And UKIP are Tory-max.

Essentially it's just a slightly more respectable version of the BNP with a dash of anti-Scottish sentiment to go along with all the rest of their bigotries.

And a lot of the BNP's old support has gravitated towards UKIP, which has also pushed them more towards the Moseleyite end of the political spectrum.

y'know, for Pretoria in the 80s, and maybe even a little hesitant about the Falklands because the Argie junta is the type of government Britain might need if Real Labour pulls ahead in the polls

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_Monday_Club

also, has UKIP started sweet-talking Scotland yet? Edinburgh did riot when Farage came and threatened to suck the town into his illimitable maw

See here: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/may/26/ukip-first-scottish-seat-european-elections

That MEP is David Coburn, whose charm offensive since then has largely fallen on deaf ears, despite a shameful 10% or so showing for UKIP at those European elections, to the extent that at least one other UKIP candidate has resigned rather than being associated with him and his ilk.

His masterstroke was this:

A Ukip MEP is facing calls to resign after allegedly comparing SNP minister Humza Yousaf to convicted terrorist Abu Hamza.

Yousaf, the minister for Europe and international development in the Scottish government, said he was appalled, disgusted and hurt by the “Islamophobic” comment reported in the Scottish Daily Mail.

The MSP for Glasgow has written to the Ukip leader, Nigel Farage, calling for David Coburn to be suspended while an investigation takes place.

Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, condemned Coburn’s alleged remark as reprehensible, while the Scottish Conservative leader, Ruth Davidson, described it as totally unacceptable and Scottish Labour’s deputy leader, Kezia Dugdale, said it was a disgusting slur.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats leader, Willie Rennie, called the reported comment astonishing and labelled Coburn an offensive fool.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/mar/14/ukip-mep-compares-snp-minister-humza-yousaf-terrorist-abu-hamza-allegation

Making some silly legal threats over a spoof Twitter account. He's clearly a twerp, but are there any UKIP MEP's you can't say that about?

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/dec/06/ukip-mep-ridiculed-twitter-call-ban-spoof-trumpton-account

The likes of him are likely to continue to get MEP seats till we take Europe more seriously, get out and vote in the Euro elections, and quit just moaning about it from the sidelines.

There's a wide range of satirical Twitter accounts out there spawned by the referendum and Scottish leg of the current election, most of them guaranteed to get Coburn's pulse rate elevated to perilous levels, often at least mildly amusing, and some at times outright hilarious.

The Scottish Twitter scene includes these, as a brief sample.

Coburn himself:

David Cobum: https://twitter.com/DCobumUKIP

A whole parallel universe of Labour spin doctors and associates (along with a host of Jim Murphy spoofs that crop up in their feeds):

Malcolm Tucker: https://twitter.com/Tucker5law (profanity warning)

Jamie McDonald: https://twitter.com/JamieHolePunch (profanity warning)

Nicola Murray MP (ex The Thick of It): https://twitter.com/Nicola_MurrayMP

Johann Lament MSP (ex Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont): https://twitter.com/wee_things

A_Darling (a.k.a. Alistair Darling): https://twitter.com/A_DarlingMP

Sturgeonator: https://twitter.com/SturgeonSexy

Media:

BBC Scotlandshire: https://twitter.com/ScotlandshireGB

Ducks Over Scotland: https://twitter.com/DucksScotland (parody of very influential blog Wings Over Scotland)

Wings Over Trumpton: https://twitter.com/wingstrumpton (ditto)

Holyrood Reactions: https://twitter.com/ScotParlReact

Conservative Party:

David Cameron: https://twitter.com/DavidChameron

SNP:

Angry Salmond: https://twitter.com/AngrySalmond

Nippy Sturgeon: https://twitter.com/nippysturgeon

Angry Swinney: https://twitter.com/AngrySwinney

Greens:

Natalie Bennett: https://twitter.com/Nutella_Bennett

Regarding the EU, it's apparent that the only people who seem to take Europe seriously are the anti-EU right wing. Now I don't know what the European Parliament elections were like in Scotland, but in the East Midlands the ballot paper for EU parliament elections looked more like a far right version of the "People's Front of Judea" scene from Monty Python's Life of Brian.

