Thursday, May 06, 2010
TO BAD THEY CAN'T ALL LOSE
Henry Kissinger is widely if unofficially quoted of saying of the Iran Iraq war "To bad they can't both lose". In the end both did.
I think this is also the public's opinion of all 3 "official" parties in Britain.
I have just been showing the flag for UKIP at a Glasgow polling station. When I got there there was a gentleman from the SNP who left shortly. Later the local Councillor from the Greens turned up. There was nobody from any of the main parties. I am certain that my presence & my cheery "The big parties all made a manifesto promise on a referendum & when elected cynically broke it, though it cost them nothing. If they lied on that they will lie on anything. If you don't want to be lied to then voting UKIP is the only way to tell them" got a number of votes which would not have been available if I was not present & the others absent. Certainly the disgust with Labour was palpable.
This is in Glasgow, effectively a rotten borough for Labour where a couple of elections ago their members were so omnipresent that they could keep people at every polling station all the time. Now they can't even cover a significant one during the breakfast rush. This is how much the main parties have been hollowed out of members. Beyond that I have seen not a single street poster, though I have been told of sightings of some on the south of the city & a few in the road into Cumbernauld. By comparison we put up a couple of hundred for the 9% Growth Party at the last Scottish election. Even worse I have seen a total of 2 window posters (both in one tenement & for the LudDims). This is not voter apathy it is the disappearance of all the large parties as anything but media facades with nothing to offer.
It is also fallow ground for change by a genuine grassroots political movement.
I think this is also the public's opinion of all 3 "official" parties in Britain.
I have just been showing the flag for UKIP at a Glasgow polling station. When I got there there was a gentleman from the SNP who left shortly. Later the local Councillor from the Greens turned up. There was nobody from any of the main parties. I am certain that my presence & my cheery "The big parties all made a manifesto promise on a referendum & when elected cynically broke it, though it cost them nothing. If they lied on that they will lie on anything. If you don't want to be lied to then voting UKIP is the only way to tell them" got a number of votes which would not have been available if I was not present & the others absent. Certainly the disgust with Labour was palpable.
This is in Glasgow, effectively a rotten borough for Labour where a couple of elections ago their members were so omnipresent that they could keep people at every polling station all the time. Now they can't even cover a significant one during the breakfast rush. This is how much the main parties have been hollowed out of members. Beyond that I have seen not a single street poster, though I have been told of sightings of some on the south of the city & a few in the road into Cumbernauld. By comparison we put up a couple of hundred for the 9% Growth Party at the last Scottish election. Even worse I have seen a total of 2 window posters (both in one tenement & for the LudDims). This is not voter apathy it is the disappearance of all the large parties as anything but media facades with nothing to offer.
It is also fallow ground for change by a genuine grassroots political movement.
Labels: British politics, election
