media I would have to say the answer is no.
Wasted votes.
We held London.
They will vote for us next year.
Turnout was low.
Self hating party.
We made real progress.
We did better than expected.
Midterm elections always go to the protest party.
Anti EU MEPs.
Just protest voting
Plus a whole lot more. I watched Cameron come on TV and make the same pledge to hold a referendum
in 2017 that he was making before the elections, not the slightest change to his sales pitch to recognize
the millions of people who just voted UKIP. Same old same old at the Tory HQ. Hey Dave they didn't
believe you the last time you said it, why on earth do you think they will now?
Labour were busy being happy they had held London and taken Tory seats to pay attention to the fact
that as the opposition they are not actually opposing anyone and failed to make a significant mark on
the day.
The Lib Dems, well as far as this election went they truly are the Inconsequential party now, the third
party now with less MEPs than the Greens. Oh and to rub it in the MEP votes were held under proportional
representation, the Lib Dems favourite way of voting. Remember the Alternative Vote tantrum and the toys
out of the pram antics. One whole MEP. Nothing to worry about says Clegg with his bloodshot eyes.
I have seen social media erupt with utter contempt for anyone who even thought about voting UKIP. Threats
to de-friend anyone who dared to express an opinion that in anyway sounded like it supported UKIP. The range
of comments about the lack of intelligence possessed by the average UKIP voter has been varied and for the
most part lacking in creativity. Think, stupid morons hardly stretches the bounds of the English language.
I have seen numerous people say that it didn’t matter because only a third of the electorate voted and so that
30% UKIP vote represents only 10% or the real population.
What I am seeing is a huge number of people who think Denial is a river in Egypt.
The reasons why people voted UKIP are many and varied. The reasons why people got up, walked to the
polling station and voted are many and varied. They cannot be simplified but they can be looked at and
questions can be asked.
Let me be blunt here and if you have a problem with my holding an opinion then please go de-friend me because
you are part of the problem.
People voted for UKIP because they could not and would not vote for the Tories or Labour or the Lib Dums. They
turned their backs on the old three and went to a party that they thought either represented something they
understood or who they thought was listening.
All those people who are insulting anyone who voted UKIP are missing the point.
When UKIP becomes the choice of several million people who no longer feel the old three represent them or
their concerns surely anyone with the IQ of a house brick should realise that the problem is not people voting
UKIP but that the old three are driving away voters in droves.
The Lib Dums have been massacred. Yes I am spelling that correctly, the inconsequential party has truly reaped
the harvest it has been sowing for the last four years, both as whipping boys for the Tories and also because they
have utterly failed to prove themselves worthy of being in government when given the chance.
The incompetent party gained a number of seats, well done. The opposition party in a midterm election standing
against one of the most hated Tory governments ever and they managed one seat more. The Ed and Ed show in
the face of the Tories managed to grab a few seats rather than actually having any meaningful policies to draw
dissatisfied voters to them. As the actual opposition they have completely failed to oppose.
Then we have the Tories. The nasty party. Millions of people going to food banks, over a million in zero hours
contracts. Five million with jobs that pay so little they need to claim working tax credits. Hundreds of thousands
kicked off benefits who should not have been denied the help and support they needed. One of the most out
of touch, cruel, hated governments in decades and the other two old parties failed to punish them.
In fact Clegg’s crew not only failed to capitalise on how hated the Tories are, they demonstrated that they are
even more unpopular.
Wow.
Should there be a prize for that, it cannot be easy to be more unpopular than the Tories.
So we have millions of people left without anyone to vote for. Millions who want to vote, who want to be counted
and yet they cannot bring themselves to cast a vote for the old three.
They are insulted for voting, they are mocked for making a choice. They are belittled for picking the party they
least hate. Because as I said a few days ago, how sad that British politics has been reduced to holding your nose
against the stench and voting for the one you hate the least.
