Gerald Warner on his blog ...

Three former Labour cabinet ministers are caught touting for lobbying jobs, Samantha Cameron is expecting a baby – and still the polls get worse for the Tories. Why? Because the electorate doesn't give a damn, that's why. Cameron gave a good reply to the Budget, whine the baffled ones, but it doesn't seem to have helped. Of course it hasn't helped because only a few pathetic anoraks know or care about it...

View full article here

The system of voting is frustrating in itself if you hate the leader but like the candidate in your area as he may have a couple ounces of brains. In most cases it usually is who will screw up my life the least is who you vote for. And they usually fail to the expectations at that.

That is the classic choice ... voting for the one you loathe least or, failing that, ignoring the big picture and voting for the local man. However, since parliament has given away most of its powers, the main relevance of MPs is to form an electoral college to vote in their leader who will then become the UK member of the EUropean Council.

Gerald wrote "No normal person in Britain has the slightest identification with what happens in Parliament."

If you were an MP would you want it any other way? Except for a few on the fringes who see salvation in referenda and suchlike the last thing many of them want is politics that involves the great unwashed in the decision making process beyond once every 4-5 year.

I shall follow the policy I have followed since Mrs Thatcher was knifed in the back. Vote for the largest party other than LibLabCon. Which down here means UKIP. It is not that I believe in their primary policy but I just want to introduce a little uncertainty into things.

Personally, I am hoping Labour ends up as the largest party in a hung parliament. Think of the fun...............

I can only see it through the prism of my own experience. For decades, parliament has been an important part of my life, and my regard for the parliamentary process has been high. Gradually, though, I have almost completely lost interst in anything to do with parliament. It has become totally irrelevant, to the point of being an object of contempt. The power has drained away, leaving self-seeking imposters, who are nothing but idle mouths to feed.

http://www.ukip.org/media/policies/UKIPManifestoWeb.pdf

---If you can't stand Cameron but loathe Brown even more, have a look at the best Manifesto going, before you cast your vote.

Since liberal fascism is looking so much like Germany prior to WWII (just look at Canada, for example) it would be interesting to see the BNP get up and take power.

I'd be careful about voting for UKIP, in all fairness. After reading that most of UKIP's MEPs walked out of an important vote about giving tax money to the third world in response to "climate change", leaving only Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons to vote against it, I've lost respect for UKIP. The vote only narrowly won by 5 votes. Had UKIP have stayed, the issue would have been defeated.

Will do some independent research on it tonight but if it is true, well, maybe the BNP could truly be the only party looking after British interests.

Still, I guess it'll come down to Tory voters and upper middle class votes going towards UKIP with working class and lower middle class votes going towards the BNP.

It really does make me wonder if the Tories can ever again produce a Margaret Thatcher figure or if the future will increasingly become dominated by the tiddlers? Who knows?

It seems to me that political leaders are like storms. Just as you get your '20 year storm' or '50 year storm' so with stature of political leadership

Trouble is that Thatch was a "once in a century" storm. And now the Tory gene pool it so shallow that you do not even need to roll up your trousers to paddle in it. There is no immediate prospect of a replacement.

I think the term "middle class" is wholly outdated. I appreciate your distinction between upper and lower middle class.

I ate in a five star restaurant a couple of weeks ago and felt completely untrained for the experience. You are in above your head when the waiters sneer at the Oxbridge graduates at your table, despite their discussion of a forthcoming skiing excursion. I'd call them upper middle, anti-establishment voters, potentially UKIP, although I've tried to steer one away from the Greens. Proving that cultural training is a big part of acceptance into the elite, I got a discrete tap on the head from the waiter - I don't think it was an accident - for impulsively putting my hand over my glass when I wanted to decline wine! Fortunately I did not have to demonstrate my eco-credentials. I also for a split-second wondered when the vegetable dish would be coming when I was delivered the perfectly manicured main. Give-away lower middle class, that. At least I now know what the uniform of the upper class is: cotton trousers or jeans (new rich), a shirt (preferably striped) and a light, logo-less jersey, worn either around the neck, like the French, around the waist or over the shirt. That means you eat in five star restaurants a lot and you only really dress up when you throw a domestic for the 3rd Earl of Whatsitshire.






One reason Thatcher could rise was because she was a woman, because the toffs could use her sex as a battering-ram against their rivals - on the basis that if a woman can understand such a thing as monetarism you must be a complete fool not too! Another reason was the leadership dearth amongst the men of her age-group. Most of Thatch's main rivals were, by the mid 1970s, dead, unknowns, killed off between 1940-45.

Reading the comments on Warner's page, it seems an awful lot intend to vote UKIP. I don't know....I'm just getting to the point where I feel UKIP is really a 'paper tiger' - no substance. They can talk the talk but walking the walk is another matter entirely. It seems most of their MEPs are in it primarily for the money and that party has more inner strife and fallings out then the BNP!

I hate to say it but even I'm beginning to think the only true opposition is the BNP. I just find the party is more dedicated and seems to function on a whole better then UKIP. Its more in touch with the realities of British society where as UKIP just seems to focus entirely on the EU issue.

That said, its not going to stop the life long Tory voters from going UKIP. Who knows? They might make an effective opposition. But deep down, I feel UKIP won't really go anywhere. You've got posters on Warner's blog hoping for David Davis to return and merge with UKIP, saving the Tory Party! But even I know this is unrealistic at best.

Still, if Gerald Celente is right and we are bound to experience another huge economic crash in 2010, should we have a hung parliament in power when it does occur eventually, should make for interesting times I'll say.

therewaslight: Well the upper middle class and the lower middle class I used as terms because they differ heavily. Upper middle is usually those in professional occupations and with good backgrounds. The lower middle class is really the working class albeit they've been able to get into managerial positions and make a bit of extra cash. Unlike the upper middle, the lower middle is feeling the squeeze a lot more - hence why they usually go down the route of the BNP.

I don't think it really matters ... UKIP is not going to form a government - a vote is essentially a protest vote and, although there are those who would argue otherwise, a protest vote is as valid as any other. After all, are we not being asked to vote Tory as a protest against Labour misrule? One commentator I noted was arguing for a vote to bring Cameron down, and indeed many were suggesting DD as an alternative. Frankly, I don't think that much of DD, but it is very hard to identify any acceptable Tory leader. We can only hope that, cometh the hour, cometh the man ... which is a pretty forlorn hope.

However, it is easier to be negative than positive ... we can be clear on who we will not vote FOR ... one is Cameron, the other is Brown. Ideally, neither would get in, but realistically it is going to be one or the other, unless we do see a hung parliament. That, as a statement, is my preferred option and many feel the same. We need a revolution in politics, and that is one way of saying so. To continue the status quo, by opting for buggin's turn - Tories now, until we get sick of them and turn back to Labour - is no longer acceptable. If we want long-term change, we have to accept that the price is short-term disruption.

You don't have to vote for UKIP or BNP or even the Greens because you believe in their policies. The aim is to just throw a spanner in the works. Force the buggers to do some grown up thinking.