Return to Sender

It's time to return to the voting booths again this Thursday as the elections for European Parliament take place. Campaigning seems to have been taken up in earnest by most parties and many a letter or leaflet has dropped through the letterbox at the tail end of last week. So far, I've had stuff from Labour, the Lib Dems, UKIP, Nigel Farage's Brexit Party and Independent candidate Stephen Yaxley Lennon (aka 'Tommy Robinson'). Nothing for the Tories though, who clearly know that they are doomed.

I know that it can be really irritating to receive missives from parties you vehemently disagree with. It fair turns my stomach to see something from far right parties personally addressed to me, so here's what I do...

Knowing that returning this mail back to their party HQ's actually costs the party money, I scribble a quick 'Unsolicited Mail - Return to Sender' note at the top of the envelope and pop it back in the postbox. A small victory maybe, but a satisfying one. 

However, before that I like to offer up some sort of reply. UKIP, the Brexit Party and 'Tommy Robinson' all had their leaflets suitably redecorated (nothing too original, just the odd Hitler moustache) and were left in no doubt as to what I feel about them. But it was the Lib Dems that I decided to point towards the truth.

Their leaflet was full of utter lies. This habitually opportunistic party are currently flying under the flag of being the only political force determined to stop Brexit. If that truly was the case then where were Vince Cable and Tim Farron last July on the night of a crucial Brexit legislation vote that could have kept back the hard Brexit mob? They weren't in the House that's for sure and so they did not vote. I can tell you were Farron, the former leader and the man who keeps banging on with 'Where are you Jeremy Corbyn?' at Remain protests, was; he was charging a fiver a head for a lecture in Sherbourne about his faith (or homophobia), but where was present leader Vince Cable? And do they really think we're so stupid that we'd fail to notice how they vote in the House or, more bluntly, when they don't even bother to vote?

The leaflet also goes on to say that Labour refuse to push for a second referendum. Again this is a lie and one that the MSM also seem keen to spread. The fact is that Labour have repeatedly whipped ahead of voting for a second ref or a 'people's vote' but there isn't enough of a majority in the House to push this over the line. 

Cable and the Lib Dems, perhaps more than any other party and politician, deserve our contempt. They sold their soul to share power in 2010 and enabled the austerity that we are still suffering under to this very day. They twist with the wind and are now pretending that they never had any association with the Tories and that they are the only ones with our best interests at heart. They're banking on a resurgence that I think will happen to a degree, but when you're already at rock bottom, there's only one place to go - up.

Nigel Farage Thinks His Followers Are Idiots

I'm currently reading Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. In it, there's a line of dialogue that goes something like this: "'Intellectual' became the swear word it deserved to be" and that's a quote that immediately springs to mind when I think of the kind of world Nigel Farage, Donald Trump and the Alt Right are trying to create.

This week the World Health Organisation welcomed the decision to ban cigarette sales in the Vatican as of next year, reminding us all that, as tobacco kills 7 million people per year, this is a wise move.

Nigel Farage, a survivor of testicular cancer himself, took to twitter to say this in response:

"The World Health Organisation is just another club of 'clever people' who want to bully us and tell us what to do. Ignore"

For a long time now I've spoken on this blog about 'the rise of the idiots' (a reference to the Chris Morris/Charlie Brooker sitcom Nathan Barley) and I believe it really is coming to fruition with the rise of the alt right, because they are hell bent on making 'intellectual' a swear word; something to discredit, something to hold in utter contempt. They're creating a fairytale world where anyone who doesn't share their world view is a middle class, nanny-state loving, PC-gone-mad snowflake whose read far too many books and never done a decent day's work in their life - it's you against them in a fight for our 'freedoms'. But just what is it that has made them spin intelligence and expertise as a negative, whilst the possession of criticism and contempt for it is a positive trait to any character?

And just why do their followers accept this constant reinforcement of an idea that they are barely educated everymen facing off against 'clever' bullies? Do you have to be an idiot to be a UKIP voter? Nigel Farage seems to think so, and yet consistently calling these voters 'idiots' doesn't actually turn anyone away. In that regard, they really must be idiots then. Either that or people who just don't mind being considered as such.

The catch 22 of all this of course is that the more insulting and absurdly, wilfully ignorant comments Farage et al makes the more those of us on the left react by pointing out how stupid they are being. And the more we point this out, the more ammo the alt right have in claiming we're part of a 'clever club' who believe they have the power to tell people what to do and think.

It's a vicious circle. But please, if you have ever felt that the politics of Farage and the like personally offer something to you, take a moment to consider how it feels to be basically called an idiot by the man you're giving your vote to. 