Those who say its just a protest vote and nothing to worry about. Sorry people but this lot will be representing
the UK in Europe for years to come. They are how Europe will see us and they are our voices in the European
Parliament. This was not a wasted vote or just the MEPs.
Across Europe the same thing is happening, the entrenched old parties who have ridden roughshod over
democracy for decades are seeing the rise of mass discontent. This is not a flash in the pan, this is millions of
people who have real concerns, real worries and in many cases real anger.
Millions of people in the UK and across Europe who feel they are being ignored. The insults didn’t hurt them, in fact
they helped with the plucky underdog image and made the big parties look like bullies and thugs.
Those who say the votes were wasted simply reinforce the feeling of those who voted UKIP that they are ignored
by the main parties. Your vote was wasted, it doesn't mean anything. You should have done what you were told
and voted for a big party. Your voice is unimportant, your choice is wrong, we don’t listen to you and we don’t
care about you.
29% of the people who voted are being insulted for getting off their backsides and voting for the party that
represented them most. No vote is wasted in a democracy but votes can be made to seem unimportant, they
can be belittled. This is the tactic of insults. Don’t vote for them or we will call you names, don’t vote for them its
pointless.
Do as we tell you, don’t have your own opinion, don’t make your own choices.
DO WHAT YOU ARE TOLD!
Those who say the numbers don’t matter because only a third of the electorate bothered to vote also miss an
important point. People who do not vote because they cannot be bothered to vote or who have be so
disfranchised by our political class cannot be counted.
It is the people who get out and vote who are counted, it is the parties and the candidates that inspire people
to vote who get the numbers and then get the power and then get to make the rules.
The Tories were voted into power by a third of the electorate, do not belittle UKIP because only a third of the
electorate came out to vote. Only those who vote are counted, those who sit at home may be a majority but
if they remain silent they are never heard.
So don’t be confident that UKIP represents only 10% of the whole electorate. They don’t. They do represent
29% of the people who came out to vote. If they can muster support and get their voters out this year they can
do the same next year.
It makes no odds if the Tories have say five million voters and UKIP only has three million. When 50% of the Tory
voters stay home and 90% of the UKIP voters come out to vote those numbers count.
This was not a smashing success for UKIP. This was a crushing failure of the other three parties.
This was an abysmal disaster, the clearest sign yet that the Tories, Labour and the Lib Dems have failed to listen
to people and are now widely seen as not representing the population at large.
The old three are driving voters away by the million and UKIP is taking advantage of that. Well done Cameron and
Clegg and Miliband who have managed to piss of the population so much they are voting for the party they hate
the least and its UKIP.
So we now have most of the political class and many reporters and analysts going on about how its not that bad
and it is just the European vote and a midterm and nothing to worry about.
You are wrong. So very wrong. This is something that you should be worrying about. This should be giving
politicians sleepless nights. You have driven away the electorate by the million and don’t think they will slavishly
come running back next year.
Unless you start listening and start working for the people of this nation rather than for your own political
agendas next year could come as a truely horrible shock.
It will never happen people say, UKIP will never do well in the national elections. The MEPs don’t count.
As long as you keep telling yourselves that and denying that their is a problem you will keep driving away voters.
Sooner or later that is going to cost all of us as less people vote, as more motivated minority and extremist parties
gain power and as our democracy falters.
I listened to a debate on enforced voting today. One man saying it was wrong and a woman saying it was the only
way to go because people could not be trusted to make their own choices.
I have no idea why the Sky mediator missed it because that just says jack booted tyranny to me. Still it was said
and missed but this is where we are heading as out political class becomes more and more out of touch. More
and more hated. Less and less representative of the population and the country. People cannot be trusted
to make their own choices because they would end up voting for someone other that the old three.
Is that where we are heading?
This has not just been a huge success for UKIP, this has been an utter failure for everyone else. A failure that will
continue to get worse and as UKIP voters are insulted and UKIP is mocked for what it has achieved. The Tories, Labour
and the Lib Dems failed badly in the European elections.
The problem is they don’t seem to have noticed whose fault it was.