As to Twitter, I'm often left wondering if there are any politicians who use that site for anything other then just retweeting praise for themselves and partisan spin from their parties central office.

Which in turn leads people like me to follow parody accounts (and the Monster Raving Loony Party) instead.

We may be marginally more concerned about/kindly disposed to Europe in Scotland because European Structural Funds feature quite prominently in a number of our infrastructure and social projects - historically, yet another source of friction with Westminster under both Labour and the Tories/Lib Dems over the years (as is also the case with many regions in the rest of the UK).

In Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon (https://twitter.com/nicolasturgeon) appears to operate her own Twitter account (in the past she's made appointments to meet young fans etc. via contact on it, and she not infrequently quite classily smacks down hotheads she feels aren't reflecting well on the SNP, and has been known to quite quickly correct journalists' misprepresentations, which startles some of them), as do Kezia Dugdale (Labour Deputy Leader/acting leader at Holyrood as Jim Murphy doesn't have a seat there - https://twitter.com/kdugdalemsp), the Conservatives' leader Ruth Davidson (https://twitter.com/ruthdavidsonmsp) and the Lib Dems' Willie Rennie (https://twitter.com/willie_rennie).

There's been some quite funny Twitter banter between them at times (this from when Andy Murray was playing in the Australian Open semi-final back in January):



They seem to steer clear of fights most of the time, though there's the usual trolling by cyberneds of some of them, and the occasional embarrassing/very funny interjection from Kezia Dugdale's dad Jeff (https://twitter.com/jefforbited), who's an enthusiastic SNP member!

A number of other MPs, MSPs and candidates have fairly personal Twitter presences, not always to their benefit.

So does George (Lord) Foulkes (https://twitter.com/georgefoulkes), which is disastrous on a near daily basis.

Jim Murphy's feed (https://twitter.com/jimforscotland) appears to be mainly run by staffers, though I think he finally twigged that the personal touch may have some marginal impact in the extreme circumstances he's under, and chips in personally from time to time.

There's still a enough pro-UKIP sentiment about to make Rotherham a big UKIP target. Although admittedly the Rotherham child sex abuse scandal might have had a considerable bearing on that.

Other then a few satirical / parody accounts, I make a point of following the candidates for the constituency where I live on Twitter (with the exception of UKIP as I strongly dislike them) and of those, only the independent candidate seems to engage much. Mostly it's just retweeting praise for themselves or the latest spin from their parties central office.

UKIP used to be more of a single-issue anti-EU party, though it always attracted some RW freaks. Nowadays, it seems to be a mixture of RW ex-Tories who think that the Tories have gone down the drain since Thatcher was pushed out; xenophobes who blame foreigners and the EU, but most of all immigrants, for everything; and a strange assortment of conspiracy theorists and all-round bigots. And Farage himself, pandering in all directions, and trying to give a populist impression, which, in the case of that upper-middle-class ex-stockbroker, is about as convincing as George Bush's good ol' Texas cowboy act.

The English Democrats seem to be an odd mixture of BNP types with the additional prejudice of hating the Scots, and ex-Kippers too extreme even for UKIP. Case in point: local Oxford nut Julia Gasper, who was a UKIP parliamentary candidate in 2010, but was forced out of the party for being too rabidly homophobic even for Nige et al (including holocaust denial with regard to gays, and claiming that Matthew Shepard, David Kato, etc. were all 'frauds'). Now she's an English Democrat.

So Farage states very clearly that he will resign if he loses South Thanet, He then proceeds to lose South Thanet but still stays on as UKIP leader.

Doesn't show much confidence in their only MP Douglas Carswell does it?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-32696505

For the people who least deserve it and have done so much to ruin this country in the past 2 years.

Expect a lot of people who used to vote for these clowns to return to the Tory fold.

(I wasn't aware they had moved away from any right-wing policies, myself ... but I suppose there was sometimes less of an emphasis on them)

When it's too extreme for Arron Banks.

Last edited Tue Apr 25, 2017, 09:44 PM - Edit history (1)

that bad Bootle meff, is a cowardly useless opportunist racist mouthy scumbag who'll pick a fight with any outgroup to try to further his political career?

I'm shocked. Shocked, I tell you.