To do it after the PM's final conference speech before GE2015 was a step too far.
The only ones on my twitter timeline that said it was great news were UKIP people, and I would hardly look credible if I quoted them as an unbiased source
I have a sneaking suspicion that a defector got cold feet if I am honest.. the 5pm press conference was about 5 mins late, which could be an indicator?
Nobody is saying that it isn't good news for UKIP, they are saying, correctly, that the handling has been a total abortion, more so now it appears they haven't even got the cash.
After 10 or even 20 past the hour would have been a better time. Get the headlines out the way and then have the attention of the main news teams filming live. The Conservatives should aim to line up top notch defectors for the day after the Clacton announcement. Or some major scandal within UKIP. There is (i believe) an investigation into an ex UKIP MEP's expenses.
Well fed and drunk journalists are the best sort usually. Drunk and belligerently disappointed journalists - the worse. Sober and pissed off... a close second.
Spot on. It killed the Dome stone dead. PR is about value, and you can't get expectations wrong like that - especially when it comes to trailing about to a venue.
"In political comms you work hard to be helpful and interesting - dragging tired journos hundreds of miles only to under-deliver not good"
Much as they would hate to admit it, but I think personal relations matter to journalists and many of them are now going to bear a grudge against UKIP for making them travel pointlessly for a small beer story.
For anyone who who remembers Millennium Night, I'm sure that the f**k up at Stratford Station, which left hundreds of journalists hanging about without a drink was why the Dome crashed as an attraction.
Thank you Ms Plato. I'm usually told it was nothing to do with journalists thirst and all to do with the quality of the product.
Agreed. Some staff of mine in a past life used to ensure the media were well fed and supported at the time when they filed their reports , just to get the sponsor's name mentioned in the event title. Sponsor their communications centre with top services pays dividends with content hacks.
UKIP Conference "Ukip v.kindly gave journalists a press room with natural light…unlike the Westminster Establishment, who tend to put us in underground tombs"
Still got Clegg's speech to look forward to. I anticipate it'll be a combination of light mockery of Miliband (bit of an open goal) and a lot of "We stopped those Tories eating babies!"
Tim Montgomerie former Tory Leader's aide and creator of Conservative Home Tory luvvie and former candidate Iain Dale Mark Ferguson The Editor of Labourlist Mark Wallace Reporter & Commentator for Tory propaganda site Lord Ashcroft's Conservative Home
Hardly an an objective unbiased group one might say
Who are the supportive tweets from, I'm sure one must have flooded in.
I wouldn't know. I do not waste my time with Twitter. Support for the announcement could be trending and it would mean sweet FA to me!
So why post from a position of total ignorance? It makes you look silly.
Well if you look I didn't actually mention Twitter in my original post. You brought it up . I pointed out that all those who were critical have a vested interest in being critical because of their political views and their positions and one doesn't need Twitter to know that. Such knowledge is readily available in all forms of media
It is you who are being 'silly' for even suggesting I was talking from a position of ignorance. Strange as it may seem the world does not revolve around Twitter........
All the people you listed commented on Twitter, no other medium, you would be wise to stop now.
So what? The medium they commented on is irrelevant to the content of the comment. Just because they posted it on Twitter doesn't make it anymore unbiased. And why would it be wise if I stop? Will the Twitter police come and get me if I don't?
@gabyhinsliff: Best thing that's happened to PM all week: UKIP have pissed off entire press pack by dragging them out to Glos to see a cheque handed over.
@MSmithsonPB: Today's non-defection to UKIP has a touch of Brown's non-election in October 2007 about it. After that the media turned on Gordon.
Tm Montgomerie, Mark Ferguson and Mike Smithson
hahahaha
I'll ask you as well, where are the people who are lauding this master stroke?
To be fair, Mike thought it was a step too far
Mike Smithson @MSmithsonPB · 14m14 minutes ago To defect like this is massive. To do it after the PM's final conference speech before GE2015 was a step too far.
The only ones on my twitter timeline that said it was great news were UKIP people, and I would hardly look credible if I quoted them as an unbiased source
I have a sneaking suspicion that a defector got cold feet if I am honest.. the 5pm press conference was about 5 mins late, which could be an indicator?
