http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... id-cameron

:s


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In actual fact it's 'Tory constituency re-elects Tory MP wearing different badge'. I'm not sure how much we can read into these by-elections given the ones UKIP have won have both been with the incumbent defecting to UKIP - we've yet to see them fight a seat they don't already hold, in effect. I kind of expect them to cause a certain amount of chaos at the general election but I don't for see them ending up with a lot of seats.

One thing though, it now seems LD = Lost Deposit. I hope you lot think four years in some sad, washed out version of power was enough to flush your party's entire future down the toilet for.

Greens did a very respectable score.

Back when i was a yoof, rebelious teens would vote for anarchy, communists, greens. How did the switch go to everyone voting UKIP

Try a decade of the Daily Fail and others screaming about how immigrants are here to nick your job and undermine the NHS and the main political parties failing pretty much completely to pay any attention to the concerns of the bulk of the country.

There does come a point where you can't really dismiss UKIP votes as 'protest votes' any more. I'm not sure we're at that stage yet but I'd say the idea that the major party's behaviour has left a large chunk of people feeling disenfranchised is pretty much beyond argument. In that case, those votes are going to go somewhere.

If Tesco stops selling a product I like and I therefore go and shop at Asda instead, that's not 'protest shopping', it's just shopping somewhere that I feel better fulfils my needs.

I suppose the test is the general election - surely one of the attributes of of a 'protest vote' is it's a vote cast when it doesn't feel like the result matters. I'm not sure many people 'protest vote' at a general election...

That’s like saying “Tesco no longer stocks my favourite brand of beans, so I’ll go to Asda’ - problem being that ALL that Asda advertises is the beans, and they won’t tell you directly that they stock anything else, or even IF they stock anything else. When you get to Asda, sure, the beans are there, but so’s the ivory, tiger pelts and whale meat. And it’s a two-slice of whale minimum purchase if you want the beans.

Nicely put Sir!

well done UKIP ...

they also won the local council elections as well ...

I think you're over analysing the analogy just a tad

A large proportion of people feel disenfranchised because what they want is cheap demagoguery. That's all that UKIP can offer, because they are unprincipled. It's all that some people want, because they are thick.

Wait, so... Asda stock whale meat? Is this a national thing, or is it just in your local store?

What...?

Seriously?

You expected a sensible answer?

From me?

OK, how's this for an idea... I will vote for the first party who employ a leader that I wouldn't really like to punch in the face. Sounds perfectly reasonable to me.

Well.... actually, no.. I was replying to Paul.


You're asking for the moon on a stick!

Mmmmm whale meat