Saturday, May 04, 2013

Thanet Elects 7 UKIP and a Scobie - Celebrate democracy the people have spoken


Over the next few days, politicians of mainstream political parties, will be delving deep and working hard on those phrases we know so well such as "this is a wake up call"  "lessons to be learnt" enough to make you yawn!

Still strangely, Ed Miliband is reported as being "pleased" with Labour's local election results, pity he wasn't at Margate's Winter Gardens, to witness those smiles drain from Thanet's complacent Labour group, whom I'm sure had until the ballot papers spilled on to the tables for counting, no real understanding of the contempt most people have for the mainstream politicians.

It's easy to say that UKIP have campaigned on issues that are national, since they represent the scepticism of you and I, who struggle to think what if any benefit had come from membership to the EU their role in local politics is a bit vague that said the conversations I had with Mo Elenor, showed a concern for some of the profligate spending of Kent Tories which I share.

Without a doubt many deluded politicians will I'm afraid, see this week's vote as a protest, and not the act of desperation it clearly is.

Professional politicians who as well as representing those that vote for them mainly represent themselves and their own class of well healed and privileged people who are largely immune from everyday concerns of getting a job that pays a living wage or a school that provides a decent education for their kids.

So what should we, make of UKIP's success, clearly there is no doubt that a large section of the British public no longer buy into to the delusion, that an influx of four million migrants over ten years is desirable nor accept the idea there's been some economic benefit which outweighs the downside of  children placed in over-crowded schools teaching staff presumably coping with the additional burden of teaching English as a foreign language, the stress on health services, cut in wages of working people, housing the list is extensive.

Of course at this point in my posting, the many apologists or lackeys for our political status quo are enraged no doubt, ready to throw in the race card and with some justification, fairly quoting my slim grasp of the facts, as they see them but here's the truth mainstream political parties who've been responsible for or witness to a social and economic disaster, have refused to allow a public debate or explain the facts around mass migration, for the last few years, the mere mention of any concern around social upheaval is greeted by the establishment as indicative of neo nazi tendencies.

It's ironic that, the only candidate not to lose to UKIP here in Thanet was Will Scobie, whose Labour party are responsible for the economic and social disaster of the open door migration policy. Admittedly senior Labour bods who could have protected this countries interest are immune from the effect of their neglect, just look at Tony Blair, making millions and working with Kazakhstan, Israel and  now Burma both countries well known for Human Rights abuse.

As I see it complacent politicians from David Cameron to Ed Miliband and including Nick Clegg have ignored this issue, however for most British people the crisis, around migration has nothing to do with and racial overtones, it's just plain and simple a question of capacity, no provision or planning has taken into account a massive population explosion in this country allow the economy, health service, education, to grow to accommodate everyone. Thank god the above mentioned have never captained a ship because it would be overloaded and sink with the first big wave.

Finally failure to acknowledge the problem exists will if politicians don't do something  aid recruitment to extreme groups. On the plus side this weeks election hopefully buries that myth of the wasted vote, an idea promoted by establishment types.

18 comments:

  1. I have never understood the idea that we need immigrants in order to fill jobs for which we have no qualified people ourselves. Surely the answer is to train our own people to do the jobs.

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  2. Tony, you make no mention of the local labour policy to encourage even more migration by providing more and more sub standard social housing. This will guarantee more Labour suppoters and long term Labour control whilst driving away the very people we need here. Ghettoville is set to become a lot worse next year when the Romanian and Bulgarian Gypsies arrive to take up the housing provision that Hart and Johnstone are working so hard to produce.

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    1. Where people come from is irrelevant, the fact is Cliftonville is a poor area with slum landlords and little opportunity for jobs not helped by the scandalous attitude in which Clive Hart rather shabbily in my opinion refused the opportunity to talk up Manston when invited to speak by the BBC on the day KLM started a new service, prior to the election.

      Crime is out of control, in Margate, in fact I wonder if Kent police are massaging crime figures.

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    2. Tony my main contact with crime is having a shop, one thing that doesn’t change is broken shop windows late at night, caused by drunks.

      Over a period of 40 years this started out as call the police who arrive during the boarding up, always within half an hour of calling them. Recently this has changed to, window breaks at 2am, call the police, board up, back in bed by 3am, police arrive and wake you up at 4am, when they started to turn up in the shop the next day to offer me victim counselling, I stopped calling them, hence reduced crime figures.

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  3. Tony,

    It is not irrelevant where people come from. As a local community we can take so many, but when immigrants of a totally different culture overwhelm an area as has happened in Ghettoville, it causes major problems. Go and have a look or look at the stats. As for rogue landlords, Hart and Johnstone have the means of dealing with them with selective licensing, but firstly they don't understand what can be achieved and I am far from convinced that they want any change. The last thing that Labour would want is for there to be any challenge to their Ghettonville stronghold which is why they are cramming in as much poor quality social housing at every opportunity. It used to be called Gerrymandering.

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  4. You are right that the vote is a kick in the b**** for both the Conservatives and Labour, the latter given their District Council role in Thanet. An appalling outcome for both parties. But you might be taken more seriously if you also referred to your own Party's vote across East Kent (and most places beyond) crashing through the floor. The Liberal Democrats have been decimated.