Nobody is saying that it isn't good news for UKIP, they are saying, correctly, that the handling has been a total abortion, more so now it appears they haven't even got the cash.
Nobody is saying it is good news are they?
Which it is
Its just a bit tiring to constantly read absolutely everything is always bad news for UKIP... any impartial observer would be staggered that people would try and justify such insanity day after day despite all empirical evidence pointing in the opposite direction.
Abortion isn't a nice word to use to describe anything, and I don't think it even fits here does it?
Still got Clegg's speech to look forward to. I anticipate it'll be a combination of light mockery of Miliband (bit of an open goal) and a lot of "We stopped those Tories eating babies!"
Don't know about that. There was an interesting comment/article from someone saying that Clegg did that last year, and this year he had to go beyond that to sketch out what the Lib Dems are still for.
The opinon polls seem to show that Lib Dem support has continued to fall even from their post-European election low. They need something to attract positive attention.
Well fed and drunk journalists are the best sort usually. Drunk and belligerently disappointed journalists - the worse. Sober and pissed off... a close second.
Spot on. It killed the Dome stone dead. PR is about value, and you can't get expectations wrong like that - especially when it comes to trailing about to a venue.
"In political comms you work hard to be helpful and interesting - dragging tired journos hundreds of miles only to under-deliver not good"
Much as they would hate to admit it, but I think personal relations matter to journalists and many of them are now going to bear a grudge against UKIP for making them travel pointlessly for a small beer story.
For anyone who who remembers Millennium Night, I'm sure that the f**k up at Stratford Station, which left hundreds of journalists hanging about without a drink was why the Dome crashed as an attraction.
Thank you Ms Plato. I'm usually told it was nothing to do with journalists thirst and all to do with the quality of the product.
Agreed. Some staff of mine in a past life used to ensure the media were well fed and supported at the time when they filed their reports , just to get the sponsor's name mentioned in the event title. Sponsor their communications centre with top services pays dividends with content hacks.
UKIP Conference "Ukip v.kindly gave journalists a press room with natural light…unlike the Westminster Establishment, who tend to put us in underground tombs"
Tim Montgomerie former Tory Leader's aide and creator of Conservative Home Tory luvvie and former candidate Iain Dale Mark Ferguson The Editor of Labourlist Mark Wallace Reporter & Commentator for Tory propaganda site Lord Ashcroft's Conservative Home
Hardly an an objective unbiased group one might say
Who are the supportive tweets from, I'm sure one must have flooded in.
I wouldn't know. I do not waste my time with Twitter. Support for the announcement could be trending and it would mean sweet FA to me!
So why post from a position of total ignorance? It makes you look silly.
Well if you look I didn't actually mention Twitter in my original post. You brought it up . I pointed out that all those who were critical have a vested interest in being critical because of their political views and their positions and one doesn't need Twitter to know that. Such knowledge is readily available in all forms of media
It is you who are being 'silly' for even suggesting I was talking from a position of ignorance. Strange as it may seem the world does not revolve around Twitter........
All the people you listed commented on Twitter, no other medium, you would be wise to stop now.
So what? The medium they commented on is irrelevant to the content of the comment. Just because they posted it on Twitter doesn't make it anymore unbiased. And why would it be wise if I stop? Will the Twitter police come and get me if I don't?
You don't get it, so there no point in me wasting my time.
I can see that the Tory fruitcakes on here are alreading popping champagne corks.
Back in the real world, Labour are about 5% ahead in the polls and on course to form the next Goverment while UKIP probabaly have 2 forthcoming by-election victories in the bag.
More importantly, the vast majority of folk are fed-up with being significantly poorer now than in 2010 and with no end to the fall in living standards, this will reflect VERY badly for the Conservatives next May.
Time will tell as ever...
PS - the October MEF (Murali Election Forecast) will be out in the next few days and early indications suggest a slight movement in favour of Labour.
@MSmithsonPB: Today's non-defection to UKIP has a touch of Brown's non-election in October 2007 about it. After that the media turned on Gordon.
