Be Excellent To Each Other

I'm struggling to see what this has to do with politics?
Appreciate I haven't been around much of late (too busy), but surely this stuff belongs in the B&B thread.

Btw, haven't forgotten earlier posts, Curio's in particular.

Oh, I certainly have!

Another UKIP MP? This can't be a freak result. Maybe Middle England *is* actually xenophobic and close minded.

I keep thinking of the shitted bed quote from Stewart Lee.

I dread the day I express disgust about it however and find that the person I'm talking to voted UKIP.

My mother in law, who is a retired nurse, best friends with an immigrant family, completely lovely, non-racist, absolutely against right wing views, pro-EU, completely and utterly liberal, has decide she's going to vote UKIP "because the Tories are bastards and the thought of Milliband in charge is a nightmare".

I'm beginning to get the distinct impression that UKIP are right that they're not just supported by close minded racists. I think they have, amazingly, become the Liberal Party of the modern times. It may well be because the negative media attention on them has caused a lot of people to think the opposite of what Polly Toynbee is telling them to think.

In most cases, believing the opposite of what Polly Toynbee is telling you what to think is the entirely the correct course of action.

Not just because it's Polly Toynbee, but because she absolutely does tell you what to think. If it was a sensible thing to believe in she would persuade, not tell.

Don't be a fucking idiot. Have you seen their policies?

Just because some well meaning fools vote for them as a protest, doesn't mean they're not despicable cunts.

Did I say that? No. Learn to read, you cockspasm.

They are a bunch of cunts, but their supporters are not all the racists they're portrayed to be. Despite what UKIP itself is, they've managed to convince a lot of otherwise normal people that they're a good bet to vote for as the anti-mainstream political party.

Sorry but anyone who is "pro-EU" who votes for UKIP has to be a complete moron. The clue's in the name.

Shit sorry dude, I only just re-read that and noticed you were talking about your mother in law. I didn't mean moron as such, I meant...something else.

She's fully aware of what their position on the EU is, it's just wanting a protest vote - the Liberals aren't really an option for most people now.

I'm quite seriously worried that many many many people are going to take a similar approach. So UKIP won't be brought into Parliament on a tide of racist votes, just a load of people fed up with what we've got now and not really thinking too hard about the consequences of sticking it to Cameron and Milliband.

Well that's just daft. I'd have thought that it was a given that anyone who votes UKIP would at least be anti-EU.

I believe this is the point Mr Chris is making.

UKIP voters aren't all foaming racist idiots. Which is bad, because now there's more of them.

My dad is exactly the same, he is not at all right, or racist, none of my family are my sister in law is Indian, my cousins wife is from Iran. Yet he voted UKIP in the EU elections as he is piss sick of the other options, he won't vote that way in the UK elections though, he viewed the EU as such a waste of time that he felt OK sending a protest vote.

The thing with Farage is that he comes across as a "decent" bloke to lots of people. Also shit never sticks to him, he has utter nutters in his party that say extreme things, there have been a number of attempts to chuck shit at him and he just brushes it all off and moves on.

Also he is anti EU but has milked that gravy train for years

I think really the other leaders are seen as self serving and out of touch and as a result anything is seen as better by a lot of people.

Very much this. It also explains the rise of the Greens and the SNP's success.

It would be good if there was a mainstream Eurosceptic party of the centre or on the left, as it would help dispell the view that being against the EU is solely a right-wing or racist opinion.

Yes I understand that and being anti-EU doesn't make someone a racist idiot but it should really be a pre-requisite for voting for a party who call themselves the UK Independence Party.

I'm not sure anyone would be able to stand behind and defend such a withering, scornful attack as "Image from Rochester". Take that, common man!

This perhaps tells you just how fed up people are with the mainstream parties, then.

I saw 'Ironclad' once. Seemed a pretty violent town.

Didn't you know? Hanging the Cross of St George is racist.

But, then, looking at that photo, I would put the chances of the inhabitants of that house as being racist as pretty high. Does that make me a bad person for thinking that? Am I out of touch with the common man?

I've always considered you pretty common, if that helps.

The very concept of disliking the right wing government and their posh ways, so voting for someone equally posh and rich, but even more right wing, is just mental. Especially if you actually know you disagree with their politics.

"I dislike this thief, so I will embrace this murderer!"

You think i'm pretty?!

<blushes>
<twirls hair>

Oh you'll never get it right....

