Is Nigel Farage the new Nick Clegg?

[David Johnson]

Well if you support them, Argie, I rest my case.

"UKIP is appealing to the man in the street, who has no representation among the big 3. People are liking their policies and will vote for UKIP on Thursday"

Are we talking about the man in the street who likes:

1. The idea of a flat rate of tax which means that there is a huge black hole in the government's revenue resulting from enormous tax cuts to the wealthy.

2. The plan to fill that black hole by getting rid of public sector workers like you, Argie.

3. The idea of repealing the Human Rights legislation brought in at the end of World War II to protect freedom and liberties.

4. The idea of stopping investment in renewable energy sources.

5. The plans to increase defence spending by 40%. THat should come in useful for financing a few unnecessary wars.

6. The plans to dismantle workers' rights. I seem to recall UKIP was dead against paid maternity leave.

Yep, Argie, all solid policies for the man in the street.

Turkeys voting for Xmas?

[Cuntybollocks]

How very odd David, you said they had two policies and then asked us what other policies they have, then you list a total of six.

I smell shite from you dear boy, yep utter shite. !poke!

[David Johnson]

I love it when your mask slips and the real Cunty is revealed. Very funny.

The point is dear Cunty the only two policies you hear Nasty Nige banging on about ad infinitum are getting out of the EU and stopping immigration.

The policies I mentioned are all policies that UKIP supported at the time of the 2010 election and to varying degrees since then but only when they have been stuck against a wall and had their bollocks squeezed when asked about the basic rate of tax.

The fact that the vast majority of UKIP voters don't appear to know about them is that Nasty Nige feels that it isn't in UKIP's interest to make a big thing of them in areas where there are lots of working class voters so when asked he tends to be very hazy about them and takes the interview back to nasty immigrants and the evil EU.

Now run along dear Cunty and do stop being impolite. It's very childish!

[David Johnson]

"There is no real similarities outside being leaders of parties who aren't the main two who've had a duopoly on the British politics since WW2."

This is wrong.

1. Both Farage and Clegg have a track record for coming across very well in terms of their public speaking. Both have a natural, largely unrobotic way of speaking.

2. Both are completely without scruples. Clegg saw the main chance and stabbed students, his own activists in the back in return for power. Farage is an extreme right wing businessman who will make ordinary, working people suffer.

3. Both banged on about the new politics and being completely different from the political establishment. This is not true in either case. Both Clegg and Farage are as political establishment as it gets.

[Essex Lad]

Yes I know public school, stockbroker etc but to call Nigel Farage "political establishment" is nonsense.

The fact that he is not part of the establishment is why all the other parties are coming up with these smear stories about Ukip because they are scared that people will vote for them and the cosy duopoly will be smashed.

And to the berk who said that Ukip would not win a seat, it's the Euro elections on Thursday not the General and they already hold 12 seats, the second biggest number.

[Essex Lad]

David Johnson wrote:

. Call
> me Nick did very well in the election

No, he didn't ? his party were 5 seats worse off than before the election. If it hadn't been for the fact that no one won the election he would not have got a sniff of power.

[David Johnson]

Clearly he is part of the political establishment. In terms of:

1. Background. His father was a stockbroker. Farage was educated at Dulwich College, a public school and worked in the City as a trader.

2. Political experience. He has been an MEP for 15 years.

3. Keen to make money out of his political position. He boasted that he had trousered ?2 million in taxpayers' money for staff, travel and other expenses whilst an MEP.

4. Leader of a mainstream political party IN the 2009 European elections UKIP won the second biggest share of the vote beating both Labour and Lib Dems.

Just because his views might be unpalatable to some does not mean he isn't a long term member of the political establishment.

[David Johnson]

Yes he did very well in the election by increasing the Lib Dems proportion of the vote at the time that Labour, the other centre party had a drastic drop.

This allowed the Lib Dems to hold the balance of power between Tories and Labour.

You need to set the Lib Dems electoral performance against the overall way the wind was blowing in 2010 i.e. against centre, centre left parties and towards right wing alternatives.

In that context Clegg and the Lib Dems did well.

[Bob Singleton]

Interesting bit I saw on BBC News the other night... Nick Robinson (the BBC's Political Editor) was following Farage around while he was drumming up votes.

NR started interviewing people who said that they would be voting UKIP. He asked them if they knew what UKIP's policy was on the economy (didn't know), taxes (didn't know), renewable energy (didn't know), etc., etc. In effect the ONLY think they knew was that UKIP wanted to get Britain out of the EC and get rid of all the nasty foreigners. Farage just stood in the background grinning like an idiot, as if he was perfectly happy that his supporters have no idea what else he stands for other than those two core ideas.

Frightening!

[Essex Lad]

By 1 per cent. Hardly earth-shattering.