Tm Montgomerie, Mark Ferguson and Mike Smithson
hahahaha
I'll ask you as well, where are the people who are lauding this master stroke?
To be fair, Mike thought it was a step too far
Mike Smithson @MSmithsonPB · 14m14 minutes ago To defect like this is massive. To do it after the PM's final conference speech before GE2015 was a step too far.
The only ones on my twitter timeline that said it was great news were UKIP people, and I would hardly look credible if I quoted them as an unbiased source
I have a sneaking suspicion that a defector got cold feet if I am honest.. the 5pm press conference was about 5 mins late, which could be an indicator?
Nobody is saying that it isn't good news for UKIP, they are saying, correctly, that the handling has been a total abortion, more so now it appears they haven't even got the cash.
Nobody is saying it is good news are they?
Which it is
Its just a bit tiring to constantly read absolutely everything is always bad news for UKIP... any impartial observer would be staggered that people would try and justify such insanity day after day despite all empirical evidence pointing in the opposite direction.
Abortion isn't a nice word to use to describe anything, and I don't think it even fits here does it?
It's good news for UKIP the handling was an abortion. Killed stone dead by being dragged out of the womb early, should have let it come to a full and natural term before displaying it to an adoring audience.
Don't know about that. There was an interesting comment/article from someone saying that Clegg did that last year, and this year he had to go beyond that to sketch out what the Lib Dems are still for.
The opinon polls seem to show that Lib Dem support has continued to fall even from their post-European election low. They need something to attract positive attention.
As I posted earlier, Labour have left the LibDems some open and potentially very desirable political territory, namely 'responsible but fair', which I expect they will make a big effort to grab. But will anyone be listening?
"Miliband suffered a memory lapse in Manchester. In his look-ma-no-autocue speech, he forgot to mention the deficit. That was seized upon as hard evidence that Labour has nothing to say on the economy, that both Miliband and his subconscious are in denial about the gap in the public finances. And behind this denial, or so the argument runs, is guilt: guilt for the Labour profligacy that created the mess the coalition have spent four years clearing up.
Since Miliband built no defences against this line of attack last week, Cameron could roam freely across the battlefield, saying whatever he liked. Conscious that polls put the Tories ahead on economic competence, the prime minister could dismiss Labour as a “high-spending, high-taxing, deficit-ballooning shower”.
But the hole predates Miliband’s lapse into amnesia. The truth is, Labour has never fully rebutted the claim that has served as the foundation stone of this government: that it was Labour’s failings, Labour’s fiscal incontinence, that caused economic ruin. Distracted by a leadership contest, the party spent five months in 2010 looking inward while the Conservatives and Lib Dems were busy sealing into the public’s cerebral cortex the notion that it was all Labour’s fault.
Never mind that the crash that shook Britain in 2008 convulsed the entire world, never mind that the economy was in fact recovering in Labour’s final six months. Cameron knows all that cuts no ice with a public that still blames Labour.
So in Birmingham he could cheerfully say, because he knows Labour rarely contradicts him: “You were the people who left Britain with the biggest peacetime deficit in history, who gave us the deepest recession since the war, who destroyed our pensions system, bust our banking system” and more. And every time he says it, he robs Labour of the right to answer back."
@PickardJE: A "pledge" to pay the money over the next 12 months. Not even an actual cheque. @tnewtondunn
This is becoming a PR stunt that is rapidly turning into a disaster. Upsetting the media in this way will do uncalculable damage to UKIP. Small mistakes will in future be magnified.
It's hardly a disaster. I doubt many senior members of the press pack abandoned the Cameron speech to head to Bristol or wherever it was. It was just a bit amateur, which is a surprise as UKIP had seemed to improve their PR over the last year or so. Is Flynn no longer doing it now he is an MEP?
For me the big takeaway of this week is that whatever the UKIP leadership says about taking on Labour in its heartlands it sees the Tories as the real enemy and there's a lot of personal animus behind that. I guess it's because most senior UKIPers have never been near the Labour party and do not feel personally betrayed by the direction they feel it has taken. This may also make it easier for them to reach out to and recruit Tory MPs, donors and councillors - they essentially talk the same language. That does not apply to Labour. And the more UKIP recruits right wing Tories the harder it will be to recruit senior Labour people.
