Ukip’s Five Year Plan

[muriel_volestrangler]

That plan is known as the 2020 strategy. As summed up by Chris Bruni-Lowe, the party’s election strategist, its crucial component is to win a seat for Farage in Thanet South, and then to ‘come second in more than 100 northern constituencies’. Then, in the 2020 general election, Ukip can present itself as the only viable opposition party across whole swathes of the deindustrialised North. As Meek made clear in describing Grimbsy, the party’s appeal there is not trivial. The typical Ukip voter is older, whiter, poorer and less educated than the UK norm. It’s a demographic well represented in areas which currently feel they have no choice except to vote Labour, not least because the Conservative party ‘brand’ is still toxic.

This is the real sting in the idea ‘Vote Nigel, Get Ed’. If enough people do vote Nigel, we will indeed get Ed. Then, come 2020, a Labour-led government which has spent five years implementing austerity policies – which it will have to do, to fulfill its manifesto pledge to cut the deficit every year – will have to contest its northern heartland with a non-Tory, anti-austerity alternative. Add to that the possibility of further trouble in the Eurozone, with Ukip howling for a referendum and blaming Europe for all Britain’s troubles, and it’s not hard to imagine Labour having future problems with its traditional Northern vote to rival the ones it currently has with its traditional Scottish vote.

So although Farage is an idiot, he also isn’t. This is a viable plan, though it’s also one which could fail at the very first stage: the Thanet South ballot. Farage has said he will quit as Ukip leader if he doesn’t win the contest there, a three-way marginal between the Tories, Labour and Ukip. (Just to spice things up, the Tory candidate, Craig Mackinlay, is a former deputy leader of Ukip.) When Meek visited the constituency last autumn, Ukip were already throwing resources at the seat. But the latest constituency poll by Lord Aschroft has the Tories with a tiny lead over Ukip. ‘It is frankly just not credible for me to continue to lead the party without a Westminster seat,’ Farage has said, and also ‘if I fail to win Thanet South, it is curtains for me. I will have to step down.’ Politicians are good at saying things which when closely parsed allow them to change their minds, but there doesn’t seem to be much wiggle-room for Farage. If he loses, Ukip’s whole plan goes down the plughole. A big, big part of the 2020 general election is taking place right now, in Thanet South.

http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2015/04/16/john-lanchester/episode-ten-ukips-five-year-plan/

[LeftishBrit]

1. Sorry to hijack your thread, but didn't want to post this revolting UKIP-related headline as an OP

It's from the Mirror, so I HOPE it's not true, but probably it is.

Ukip candidate says woman writer 'needs a shag' and 'would love a big black thing up her a***'



The Ukip candidate in Tony Blair's old constituency has sparked outrage by saying a well-known female columnist 'would love a big black thing up her a***'.

John Leathley said left-wing writer Yasmin Alibhai-Brown 'needs a shag' and sex with her could be 'practice' - prompting her to hit back at his claims as 'appalling'.

The 23-year-old made his rant in a young Ukip members' Facebook conversation in November, when Ms Alibhai-Brown appeared on the BBC's Question Time.

He is now standing as a parliamentary candidate in Sedgefield, County Durham, near where he studies at Durham University.


(More at link):


http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ukip-candidate-says-woman-writer-5640776#ICID=sharebar_twitter


I am not surprised that he was selected as a UKIP candidate. I AM a bit shocked that he managed to get into Durham University! I pity his lecturers and fellow-students, especially the women.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. I don't see him coming 2nd in that northern constituency ...

Appalling, but not that uncommon in UKIP. To get a full set of candidates together, they really had to scrape the bottom of the barrel.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. What would a Five Year Plan be without shooting your opponents?

UKIP candidate Robert Blay suspended over shooting threat

A UKIP candidate has been suspended after being filmed apparently threatening to shoot a Conservative rival.

Robert Blay, who is standing in North East Hampshire, was secretly filmed by the Daily Mirror making the comments about Ranil Jayawardena.
...
Ex-Conservative Mr Blay noted Mr Jayawardena had been tipped as Britain's first Asian prime minister.

The Mirror reported that he said: "If he is I will personally put a bullet between his eyes. If this lad turns up to be our prime minister I will personally put a bullet in him. That's how strong I feel about it."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-england-32595003

Plus a comment that Jayawardena is "not British enough to be in our parliament".

[LeftishBrit]

4. Wow. Sounds like a cross between Stalin and the Wild West...

With plenty of good old neo-Nazi racism thrown in.

P.S. there were British Asian MPs in the days of Good Queen Victoria.