Tangental but connected. My facebook has been largely thrown open for the past few weeks and I have a lot of new 'friends' who I wouldn't normally have accepted.

One of said new friends is the father of the kid that my son had swimming lessons with when we were in Egypt recently, and was his super best friend when we were away. The mothers friended each other on the last day of the holiday.

Popping up in my feed for the past couple of days has been a lot of him sharing BNP stuff. Not 'Britain First' which is borderline understandable, but proper, actual, undisguised BNP stuff. A real shame, I thought he was a good bloke on holiday as we consumed the entire Gin stock of the resort.

If you still want to keep the contact, then unfollow him so he still appears on your friends list but doesn't appear on your newsfeed. Otherwise, I think BNP or racist material is a swift 'unfriend' offence.

Absolutely done already. The list of 'friends' I have on facebook that I don't follow was already significant.

Fuck you too buddy.

xxx

This is interesting. Yes.

http://i.imgur.com/ox4y7TR.png

That appears to imply that virtually no-one who voted Green in 2010 will vote Green in 2015, but their share of the vote increases?

Colour me green sceptical.

No it doesn't, one of the grey lines represents the non movers, it's small but not in relation to their 2010 share.

The 'Today' grey line is about 50% of the 2010 starting figure. So maybe not virtually no-one, but still an implication that a lot of their voter base has gone elsewhere, which seems odd for an idealistic party.

I think perhaps that might be to do with the size of the infographic and the thinnest line which would actually even show up.

I instantly remove anyone xenophobic or racist from my social life. I just don't tolerate that shit. I'm even less tolerant of that during the last 8 years of course because I'm seen how that kind of backwards nastiness affects people. Now I'm at the stage where I don't want anything to do with the 'out of Yurp' type people, because honestly, if they think people like my girlfriend and a lot of my friends should be deported and repatriated, well, fuck them.

What about if the pendulum swung far enough that it could be argued more so than now that being in wasn't a good deal for the UK, but people from the EU countries could stay and work if fulfilling visa requirements? Is it the "repatriate foreigns" that you don't like or the view that being in isn't ideal? Genuine question.

Would you be happy about the thought of your wife and child, and many friends of yours, possibly being forcefully deported in a few years time? I shouldn't have to explain that. What's going on now makes life and planning for the future incredibly uncertain and difficult.

I know what spousal visas for non-EU migrants cost and the bullshit that comes with it, I'm not realistically going to be able to afford that, neither would the majority of British people with partners and spouses from the rest of the EU. Families will be destroyed, by the thousand, lives ruined. The state has no business breaking up families and relationships purely because of nationality.

(Also: It works both ways. Leaving the EU will make life a lot harder for British citizens to work in and even visit the rest of Europe - why should we be 'caged in' to our little island and not have the opportunity to go elsewhere if we have the ability to do so?)

There is no good argument for leaving the EU, all there is is anti-immigration feelings fueled by xenophobia and ignorance. A UK outside the EU would still have to pay the membership fee in order to continue trading with the EU, and would have no democratic say in steering or reforming the EU in the future. The EU is imperfect, but it exists for a reason, will exist for a long time to come in some form or other, and we're a European nation. Throwing the baby out with the bathwater due to nationalistic hubris is not going to be good for the future of the UK.

soz Anon. Post deleted.

Come on dude, don't de-cry anyone with a differing opinion as unworthy. The EU is a necessary evil in my eyes, a bit shit but worth putting up with and ukip voters strike me as generally....... Icky.

Soz Anon. Post deleted.

Yes, that's clearly the case.

Cavey, don't start abusing me directly if you're heading in that direction. I'm not in the mood for showing screen grabs to the local police station again. Particularly not on a Friday evening when the nearest police station closed recently.

OK, sorry man. Genuinely.

If I'm having that kind of effect it certainly isn't intended; I disagree with you but mean you no harm at all. I will delete the post now.

Okay conceded X does say there's NO good reason and clearly there are a few but reading X's post without the purely literal filters on and also in my own opinion the cons to leaving outweigh the pros. Of course if I was to skew my view of the world presume that the Brits were better than everybody else and for that reason should keep our lump of rock to ourselves then that would change everything. Besides all that, this is a public forum and no one should be banished to a "lesser" thread where cranially challenged dim-wits can belm at each other without upsetting their mentally superior counterparts. That last in sarcasm of course.

Oops... Seems there's editing to be done, standing by...

I wouldn't worry. Somewhere in there one of the sentences is 50% formed, that'll do