What an amazing day on PB. Cam is a triumph. Labour are toast. Ukip are screwed.
So just like any other day on PB.
Who on here has said Labour are toast or UKIP are screwed, making stuff up to shoot it down is just silly.
UKIP just almost doubled last years donations in one day and rather than think "hang on that could pay them to go all out in the seats they have a chance in, we should be worried" it is painted as bad news on here because it wasn't a defecting MP, and the press will now hate them.. the press hardly love them anyway
I thought Wheeler had previously donated massive sums to UKIP?
Surely this is just small beer - both Con and UKIP have access to colossal sums of money?
I thought Lab and Con both got about £20m last year?
@MSmithsonPB: Today's non-defection to UKIP has a touch of Brown's non-election in October 2007 about it. After that the media turned on Gordon.
Tm Montgomerie, Mark Ferguson and Mike Smithson
hahahaha
I'll ask you as well, where are the people who are lauding this master stroke?
To be fair, Mike thought it was a step too far
Mike Smithson @MSmithsonPB · 14m14 minutes ago To defect like this is massive. To do it after the PM's final conference speech before GE2015 was a step too far.
The only ones on my twitter timeline that said it was great news were UKIP people, and I would hardly look credible if I quoted them as an unbiased source
I have a sneaking suspicion that a defector got cold feet if I am honest.. the 5pm press conference was about 5 mins late, which could be an indicator?
Nobody is saying that it isn't good news for UKIP, they are saying, correctly, that the handling has been a total abortion, more so now it appears they haven't even got the cash.
Nobody is saying it is good news are they?
Which it is
Its just a bit tiring to constantly read absolutely everything is always bad news for UKIP... any impartial observer would be staggered that people would try and justify such insanity day after day despite all empirical evidence pointing in the opposite direction.
Abortion isn't a nice word to use to describe anything, and I don't think it even fits here does it?
It's good news for UKIP the handling was an abortion. Killed stone dead by being dragged out of the womb early, should have let it come to a full and natural term before displaying it to an adoring audience.
I can see that the Tory fruitcakes on here are alreading popping champagne corks.
Back in the real world, Labour are about 5% ahead in the polls and on course to form the next Goverment while UKIP probabaly have 2 forthcoming by-election victories in the bag.
More importantly, the vast majority of folk are fed-up with being significantly poorer now that in 2010 and with no end to the fall in living standards, this will reflect VERY badly for the Conservatives next May.
Time will tell as ever...
The next election appears to be a contest between a resistible force and a movable object.
Yes, the Coalition have presided over a huge drop in living standards, and despite that they have still failed to eliminate the deficit as promised. This should be an open goal for the Opposition.
At the same time, the Opposition is the weakest since 1998, lead by the wrong people, with the wrong strategy. They're not the weakest Opposition that I can remember, but none of the Oppositions that they can compare to had the remotest chance of forming the next government. I can't think of an incoming government in British history that would be as unconvincing as a Miliband ministry.
It's one of the reasons I've long expected a hung Parliament again. Both sides are so bad they both deserve to lose.
I can't believe UKIP would do this as a planned strategy. It seems more likely there was another defector who got cold feet, so they get their new donor to pay his planned donations early to save embarrassment.
Have to agree this seems more plausible.
Having said that I gather Aaron Banks plans to stand in Thornbury and Yate, which is near to Bristol. So maybe he really was the 'big show'.
Having paid ten times as much, does he get to stand in ten times as many constituencies?
Is that legal?
IIRC - You can stand in more than one constituency.
That has changed.
"Standing in more than one constituency 1.13 You cannot stand in more than one constituency at the same UK Parliamentary general election"
What an amazing day on PB. Cam is a triumph. Labour are toast. Ukip are screwed.
So just like any other day on PB.
Who on here has said Labour are toast or UKIP are screwed, making stuff up to shoot it down is just silly.
UKIP just almost doubled last years donations in one day and rather than think "hang on that could pay them to go all out in the seats they have a chance in, we should be worried" it is painted as bad news on here because it wasn't a defecting MP, and the press will now hate them.. the press hardly love them anyway
I thought Wheeler had previously donated massive sums to UKIP?
