Election Year or Fear!

[Andy_Faber]

it just seems really odd to me that Farage objected so vociferously to what amounted to 20,000 Syrian refugees but has had nothing to say about over ten times that many Ukrainians.

...and Farage may have his own reasons, but I'm surmising that he was plugging into the possibility that many normal people apart from Farage feel less threatened by folk that a) don't intend to stay, b) broadly speaking share our 'ways' (note not 'values') and c) have no violent intent (above that contained in our own population)

[Andy_Faber]

values

PLEASE don't start with values, where were you last week?

[swaledale]

Indeed. 17,410,742 of them

Maybe Auntie should have installed a head shaking stooge in various audiences in 2016, it would certainly have eased your demeanour in the mean time

If by that your referring to those who voted leave, then your mistaken to think that the majority of these did so because of "our Nige"!.

Lets not confuse the fact that his ramblings put the wind up some of the Tory party and that Cameron in an attempt to cure the festering sore within the Tory party that was the division between the eurosceptics and the europhiles decided to have a referendum, then ****ed up the management of that referendum because he thought it easy to win.

There were a number of different reasons as to why people voted leave in the referendum, immigration loomed large but wasn't the only or even the deciding factor.

Given the UKIP vote of around 4 million, that number less than a 1/3 of what you have quoted would be a reasonable estimate as to who is dumb enough to swallow the lies and crazed ravings of the grifter.

[Andy_Faber]

If by that your referring to those who voted leave, then your mistaken to think that the majority of these did so because of "our Nige"!.

Lets not confuse the fact that his ramblings put the wind up some of the Tory party and that Cameron in an attempt to cure the festering sore within the Tory party that was the division between the eurosceptics and the europhiles decided to have a referendum, then ****ed up the management of that referendum because he thought it easy to win.

There were a number of different reasons as to why people voted leave in the referendum, immigration loomed large but wasn't the only or even the deciding factor.

Given the UKIP vote of around 4 million, that number less than a 1/3 of what you have quoted would be a reasonable estimate as to who is dumb enough to swallow the lies and crazed ravings of the grifter.

No arguing with that, maybe 1,269,501 (the margin of victory) (or defeat I guess)

I don't think his were ramblings though. I think everything he did and said was targeted, the only thing he couldn't have predicted was how useless the 'defence' (the Remain campaign) would be.

[ramAnag]

Apologies for the word ‘German’ in my post (668). No idea how that got there…shouldn’t have.
Tricky…I understand some of the problems with immigration and I’m certainly not saying there aren’t issues to be sorted out. I also accept many of the problems with our coastal towns and resorts although there are additional longstanding reasons for that decline.
The answer though isn’t to demonise a group of unfortunate people and, in Farage’s case…imo…if it looks, acts and sounds like a racist then it probably is a racist.

[MadAmster]

The published figures for 2021/22 is £159bn – equivalent to an extra £415m per week. It does not end there, for the UK Government has published its NHS spending up until 2024 and by then it will have risen to £166bn – meaning an increase of £557m a week more than before the referendum (allowing for inflation). So like it or lump it, what that bus insinuated, could be done. The money spent on Polish motorways, was needed here

To quote you we spent £159Bn in 21/22 on the NHS.

My research, to which you replied, showed... " I looked up healthcare spending in 2016 and that was £191.7Bn. "

Now, I'm pretty good with numbers but I fail to see how £159Bn in 21/22 is £415M a week more than the £191.7Bn spent in 2016.

[swaledale]

No arguing with that, maybe 1,269,501 (the margin of victory) (or defeat I guess)

I don't think his were ramblings though. I think everything he did and said was targeted, the only thing he couldn't have predicted was how useless the 'defence' (the Remain campaign) would be.

By ramblings I mean incoherent poppycock with no substance behind them. Yes like all populists, his whole spiel and demeanour are carefully crafted, he knows a good dog whistle and the right levers to pull in order to yank the chains of those incapable of coherent thought. The mistake the Troy party has made, and, indeed other centrist parties in Europe is to accommodate these inane utterings and position by moving further to the right.

All that has done is increase the vote for the far right, I mean why would one, if is of that persuasion, vote for a copy when the real fascists are there to vote for?

[ramAnag]

By ramblings I mean incoherent poppycock with no substance behind them. Yes like all populists, his whole spiel and demeanour are carefully crafted, he knows a good dog whistle and the right levers to pull in order to yank the chains of those incapable of coherent thought. The mistake the Troy party has made, and, indeed other centrist parties in Europe is to accommodate these inane utterings and position by moving further to the right.

All that has done is increase the vote for the far right, I mean why would one, if is of that persuasion, vote for a copy when the real fascists are there to vote for?

Couldn't agree more…and before the shouts of ‘pilot’ and ‘rear gunner’ predictably begin from those who invariably fall over themselves to agree with each other over such issues, here’s a thought.

There was a letter to the Guardian - originally from around fifty odd years ago I think - suggesting that people tend to shift to the Right as they get older. It also noted that the average man over the age of 25 loses around one million irreplaceable cells of grey matter every day, suggesting perhaps that such moves to the Right may - not unlike osteoarthritis - be a further example of a degenerative condition.

Before the three degrees explode with righteous indignation I will add at this point that this comment was largely tongue in cheek. ‘Just joshing’ in AF speak…food for thought though.