Following on from my piece about Labour’s disgusting proposals for lifestyle bullying, I have to mention this brilliant article by Brendan O’Neill: Labour has an Orwellian mission to control what the working classes put in their stomachs. Brendan stands alongside Rob Lyons and Chris Snowdon as one of our most high-profile defenders of lifestyle freedom.
This paragraph is especially telling:
Labourite parties emerged a hundred-odd years ago to represent the interests and ideas of working people. These parties were built on a conviction that "ordinary people" were also political players, were sussed, intelligent, autonomous beings whose worldview and needs deserved a political outlet. Now, in an eye-swivelling turnaround, Labour views the little people, not as political creatures worthy of representation, but as corruptible creatures in need of protection – from adverts, from alcohol, from chips, from chocolate.Labour originated from the working class and regarded them as people of worth and integrity whose voice was marginalised by a class-based society. Now, though, it seems to view them with utter contempt as people who can’t be trusted to make sensible decisions as to how they run their lives. You can also see this attitude, for example, in their pensions policy. It’s not about empowering the working class, it’s about controlling them. If you respect the working class, you respect their choices.
It’s also worth mentioning this opinion piece by UKIP Deputy Leader Paul Nuttall which appeared in the Midweek Sport, of all places: Labour reckons you are too thick to make choices.
There’s currently a poll in the sidebar asking which party you will vote for in the forthcoming Euro elections. The interim results are very telling. If you have any concern for the future prospects of pubs, or for people’s right to consume alcohol, you will have to swallow a very large and bitter pill to cast your vote for the Labour Party. I don’t think many of you will be in any doubt about where my vote will be going.
And the Tories, Lib Dems, UKIP etc. regard the working class any differently?
ReplyDeletePut it this way, anyone reaching a decision-making position in a political party is likely to have a certain background and education. Usually upper-middle class, privately educated, with a degree in PPE from Oxbridge.
That type of person, generally regards the working classes as scum. Useful scum, perhaps, but one that is only fit to be bullied, cajoled and coerced into doing whatever is necessary to maintain the wealth and privilege of their rulers and betters.
Of course they want workers to be healthy. It means they can work longer and harder for the middle and upper classes.
There was a time, though, when most senior politicians had real-world experience. The phenomenon of PPE degree, non-job as political bag-carrier, parachuted into safe seat - is a relatively recent development.
ReplyDeleteToday's politicians wouldn't be able to build up the necessary network of contacts and personal empires required to progress in politics if they had to have "Real World Experience".
ReplyDeleteI think your poll only proves one thing. The degree of self selection in your audience, and the narrow selection of people you attract to read your tosh.
ReplyDelete+1 to Cookie - that majority is positively Bulgarian.
ReplyDeleteIt's true that there are many reasons to vote UKIP. None of those will have any effect at the Euros - but then, nor will any of the other UKIP policies. I guess if you really hated the European Union, voting in somebody who's going to do naff-all other than take an MEP's salary would make a certain kind of Dadaist sense.
There's only one genuinely libertarian party standing, as far as I know - the Pirate Party.
Well, you could regard taking an MEP's salary and allowances and using it to campaign agains the EU to be a rather neat way of subverting it...
ReplyDeleteI rather like the kippers, they seem an entertaining bunch. I suspect they are here to stay as the main parties seem more interested in dismissing them than addressing the concerns they raise.
ReplyDeleteBut 90% of the country ain't kippers, and if 90% of your blog readers are kippers then all you are doing is preaching to the converted.
The smoking ban got amended in other european countries because people got off there arse and defied it.
As far as I can see all that happens now is a few blogs circle wank about it without ever bothering to engage with anyone but themselves.
That chap in Blackpool had a bash, was quickly crushed when he found himself a lone voice.
The kippers may well win the euro vote but they have little locally active machinery. They turn up & then piss off afterwards. To get an MP you need to campaign locally all year round.
Well, of course to a large extent it is a protest vote, but there is a very widespread feeling that the three main parties have stopped listening to ordinary people on a wide range of concerns and instead try to market themselves like different brands of soap powder.
ReplyDeleteThe poll has also been shared around Twitter by a number of people so the results won't be representative of blog readers alone. But of course you're free to share it too if you want to redress the balance.
But all your twitter group is a self selected group of people that already agree with you.
ReplyDeleteThe reaction of the main parties toward you kippers, branding you all as nutters and racists creates a bunker mentality that may maintain your support. Why rejoin a mainstream that holds your views in utter contempt?
But at some point you'll all have to decide what the point of UKIP is. Is it pressure group on the tories and middle of the road tossers like call me Dave? Is it about immigrants or the gays? or is it about Europe?
If it is about Europe, then the time has come to accept you have won. To know how to win. To take the referendum that is offered. It's the only one on the table. You can whine about not trusting the offer, but you can't deliver one yourselves. If it's about Europe, then you now have the choice to win or continue to lose.
Labour want to control what you eat and drink, but UKIP want to control what you say
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/may/12/police-ask-blogger-remove-legitimate-tweet-ukip
Decide for yourself which is worse.
Doesn't that really say more about the standard of judgment of the police?
ReplyDeleteTrue, but it also says rather a lot about the nasty, narrow-minded, authoritarian busybody who complained to the police. Careful what company you're keeping.
ReplyDeleteWhat is it they say about people in glass houses and stones?
ReplyDeleteMaybe you need to be careful about the company you're keeping, Phil.
ReplyDeleteThose who have been stirring up anti-UKIP hatred have blood on their hands.
There's no evidence this was an attack by Labour supporters - and even if it was, it's hardly going to have had the party's endorsement. I've seen a lot of negative campaigning about UKIP, but nothing that comes anywhere near to calling for Kippers to be attacked.
ReplyDeleteHas UKIP disowned the cowardly prodnoses who called the police because the nasty man said something horrid about their party? And isn't UKIP, by your logic, the one party where you shouldn't find people acting like that?