Surely this is just small beer - both Con and UKIP have access to colossal sums of money?
I thought Lab and Con both got about £20m last year?
its not in UKIPs bank account yet. Question is is it in Banks's to start with. Talk is cheap. No doubt some will come if Banks gets on the UKIP candidate list. But then again I am an old cynic.
Mr. Me, I suspect you're right that we may end with a hung Parliament. There's a very large number of plausible results. Worth recalling that there's also nearly a year to go. Anything from ISIS to ebola to the eurozone sovereign debt crisis or something else could shake the foundations of politics. Remember 2011, when we had earthquakes, tsunamis, a near nuclear meltdown and multiple revolts in north African countries.
My perfect result in 2015 is for UKIP to get at least 5 or 6 seats but Farage not to be one of them. Long term that would be better both for the party and for BOO.
Can UKIP have different national and parliamentary leaders?
I am not sure they can. Campbell-Bannerman was hinting at this the other day. I would have to look at the Constitution in detail to be able to say for sure. More to the point would it be sensible or practical to do so and I think the answer to that is clearly no.
That was really what I was getting at in the post you replied to. I would much rather that Farage was not leading UKIP.
Spot on. It killed the Dome stone dead. PR is about value, and you can't get expectations wrong like that - especially when it comes to trailing about to a venue.
"In political comms you work hard to be helpful and interesting - dragging tired journos hundreds of miles only to under-deliver not good"
Much as they would hate to admit it, but I think personal relations matter to journalists and many of them are now going to bear a grudge against UKIP for making them travel pointlessly for a small beer story.
For anyone who who remembers Millennium Night, I'm sure that the f**k up at Stratford Station, which left hundreds of journalists hanging about without a drink was why the Dome crashed as an attraction.
Thank you Ms Plato. I'm usually told (by journalists & PR people) that it was nothing to do with journalists thirst and all to do with the quality of the product.
It was not only mere journalists affected by the Dome new years eve cock-up, it was their editors. There was no way back after that.
Mr. Me, I suspect you're right that we may end with a hung Parliament. There's a very large number of plausible results. Worth recalling that there's also nearly a year to go. Anything from ISIS to ebola to the eurozone sovereign debt crisis or something else could shake the foundations of politics. Remember 2011, when we had earthquakes, tsunamis, a near nuclear meltdown and multiple revolts in north African countries.
Is seven months "nearly a year"?
Reminds me of "mid term" being used when we were 80% through the term.
So, to be clear, if William Hague had said 'Arron Banks is a splended fellow, he was perhaps the most distinguished Vice Chairman the Basingstoke Tories have ever had", would Mr Banks have given a million quid to the Tories instead?
LOL!
I'm from Basingstoke and *I* haven't heard of him!
Soup kitchens have never been so active so our PM offers tax cuts for those earning over £41,750 a year. If I hadn't just finished lunch in a restaurant in Cap Ferrat sitting next to a poodle I'd think Tory England was just a bad dream.
What an amazing day on PB. Cam is a triumph. Labour are toast. Ukip are screwed.
So just like any other day on PB.
Who on here has said Labour are toast or UKIP are screwed, making stuff up to shoot it down is just silly.
UKIP just almost doubled last years donations in one day and rather than think "hang on that could pay them to go all out in the seats they have a chance in, we should be worried" it is painted as bad news on here because it wasn't a defecting MP, and the press will now hate them.. the press hardly love them anyway
I thought Wheeler had previously donated massive sums to UKIP?
Surely this is just small beer - both Con and UKIP have access to colossal sums of money?
I thought Lab and Con both got about £20m last year?
@toadmeister: I’m hearing rumours that @JamesDelingpole is thinking of defecting from UKIP to the Conservative Party. Come on home, James!
I do like a good sense of humour. Delingpole blogpost today
Face It, The Right Are Going to Lose the Next UK General Election, Unless...
......The moral for UKIP is to go on doing exactly what they're doing. Put the fear of God into the Conservatives; fight like you mean it: it's the only way.
