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T_i_B

(14,734 posts)
Fri Oct 10, 2014, 02:55 AM Oct 2014

UKIP (British Tea-Party) gains first elected MP

Source: BBC

The UK Independence Party has gained its first elected MP, with Douglas Carswell taking the seat of Clacton by 12,404 votes.

Mr Carswell, who defected from the Conservatives, knocked his old party - which enjoyed a 12,068 majority at the 2010 election - into second place.

When Mr Carswell - a Tory MP since 2005 - switched party allegiance in August, he also resigned as an MP to trigger the by-election in the Essex seaside town.

In the night's other by-election, Labour held on to Heywood and Middleton but UKIP slashed its majority to 617.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-29549414



Close shave for Labour in Heywood & Middleton, but sadly, it's no surprise that the British equivalent of the tea party has taken Clacton.
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UKIP (British Tea-Party) gains first elected MP (Original Post) T_i_B Oct 2014 OP
Hopefully not a sign of things to come next May Turborama Oct 2014 #1
Another thread about Clacton T_i_B Oct 2014 #2
I saw that and did a facepalm the other day. I'm rooting for Bez to get in and shake things up... Turborama Oct 2014 #7
Have you seen this yet? Turborama Oct 2014 #3
the day before the election legin Oct 2014 #4
Sadly, it wasn't a surprise T_i_B Oct 2014 #5
Which the Tories don't, of course Prophet 451 Oct 2014 #6
If you want toffs T_i_B Oct 2014 #8
Racist UK :( Lenomsky Oct 2014 #9
The insanity spreads. Who owns their secret black box vote "counters"? Diebold? SES? blkmusclmachine Oct 2014 #10
The UK uses paper ballots, counted by hand (n/t) Spider Jerusalem Oct 2014 #11
I was curious about UKIP, so I looked at their website Lydia Leftcoast Oct 2014 #12
Agree - especially with your last line. Nihil Oct 2014 #13
Yes T_i_B Oct 2014 #14
Good points. LeftishBrit Oct 2014 #15
Just posted this in the UK group and thought worth adding here, too... Turborama Oct 2014 #16

T_i_B

(14,734 posts)
2. Another thread about Clacton
Fri Oct 10, 2014, 05:42 AM
Oct 2014

Concerning a bit of art that was clearly taking the mickey out of the attitude of many people in that neck of the woods.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025607794

Turborama

(22,109 posts)
7. I saw that and did a facepalm the other day. I'm rooting for Bez to get in and shake things up...
Fri Oct 10, 2014, 09:17 AM
Oct 2014


(the audio cuts out from 15 to 36 seconds during the Happy Mondays clip)

legin

(3,501 posts)
4. the day before the election
Fri Oct 10, 2014, 05:53 AM
Oct 2014

the bookies had Carswell 1-50 (bet 50 win 1 plus your stake) to win.

The bookies are much better than opinion polls, the Scottish election was a classic example.

T_i_B

(14,734 posts)
5. Sadly, it wasn't a surprise
Fri Oct 10, 2014, 07:21 AM
Oct 2014

Firstly, Carswell has been opposed to Britain's membership of the EU for a long time. He's always struck me as being a 'Kipper with a blue rosette. He was overlooked for promotion by Cameron, so his defection wasn't a huge surprise to me.

Secondly, Carswell has a good record as a constituency MP, and his personal popularity in that area has been a factor here.

Thirdly, the Tendring Peninsular is an area that's very receptive to the UKIP message. It's a conservative area, popular with retired folk. Although the population is overwhelmingly white, it's an area where people do obsess over immigration, and it's known as the most Euro-sceptic constituency in the UK. Whilst there are deprived areas of the constituency such as Jaywick, there are also very rich, snobby areas like Frinton-On-Sea.

Fourthly, this rather repulsive article by Matthew Parris may have convinced a lot of people there that the Tories don't give a monkey's toss about their best interests http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/columnists/article4198515.ece

Prophet 451

(9,796 posts)
6. Which the Tories don't, of course
Fri Oct 10, 2014, 08:49 AM
Oct 2014

Essentially, the contest is between toffs who still think in Dickensian terms and Fascists who've moved onto the mid-Thirties.