    No-one should accuse you of being a racist for raising the issue of immigration. It is right that it should be discussed in an adult fashion, which doesn't mean simply pointing a finger of blame at the last Labour Government. The accusation that many have made against you personally is that the views you express on the topic are NOT in line with Liberal Democrat policy but much closer to UKIP, who defeated you two days ago. You should clearly join them and stop the charade.

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  5. Unfortunately there's only about 5% of the UK population that are immigrants/ethnic etc. So they can't be taking many of the jobs of the other 95% of the population.

    There is no immigration policy by any party that is different - all agree the Border Agency is utterly inept. Hence sackings and reorganisation. Pick any other government department too.

    The massive surge of Poles or Bulgarians just isn't so: many Poles left after the economic boom of the Olympics etc and no party believes many Romanians etc will suddenly arrive next year from a minor paperwork change - work permits to actually prevent open immigration by the way.

    Expect more of these nasty racist scaremongering tactics though.

    And the EU takes up about 1% of UK GDP so no massive savings there, and Britain does about half its trade with the EU - hence so many countries wanting to join.

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  6. If only it was 5% in Ghettoville and those that are here are constantly changing and certainly not going back home.

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  7. Fair point 20:15 but that's hardly illegal immigration, that's a mix of shoddy town planning, slum landlords and District dumping by KCC and TDC.

    Kent as you'd expect, has one of the lowest percentages of foreigners far lower than 5% - a dozen streets in Cliftonville is hardly a huge problem.

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  8. I spent much of the last week, and the two or three before that speaking directly to many many voters; in the main voters who had previously canvassed as conservatives on anything between two and five occasions. There were four clear lines of response to my calls and conversations: many said quite straightforwardly and openly that what they were about to do had nothing to do with me, or my local party performance, they were sending a message to David Cameron pure and simple. Secondly, they talked openly about the immigration, both from europe, and from other parts of the country, which is ruining and dragging down our towns. Thirdly, many (and before anybody jumps, please remember these are conservative voters) stated they were fed up with having voted in a conservative government, who were not conservative enough in their actions, ie too influenced by the Lib Dem part of the coalition. Finally, many of the older voters stated they were angered by the very low interest rates on their savings, and the increasingly heavy taxation of their dwindling income. Overall the message was get tougher on europe, immigration, benefit lifestyles, and stop retending to be a liberal democrat.

    The results overall appear to me to record a serious shift to the right of british politics, with traditional tory voters using UKIP to force more right wing policies, and uniting the blue collar working class with the retired, increasingly under pressure 'worriers' about their, and their grandchildren's future. The shifts are at their most obvious and serious in areas where these problems combine: larger numbers of retired; employment difficulties in areas of high immigration, and benefit dependency. This is reflected in other coastal communities in the south east, and across Lincolnshire as well. If you look at the county council seats, most expected a return to the 2005 position. Yet the Labour party is well short of its 2005 total; and the combined tory and UKIP vote is much higher than the 2005 total.

    Will these voters return to the conservatives and/or labour during the next two years? Only if they feel they are being listened to, and Theresa May's performance this morning around the news studios did not give the right tone to convince the doubters; indeed it was pitiful. As was Angela Eagle for the labour party. How the two traditional main parties now react will decide if this is an historic protest vote; or an historic change of political direction in our society for the foreseeable future. On paper it would appear locally to be a disaster for the conservative party; but the shock waves for labour are at least as traumatic, positioning tself as the defender of the unemployed and benefit claimant as society moves right away from it.

    Any sort of combination between UKIP and the conservatives will see labour banished to the sidelines of politics for a decade or more. The middle ground is no longer where david cameron thought it lay..he needs to get out of metropoliton central, and listen to the shires if he is ever to understand whats happened.

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    1. Of course failing to show up to council two thirds of the time had zero impact Chris.

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    2. And being a smart arse did not help you much either, Matt!

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    3. Actually Matt you are talking about one period of four years when I have been struggling to find work - attending many interviews etc, and suffered a close family bereavement. However, I have never known you let any facts get in the way of a good insult, so there we go.

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  9. I fear that the main political parties(our included to some extent) are going to need several more kicks in the nadgers before the numbness to the people is overcome and the professional class of political money grabbers start to realise that people are mightily pissed off.

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  10. Well done for standing Matt and Tone. Thanet politics is changed for the better in the long-run.

    The LibDems nationally have a major problem in being associated with the Tories and being ineffectual. In Thanet they've always been invisible and national policies are irrelevant at local level.

    The rosette is less important than the people behind it: Margate Town Council next, and ending doublehatters?

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    1. Usual nonsense, 15:26, about double hatters. You seem to have rather a lot of bees in your bonnet so just as well you are not a double hatter.

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  11. Normally, when we have a Conservative led government introducing tough austerity measures, one would expect to see a swing to the left. Instead we have a massive swing the other way with, in Kent, 62 out of 84 councillors on the political right. Hardly much encouragement for Labour there or nationally.

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  12. The prize for the biggest twit on the Thanet blogs has just been awarded by popular consent to the Aquifer Man. It consists of a top quality plastic bottle full of good old Thanet tap water.

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