Soup kitchens have never been so active so our PM offers tax cuts for those earning over £41,750 a year. If I hadn't just finished lunch in a restaurant in Cap Ferrat sitting next to a poodle I'd think Tory England was just a bad dream.
"Miliband suffered a memory lapse in Manchester. In his look-ma-no-autocue speech, he forgot to mention the deficit. That was seized upon as hard evidence that Labour has nothing to say on the economy, that both Miliband and his subconscious are in denial about the gap in the public finances. And behind this denial, or so the argument runs, is guilt: guilt for the Labour profligacy that created the mess the coalition have spent four years clearing up.
Since Miliband built no defences against this line of attack last week, Cameron could roam freely across the battlefield, saying whatever he liked. Conscious that polls put the Tories ahead on economic competence, the prime minister could dismiss Labour as a “high-spending, high-taxing, deficit-ballooning shower”.
But the hole predates Miliband’s lapse into amnesia. The truth is, Labour has never fully rebutted the claim that has served as the foundation stone of this government: that it was Labour’s failings, Labour’s fiscal incontinence, that caused economic ruin. Distracted by a leadership contest, the party spent five months in 2010 looking inward while the Conservatives and Lib Dems were busy sealing into the public’s cerebral cortex the notion that it was all Labour’s fault.
Never mind that the crash that shook Britain in 2008 convulsed the entire world, never mind that the economy was in fact recovering in Labour’s final six months. Cameron knows all that cuts no ice with a public that still blames Labour.
So in Birmingham he could cheerfully say, because he knows Labour rarely contradicts him: “You were the people who left Britain with the biggest peacetime deficit in history, who gave us the deepest recession since the war, who destroyed our pensions system, bust our banking system” and more. And every time he says it, he robs Labour of the right to answer back."
If you and Freedland don't think a gigantic unfunded tax cut doesn't indicate a change in focus from deficit reduction there is nothing else I can do for you.
What an amazing day on PB. Cam is a triumph. Labour are toast. Ukip are screwed.
So just like any other day on PB.
Who on here has said Labour are toast or UKIP are screwed, making stuff up to shoot it down is just silly.
UKIP just almost doubled last years donations in one day and rather than think "hang on that could pay them to go all out in the seats they have a chance in, we should be worried" it is painted as bad news on here because it wasn't a defecting MP, and the press will now hate them.. the press hardly love them anyway
I thought Wheeler had previously donated massive sums to UKIP?
Surely this is just small beer - both Con and UKIP have access to colossal sums of money?
I thought Lab and Con both got about £20m last year?
Mike have you got a Yougov average for September please?
Comments
Take off your purple tinted specs, and read Richard Tyndall's comments on this thread and the ones discussing the potential defector.
It's clear that something has got under your skin here - I'd really go get a cup of tea rather than continue here. You're asking for the pee to be taken, which I suspect will annoy you even more.
Will be interesting to see how the land lies in a few weeks when all the froth and bubble, including on here and even amongst thread headers, fades.
However, it still won't mean anything to people out there. The General Election hasn't registered on the consciousness.
i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/12/14/article-1235481-0796520E000005DC-96_306x816.jpg
Reuters Live @ReutersLive
Texas Gov. Rick Perry minutes away from speaking on first Ebola diagnosis in the United States. We'll have it LIVE: http://reut.rs/1rveckl
Mike Smithson @MSmithsonPB · 14m minutes ago
To defect like this is massive. To do it after the PM's final conference speech before GE2015 was a step too far.
Mike Smithson @MSmithsonPB · 14m14 minutes ago
To defect like this is massive. To do it after the PM's final conference speech before GE2015 was a step too far.
May I recommend some in your tea?!
However you can only represent one.
So if you win 2 or more, you have to decide which seat you want to represent, and in the others there's another election, which you cannot stand in.
A bit harsh to call him a zombie now.
It was the Santorum surge that fascinated me.
But it was scary that Perry and Santorum could be so close to becoming POTUS
The only error in my view was his commitment to ringfence the NHS, in my view that will just increase the burden on other departments like defence, transport, local government and home affairs and justice for cuts until 2018 when non frontline health spending could be cut too and the wealthy encouraged to take out insurance, though I recognise politically it will be popular.