T_i_B

(14,734 posts)
8. If you want toffs
Fri Oct 10, 2014, 11:28 AM
Oct 2014

The constituency includes Frinton-On-Sea, very posh and the snobbiest place I've ever visited.

If the Tories can't defend strongholds like Frinton then they have serious problems.

There's enough upper class stuff in that area to make Clacton the sort of seat the Tories really should be able to win and to represent in Parliament. If the Tories are considered too remote from people in places like this then they have serious problems.

Mind you, you can say the same things about Labour and the Lib Dems.

Lydia Leftcoast

(48,217 posts)
12. I was curious about UKIP, so I looked at their website
Fri Oct 10, 2014, 05:58 PM
Oct 2014

There's a lot of "what about me?" on it.

First Margaret Thatcher comes along and wrecks the working class, and then Labour comes along and doesn't undo any of it but does other irritating things (the Iraq War, more surveillance, etc.), so neither option seems appealing.

Whoever started UKIP is nasty but smart. When I was in the UK in 2006 and 2007, I was stunned at how many service jobs were taken by Eastern Europeans: restaurant servers, hotel maids, hotel porters, coffee shop and pub counter attendants, etc. These are typical entry-level jobs, and I began to wonder how an ambitious young person from the council flats could ever get one of them. So a poorly-educated young person who forty years ago (I visited the UK in 1967 as a teenager and saw people younger than me working in all sorts of jobs) would have left school at 15 or 16 and taken a job in a restaurant or hotel goes to apply in 2014 and finds that they are already fully staffed with immigrants. Yet there are few other options for a non-university young person to find a job.

Then there are all those dark-skinned immigrants from the former colonies. They're just--you know, Not Our People. Anything bad anyone says about them will stick.

Tapping into working-class resentment and racism to start a fascist party is nothing new. It worked for Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco, and it's working for the Tea Party and UKIP.

But the when it comes right down to it, the Tories and Labour (and the Republicans and Democrats) have only themselves to blame if the working classes go for fascist parties. If they had been paying attention to the unhappiness of their own people instead of looking for new ways to coddle the 1%, the fascists would have little influence.

 

Nihil

(13,508 posts)
13. Agree - especially with your last line.
Sun Oct 12, 2014, 07:20 AM
Oct 2014

> If they (major parties of both countries) had been paying attention to the unhappiness of their own people
> instead of looking for new ways to coddle the 1%, the fascists would have little influence.

And *that* is where the blame for the rise of extremist parties truly lies: not in one or two vocal activists
but in the dissatisfaction with the current ruling order.

Without the latter, the former would be laughed at as the ranting of a bigoted lunatic. With it, people listen.

T_i_B

(14,734 posts)
14. Yes
Mon Oct 13, 2014, 03:02 AM
Oct 2014

It's the same thing that's driving the rise of the SNP in Scotland.

The 3 mainstream parties are all failing, and that is driving people into the arms of nationalist charlatans.

LeftishBrit

(41,175 posts)
15. Good points.
Mon Oct 13, 2014, 04:47 AM
Oct 2014

Actually, I think that the problem is not so much that many of the population are driven into the arms of fascists as that many feel so unrepresented by any of the parties that they don't see a point in voting at all (similar to the situation in the USA, I suppose). The very high-profile Clacton by-election got a turnout of just over half the eligible voters. The Middleton and Heywood by-election got a 36% turnout.

Therefore, the people who do vote are often the disproportionately extreme types.

But certainly a lot of the UKIP voters are really voting for 'a plague on all your houses'. This actually probably makes them a self-limiting problem in the long term. Once they get slightly more official status, people will get just as disillusioned with them as with the other parties. After all, a tax-cutting former stockbroker is not really the most suitable leader of a populist revolt, and this will become obvious. However, they can cause a lot of trouble in the short term. And the general problem of people feeling increasingly un-represented, and indeed pissed on by the political leaders, will continue.

Turborama

(22,109 posts)
16. Just posted this in the UK group and thought worth adding here, too...
Mon Oct 13, 2014, 09:49 AM
Oct 2014


Absolutely spot on from 35 seconds in.
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