Hang on John, Farage blamed being late on an m4 traffic jam caused by Romanians. Most importantly, I said UKIPs voters would be overwhelmingly NOT racist and homophobic. This does not take away the following gaffes. Gerard Batten MEP demanded British Muslims sign a commitment to abstain from violence and extremism Godfrey Bloom (again) speaks against sending aid to ‘bongo bongo land Suggesting Lenny Henry should emigrate ‘Businesses should be allowed to refuse services to women and gay people
I don't see that at all, and I do drink in Glasgow and Edinburgh now and then. At the referendum, every English person I know, voted YES, apart from one.
No need to worry, there won't be any more Old Firm games! Rangers went bust a few years ago, may do so again. As a Celtic supporter, I would rather Rangers win the champions league than England win the World Cup. Mainly because you would still be going on about it 50 years later. Just intolerable. When Rangers played Leeds years back, I cheered when McCoist scored with that great diving header. Nothing to do with being anti English, Mrs749er is English as are many of my friends, here and down south.
The SNP have nothing to do with it. Ukip support was on the rise before the Scottish referendum was held. Post-referendum political jockeying has no bearing on it at all. If there is tactical voting to head off an SNP/Labour coalition it is more likely to come from disaffected Tory voters who loathe Cameron and the Blairite direction in which he has taken the party and who might otherwise have stayed at home, but will loathe the thought of Labour even more. People vote Ukip because there is no other party in the UK committed to British withdrawal from the EU. People who are sick of the EU, its corruption, waste, its antidemocratic autocracy and all the disadvantages, burdens and loss of sovereignty which our membership inflicts have nowhere else to go. Most will not be deluded into thinking they are voting for a Ukip government. Many will not even be voting for Ukip parliamentary representation, they will be voting to encourage the anti-EU momentum which they hope will one day overturn the current political consensus. As such they are most unlikely to give a toss about sanctimonious prigs aghast at talk of poofters, Chinkies and Bong-bongo land. The current state of chaos in establishment politics would seem to vindicate that view. Many Ukip voters don't differentiate between Labour and Tory. They will have no difficulty adding the SNP to that bloc. All are pro-EU and government by any of these parties represents a continuation of the status quo. Mr Salmond's decision to stand for Westminster may galvanise loyal but dejected Tory voters but many of them will be more repelled by the thought of Labour than the SNP. (A lot of Tories supported Scottish independence for just that reason.) Ukippers will judge they have nothing to lose by voting Ukip (or to put it another way, by not voting for a party of government). Few Ukippers will be in the slightest swayed by Mr Cameron's renegotiation carrot either, partly because of his transparent insincerity and self-professed Europhilia and partly because they know perfectly well that the EU will never permit such negotiations to take place, as other EU leaders continually remind them. Just my opinion, of course, but I think the EU genie (like the Scottish independence genie) is well and truly out of the bottle and "normal" politics will not never resume until both matters are settled by secession.
I love how people think that "being ruled by Brussels" is in any way worse (or different ffs) from "being ruled by Westminster" (or Edinburgh, for that matter). Neither bunch of sociopaths has my interests at heart, nor those of any of anyone else on the forum (forumite billionaires excluded, obviously). The only person whom you can trust to "rule" your own household is you (or the wife, of course). If someone took over the leadership of your street, there will immediately be drift in terms of common ground and common cause. Similarly for your parish, town or county. The link between yourself and the next strata along gets more and more tenuous, on above Westminster, above Brussels, then on to Washington and from there to however the hell it is that is really running things. Deciding that Westminster is the ultimate authority for you seems arbitrary to me, these days. It's old fashioned and has its roots in sailing ships and "the largest navy in the World". Gone. Finished. Don't get me wrong, if I felt for one single fucking second that Westminster's first loyalty was to the population, I could be persuaded to vote anti-EU. The fact is though that for me, an "entirely sovereign" Westminster government and the current set-up are roughly the same. The only difference is whether we can partake of the "common market of Europe" as an equal partner. Or you can get used to shaking your begging bowl at the European trade cartel, knowing all the while that Europe sneers at splitters whom they never really liked in the first place. Questions?
I agree Loz. The rise of anti-EU sentiment is not a vindication of Westminster, which is why Cameron's renegotiation nonsense is treated with such scorn by those who are not easily fooled. But if you believe that political power should be devolved as far down and as widely as possible then the very first step is to bring the process back within these shores. Parliamentary sovereignty isn't the final objective, its the starting point.
If I had any faith whatsoever that bringing all control back to Westminster would a. work OK and b. be the start of a wider devolution then I can see a point. However, there is a big problem with this. There is a wider World out there and the smaller you are, the less you get. I don't want to see Bognor autonomy flourish only to see us crushed by the invading Worthing horde. OK, not a serious worry but you see the point. Globalisation is rendering the concept of nationalism, not obsolete, but vulnerable to more competitive models, in terms of trade and diplomatic process. That said, if you can get the process of devolution right, and still maintain a large, confident profile in terms of global diplomacy, I'd be all for it. I just cannot see how it can be achieved. It's like the old cigarette adverts - "Less tar, more taste" which ignores the fact that the tar was the main constituent of the smoke in the first place. Trying to have your cake and eating it, so to speak.
I simply don't believe you. Regarding the referendum every, English person I know living in Scotland voted no. Mind you, I'm talking mainly ex servicemen.
All the servicemen I know wanted a "No" vote, including the Scottish ones (who clearly had concerns about how it would affect their chosen careers).
had a wee look, always interested in what the big man has to say, but looking at the other headlines, bit shady