In other news a Tory donor even PB political junkies had to google has given a donation to UKIP and is pissed off he is not getting enough attention for it, Cameron 1, Miliband and Farage 0
Look at the progress UKIP have made in the last 12 months, yet the haters on here deny anything has been positive for them... every defection/donation is bad news, every 2nd place from nowhere in a by election is a disaster, even winning the Euros was announced as disappointing compared to the polls
When Mike posted last years PPB and said UKIP had got the date of this years elections wrong was the most obvious example.. so desperate for a negative story he didnt check it out properly...and he has just done it again on twitter
To be honest, if Labour had pitched the tax threshold changes they'd have been eviscerated for uncosted commitments. But when the media is on your own side it all gets overlooked. And the Libdems must be gutted because Dave has totally stolen their clothes - lets face it, they weren't for even 10k in 2010.
And further, I do want more disposable income, but I want it through increases to basic and pensionable pay, that way the services that make mine and millions of other lives slightly more tolerable can be maintained, if not enhanced. This latest obsession with massive personal allowances just means there are fewer people paying in and less to share about.
Golly, that really does make it a soaking wet squib on the PR front. I'm sure it's all very sensible for his personal cashflow, but...
Even Bernie Ecclestone handed over a cheque [that IIRC was never cashed]
That said, if a Rubicon is crossed and you can no longer remain, the options are to leave in sorrow or in anger. The problem is, if you're a politician and you want to remain one, that means being in a political party so you have to jump from one to another (ratting, re-ratting or whatever).
Was there a third MP about to join Carswell and Reckless ? Perhaps - it does seem incredible that Farage would play the media game (which he did well for the other two) so badly on this occasion.
The regrettable part seems to be the vitriolic backlash and personal abuse that those who defect have to endure via social media and indeed the political blogosphere. I defy anyone to say they've never done anything to be ashamed of - to have the worst aspects of your life slung across social media simply because of a political decision (or indeed a personal decision) you've made seems grotesquely unfair. If you're an MP and therefore a public figure you have to accept the rough with the jagged - an unelected official or a personal donor to the Party - seems sour grapes to smear his personal life and even worse to tell everyone about it.
I have a sneaking suspicion that a defector got cold feet if I am honest.. the 5pm press conference was about 5 mins late, which could be an indicator?
But terrible PR given the build-up.
It is you who are being 'silly' for even suggesting I was talking from a position of ignorance. Strange as it may seem the world does not revolve around Twitter........
Hopi Sen
To be fair, in any sane world, a million quid is a far greater political asset than a Mark Reckless.
Makes my blood run cold just thinking about all the navel gazing that went on. Oh - and the fecking Faith Zone...
My hubbie went to the auctions once it closed and was gobsmacked at the piles and piles of donated IT/flat screens etc that were just lying about still in their boxes. Millions wasted by the looks of it.
Cameron is good at generalities but suffers from the politician's curse of wanting and needing to be liked. He'll say things that people want to hear or at least the people that matter to him want to hear. For those of us outside the circle, the content is more significant than the tone. It was a typical "jam tomorrow" speech full of rhetoric but short on credible answers to the nation's problems.
"Ukip v.kindly gave journalists a press room with natural light…unlike the Westminster Establishment, who tend to put us in underground tombs"
twitter.com/IsabelHardman/status/515527617047695360
Remember Sarah Teather? Her singing?
Brrgh!
Nobody is saying it is good news are they?
Which it is
Its just a bit tiring to constantly read absolutely everything is always bad news for UKIP... any impartial observer would be staggered that people would try and justify such insanity day after day despite all empirical evidence pointing in the opposite direction.
Abortion isn't a nice word to use to describe anything, and I don't think it even fits here does it?
The opinon polls seem to show that Lib Dem support has continued to fall even from their post-European election low. They need something to attract positive attention.
Back in the real world, Labour are about 5% ahead in the polls and on course to form the next Goverment while UKIP probabaly have 2 forthcoming by-election victories in the bag.
