Wednesday 1 May 2013

Voting For Clowns

In the lead up to the local elections tomorrow we now have the alleged "right-wing" and "eurosceptic" Daily Mail belatedly joining the anti-UKIP campaign; prominently displaying on its website disparaging - now old - stories of the party. It illustrates yet again that if a referendum was called on our membership of the EU the Daily Mail would not be on our side.

Interestingly faced with the Ukip threat, the Tories particularly but by no means the only party, seem to believe that insulting the electorate is an effective way of garnishing votes. A tactic adopted by Gordon Brown to such dramatically successful conclusions.

Voting Ukip apparently is voting for clowns:
Senior Tories have issued increasingly fierce attacks on Ukip in recent days, including the Cabinet minister Ken Clarke, who branded the party a bunch of “clowns”. 
Cameron of course is trying to distance himself from such remarks while undoubtedly approving of them privately. But it begs the question though if the electorate is willing to vote for a bunch of clowns, as the Tories suggest, isn't it a rather damning indictment of the current lot?

12 comments:

  1. Until the DM retracts their previous comment that they wish the UK to remain in the EU, I will always ask post the question in any article that the DM has "Does the DM still wish to remain in the EU?"

    It has been printed sometimes but other times not.

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  2. The Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph are EUROPHILE papers, for heaven's sake and always have been!

    They are rather like the Conservative party leadership, knowing that a large proportion of their supporters (readers) have a different view - so they make Eurosceptic and Eurocritical noises to play to the gallery whilst remaining rock solid on the commitment to remain in the EU.

    Years ago I debated EU membership in front of the Leicester Students' Union with a chap from the Independent. He seemed quite genuinely surprised when I said this.

    (We won the debate btw!)

    They will run articles on "mad officials" or "straight bananas" but never get to grips with the fundamental constitutional issues. To some extent, their stance may be conditioned by the requirements of pandering to corporate advertisers.

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    1. It's amazing how many don't appreciate the pro-EU stance of the DM. I had copious letters from MPs and Lords in response to me wanting a referendum on Lisbon articulating that a vote would have been "hijacked" by the views of the DM.

      The DM is like all corporate businesses - it loves the EU because it gerrymanders the single market to suit richer companies.

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    2. P.S. Edward I deleted one of your comments because it was carbon copy of the one above - posted twice. Hope you don't mind.

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    3. Straight bananas and mad officials feed the reform line. "We joined a trading arrangement which was OK until it got political. We need to reform it back to its original purpose and cut the red tape".

      Getting to grips with the fundamental constitutional issues resolves to being a member of the EU or not being a member of the EU, with no comfy a la carte option.

      So it's either in or out of the EU and anyone talking about remaining in but reforming it, or repatriated powers, either hasn't understood it, or is trying to deceive others.

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    4. Cosmic - spot on, couldn't agree more

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  3. The daily Mail is just really a tory propaganda rag, thats all. Its kind of like the tory "daily mirror" - The reason both of those papers are trying so hard to discredit UKIP (even though its actually having the opposite effect) is because Con and Lab are terrified of the UKIP vote at the moment. - its going to upset the apple cart much more than not voting or spoiling.

    do i want UKIP to do well, - that actually is beside the point, the point is like so many others out there i just want to give the LibLabCon the hardest kick in the goolies i possibly can. For years they have thought it ok to ignore our wishes, and hit us where it hurts (the pocket) with out ever asking. This is one of the few times we get to hit them back where it hurts them the most (the ballot box)

    I kind of see UKIP as a "steel toe capped scaffolders boot" at the moment. Its going to massivly boost the effect of each kick. And if 20% of the voters are kicking you with steel toe capped boots, its kind of going to hurt a bit.

    That is why they are cowering and using every tactic they can find to put the voters off UKIP

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    1. The reason both of those papers are trying so hard to discredit UKIP (even though its actually having the opposite effect) is because Con and Lab are terrified of the UKIP vote at the moment. - its going to upset the apple cart much more than not voting or spoiling.

      Agreed, democracy works so much better when they are terrified of us - it concentrates the mind.

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  4. The Daily Wail and the Torygraph have really shown their true colours - and they censor the comments they don't like - the comments that are far too close to the truth for the Lefty bastards to stomach.

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    1. The DM is the worse out of all of them for censoring comments, particularly if it calls into question the accuracy of their reporting

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  5. Cameron's history of dealing with UKIP has always been one of incompetence.

    With the fruitcakes jibe, he drew attention to UKIP - he would have done far better to ignore them - and insulted a lot of his own support who were in sympathy with UKIP and prepared to vote for them in the Euros, but were scared of letting Labour in, or thought that UKIP didn't have critical mass.

    Then came the Turnip Taliban jibe, and apart from that a host of other unforced errors.

    Gay marriage and foreign aid are examples of the Tories going out of their way to upset their own support.

    Then there's the thoroughly dishonest, "now you see it, now you don't" policy on the EU, on which they are being called as was inevitable.

    It does look as if the Tory leadership totally despise much of the membership, but expect them to vote for them anyway.

    As for the current campaign in the papers, it's all a bit obvious and stinks of panic. Generally, you sell a product on its merits and by explaining how its a solution to a problem. It's appalling salesmanship to attempt to sell by knocking the opposition. I suppose if the product obviously has no merits and isn't a solution to any problems, that's all you are left with.


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    1. Regarding your last paragraph it's astonishingly amazing how many Tories fail to grasp that very simple concept....to the extent the mind boggles.

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