Let's Get Political!

[pauld]

Farage made this about democracy

His kind of democracy though. One where a political party has no members so can't hold the Dear Leader to account. Or do inconvenient things like ask to have more policies than snorting about Brexit

Nice to see Farage sneaking out of the count by the back door before the result was announced, like convicted hooligan, wife-beater, drug dealer and fraudster Yaxley-Lennon (aka Tommy R) at the Euros, seems to be a common theme with far-right losers

[Pax Romana]

Equally, if they can't win that with all the momentum they had, the media hype, against a flailing party with a weak candidate replacing a jailbird, in a very strongly Brexit area, doesn't bode well for the General Election does it. Maybe coming up with some actual policies or allowing people to join like a normal political party might help, but then it would run the risk of not being Nigel's vanity project any more. TBF I don't think he wants to win power, he knows damn well they couldn't run a government, it's much easier to act as a protest group on the sidelines. Bit like Corbyn, in fact.

Agree with all of this.

I thought Brexit would walk it.  It was perfectly set up for them.

Good result.

All this equating of The Brexit Party to Nazi Germany on social media etc.is stupid and insulting but they are an unpleasant bunch.

[Batch]

Over 60% of Peterborough voted Brexit. Either the Brexit party failed to get those people to vote, or they changed their mind, or they just don't care much.

That labour increased their majority is quite a surprise.

[Abrahammer]

Nigel really isn't very good at this Parliamentary Election business is he, another failure to add to his long list.

He's good at getting a protest vote in council/euro elections but that's all he will get, a protest vote.

[Reg Smeeton]

Over 60% of Peterborough voted Brexit. Either the Brexit party failed to get those people to vote, or they changed their mind, or they just don't care much.

That labour increased their majority is quite a surprise.

There are quite a lot of similarities between Peterborough and Swindon.  Both grew with the railways, both grew with post war London overspill, both lost traditional industries to become dependent on services and distribution, relatively lowly paid.

Neither has a uni.... both have a population of about 200,000, of which 82% in Posh's case and 83% in Swindon identify as white British.  Both have lower league FC's of which Peterborough's is presently doing better.

[horlock07]

Neither has a uni....

Apart from the Anglia Ruskin University Peterborough Campus?

[RWB Robin]

....and the Oxford Brookes campus in Swindon but the point remains valid....neither are 'university towns'.

[horlock07]

All this equating of The Brexit Party to Nazi Germany on social media etc.is stupid and insulting but they are an unpleasant bunch.

In principle I wouldn't disagree with you.

However as a student of the rise of Nazism there actually are a fair few similarities between what the Nazi's were up to in the 20's and early 30's and Farage and his supporters methods and outcomes (it all follows the fairly well know chronology of the rise of fascism the most commonly quoted being that shown in the US Holocaust Museum's 'Signs of fascism'), contrary to popular belief (and not aimed at you as its a generalisation which has been doing my box in from Farage supporters (of which I am not accusing you of being) all over social media) the Nazi's didn't just suddenly appear and start burning books and sending Jews off to camps.

[Ardiles]

There are quite a lot of similarities between Peterborough and Swindon.  Both grew with the railways, both grew with post war London overspill, both lost traditional industries to become dependent on services and distribution, relatively lowly paid.

Neither has a uni.... both have a population of about 200,000, of which 82% in Posh's case and 83% in Swindon identify as white British.  Both have lower league FC's of which Peterborough's is presently doing better.

You remind me of the piece my friend Bob did in 'The 69er' fanzine at the start of the 1995-96 on each of opposition teams in Division Three, travel tips, where to drink etc. - given that it was a few years since we'd been in the lower leagues at that point.  And his entry for Peterborough started 'Peterborough is basically Swindon with a cathedral.'

[pauld]

Nigel really isn't very good at this Parliamentary Election business is he, another failure to add to his long list.

He's good at getting a protest vote in council/euro elections but that's all he will get, a protest vote.

But it may be that's all he wants. He knows he will get found out if he's ever asked to actually run anything, far better to stand on the sidelines and shout "Betrayal". That goes double if you look at the collection of nomarks and wierdos he's put together as his candidates - which cabinet post would you have the gay-bashing pensioner in or the ex-Revolutionary Communist who used to support IRA bombings (and has never backtracked on her support for the Warrington bombing?) and now supports Gary Glitter's "right" to be a paedo? Or the Peterborough campaign manager who they quietly disposed of as the voters went to the polls yesterday when he was exposed as a former BNP organiser? Of  a piece with their first chair who resigned when her racist anti-Muslim tweets were published, I suppose. Not an inspiring bunch to run the country, but they're not supposed to be - they're a protest vote to act as counters in Nigel's latest personal vanity project

[Reg Smeeton]

You remind me of the piece my friend Bob did in 'The 69er' fanzine at the start of the 1995-96 on each of opposition teams in Division Three, travel tips, where to drink etc. - given that it was a few years since we'd been in the lower leagues at that point.  And his entry for Peterborough started 'Peterborough is basically Swindon with a cathedral.'

Posh like us also got relegated for illegal payments.

[Ardiles]

I think he's playing a smart game.  His aim isn't to run the country.  It's to coerce the Tories in to shifting towards a harder form of Brexit (just as he coerced them in to holding the referendum in the first place in 2016.)  And on present showing, he's doing just that.  Farage is the puppet master, pulling the Tories' strings.

[horlock07]

Setting aside the travails of Nigel for a second what is going on in the Tory leadership campaign, in the aspiration of the contenders to better appeal to the ERG and to try and retain the far right vote from Nige this weeks main talking point seems to be the idea of prorogation, if my interpretation is correct essentially dismissing parliament so that the government can force through no-deal.

Now its not being reported as such, but if this were happening in a tin pot banana republic, would we not be referring to its as what it basically is, at attempted coup. A government without a majority would be dismissing the democratically-elected assembly in order to implement an extreme policy measure for which it has no real mandate.

At what stage are we going to wake up?

[pauld]

Setting aside the travails of Nigel for a second what is going on in the Tory leadership campaign, in the aspiration of the contenders to better appeal to the ERG and to try and retain the far right vote from Nige this weeks main talking point seems to be the idea of prorogation, if my interpretation is correct essentially dismissing parliament so that the government can force through no-deal.

Now its not being reported as such, but if this were happening in a tin pot banana republic, would we not be referring to its as what it basically is, at attempted coup. A government without a majority would be dismissing the democratically-elected assembly in order to implement an extreme policy measure for which it has no real mandate.

At what stage are we going to wake up?

It's all about "taking back control" and "asserting the sovereignty of parliament" in the name of democracy remember? Signposts to authoritarianism:
1) Attack the free press: check
2) Attack the independent judiciary:  check (remember the Mail's infamous "Enemies of the people" front page?)
3) Undermine the basic institutions of representative democracy: check (Daily Mail front page again, Raab threatening to prorogue parliament, millions of Facebook posts about "traitors" in parliament)

We live in dangerous times.

[Batch]

Apart from the Anglia Ruskin University Peterborough Campus?

Anglia Polytechnic then