More importantly, the vast majority of folk are fed-up with being significantly poorer now than in 2010 and with no end to the fall in living standards, this will reflect VERY badly for the Conservatives next May.
Time will tell as ever...
PS - the October MEF (Murali Election Forecast) will be out in the next few days and early indications suggest a slight movement in favour of Labour.
Just a request.
UKIP donation: £1 million
UKIP defection: Reckless!
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/01/david-cameron-election-starting-gun-speech
"Miliband suffered a memory lapse in Manchester. In his look-ma-no-autocue speech, he forgot to mention the deficit. That was seized upon as hard evidence that Labour has nothing to say on the economy, that both Miliband and his subconscious are in denial about the gap in the public finances. And behind this denial, or so the argument runs, is guilt: guilt for the Labour profligacy that created the mess the coalition have spent four years clearing up.
Since Miliband built no defences against this line of attack last week, Cameron could roam freely across the battlefield, saying whatever he liked. Conscious that polls put the Tories ahead on economic competence, the prime minister could dismiss Labour as a “high-spending, high-taxing, deficit-ballooning shower”.
But the hole predates Miliband’s lapse into amnesia. The truth is, Labour has never fully rebutted the claim that has served as the foundation stone of this government: that it was Labour’s failings, Labour’s fiscal incontinence, that caused economic ruin. Distracted by a leadership contest, the party spent five months in 2010 looking inward while the Conservatives and Lib Dems were busy sealing into the public’s cerebral cortex the notion that it was all Labour’s fault.
Never mind that the crash that shook Britain in 2008 convulsed the entire world, never mind that the economy was in fact recovering in Labour’s final six months. Cameron knows all that cuts no ice with a public that still blames Labour.
So in Birmingham he could cheerfully say, because he knows Labour rarely contradicts him: “You were the people who left Britain with the biggest peacetime deficit in history, who gave us the deepest recession since the war, who destroyed our pensions system, bust our banking system” and more. And every time he says it, he robs Labour of the right to answer back."
I think he owes them an explanation.
For me the big takeaway of this week is that whatever the UKIP leadership says about taking on Labour in its heartlands it sees the Tories as the real enemy and there's a lot of personal animus behind that. I guess it's because most senior UKIPers have never been near the Labour party and do not feel personally betrayed by the direction they feel it has taken. This may also make it easier for them to reach out to and recruit Tory MPs, donors and councillors - they essentially talk the same language. That does not apply to Labour. And the more UKIP recruits right wing Tories the harder it will be to recruit senior Labour people.
Surely this is just small beer - both Con and UKIP have access to colossal sums of money?
I thought Lab and Con both got about £20m last year?
Yes, the Coalition have presided over a huge drop in living standards, and despite that they have still failed to eliminate the deficit as promised. This should be an open goal for the Opposition.
At the same time, the Opposition is the weakest since 1998, lead by the wrong people, with the wrong strategy. They're not the weakest Opposition that I can remember, but none of the Oppositions that they can compare to had the remotest chance of forming the next government. I can't think of an incoming government in British history that would be as unconvincing as a Miliband ministry.
It's one of the reasons I've long expected a hung Parliament again. Both sides are so bad they both deserve to lose.
"Standing in more than one constituency
1.13 You cannot stand in more than one constituency at the
same UK Parliamentary general election"
http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/173017/UKPGE-Part-1-Can-you-stand-for-election.pdf
Paul Waugh @paulwaugh 8m8 minutes ago
RT @msstrissha: David Cameron was in Five Guys Solihull, amazeballs >PM chillin' after the Big Speech.
That was really what I was getting at in the post you replied to. I would much rather that Farage was not leading UKIP.
I rather like Mr Delingpole, chatted with him ages ago on email.
Reminds me of "mid term" being used when we were 80% through the term.
I'm from Basingstoke and *I* haven't heard of him!
Face It, The Right Are Going to Lose the Next UK General Election, Unless...
......The moral for UKIP is to go on doing exactly what they're doing. Put the fear of God into the Conservatives; fight like you mean it: it's the only way.
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/10/01/Face-it-the-right-are-going-to-lose-the-next-UK-general-election-Unless