Neil Hamilton's Advice to the Poor: 'Suicide's an option'

Former disgraced 'Cash For Questions' Tory, now UKIP Wales leader Neil Hamilton's responded to Labour's Eluned Morgan's comment about the economic consequences of Brexit affecting the poorest in our society by saying that 'suicide's an option' - this at a time when suicide is at its highest in England and Wales.

Once again, this wholly unacceptable comment, and his refusal to apologise or see why what he said was so appalling, proves that these toff tosspots have no idea about the real world, that they don't care, and that they prove it each time they open their stupid big gobs.

The Myth of the Left Wing Comedy Mafia

One thing that your average Ukipper or Tory will always bemoan is the notion of 'the sneering liberal elite' and how they dominate the entertainment industry, specifically in comedy. 'Where are the right wing comedians and comic scriptwriters?' they complain in a rhetorical manner, concluding that there are none.

Well, they do exist actually.

But unfortunately they're people like Tim Dawson.

Just look at his twitter feed; he's a proud Tory, pledging his love for Ruth Davidson, and his happiness at Brexit, along with a sneering hatred for anything else.

But who is Tim Dawson? you may ask. Well he was the man responsible for the BBC3 'sitcom' Coming of Age which ran from 2008 to 2011, and four episodes of Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps during that series death throes. And um, that's about it. His CV is remarkably bare and even more remarkably unimpressive. The only impressive thing to consider is that he was commissioned to write his one and only baby when he himself was a baby; aged just 19. Proof that the BBC really are stupid sometimes.

Now, you could argue that the fact that he has so little writing credits actually prove that the left wing have comedy sown up.

You could.

Or you could just admit that Tim Dawson is not very funny or talented. The reviews for Coming of Age, his magnum opus, certainly indicate that;

"Crudeness abounds...but neither wit nor charm has come along for the ride" said The Torygraph (that must have really hurt Dawson)

"Unremittingly dire...I sat through Coming of Age with the will to live seeping from my every pore, leaving me drenched in a puddle of despair. Apparently Tim Dawson was 19 when he wrote it. Which is about six years older than I would have guessed" Harry Venning, The Stage

"Coming of Age may be the worst BBC sitcom yet. It is supposedly aimed at teenagers but I refuse to believe that even the easiest-to-please teenager is happy to accept something so horribly written, horribly acted, and horribly vulgar in lieu of actual humour" The Scotsman.

Tim Dawson is currently working on the long mooted revival of the Carry On films with Two Pints creator Sue Nickson. So yes, they will be as shit as everyone fears. In the meantime, if you want a really good laugh, just go to his twitter for the utterly laughable political opinions he espouses. 

In short, this is proof that the world of comedy and entertainment is a level playing field, but that clearly the left are more creative, talented and yes, funnier than the right.

Copeland: The Statistical Facts

The meedja are currently doing the usual 'Corbyn is to blame' angle on the Labour loss in the Copeland by-election last week. It's an angle that is easy for them, because it's the angle they've been using almost everyday since Jeremy Corbyn came to power. It's the angle the Blairites within the party and the Tories in government want the meedja to use at all times.

But let's look at the numbers here, because they shed light on some very interesting facts.

Copeland may have been a Labour seat for the last 82 years but it has been a marginal rather than a safe seat for several years now. Labour have repeatedly lost ground since their 58% of the vote peak they secured in 1997 with Jack Cunningham. In 2001, they lost 6.4%, followed by another 1.3% in 2005, a further 4.5%  was lost in 2010 and in the 2015 General Election they lost another 3.7%.

The meedja are claiming that red turned blue in Copeland, when in actual fact that Tory increase clearly came from another corner altogether; UKIP.

In 2015, UKIP secured 15.5% of the Copeland vote, losing 6.5% last week meaning a fall of 9% which correlates almost perfectly with the 8.5% rise the Tories experienced.

And why is this?

Because Theresa May's ultra-right wing policies are being welcomed now by UKIPPERS resulting in them leaving their party in droves. Who needs a burger when you can have steak eh?

I do think it was a tough sell for the anti-nuclear Corbyn in a town so close to Sellafield and Barrow and I do think it's right that Corbyn should take some of the blame though. But that blame should be couched in different terms than those the Blairite 'on message' meedja continue to spin. What Corbyn should be considering now is just how he failed to reverse the loss that successive New Labour governments and politicians instigated in Copeland over the past twenty years. Because the rot was clearly set in by those very people who are quick to point the finger of blame at his door.

But hey, let's look the bright side - we drove Paul 'Pinocchio' Nuttall out of Stoke!

And one particularly noticeable cuntisome cunt genuinely thought he'd waltz his way to victory!

What Has Become Of Us?

The news that UKIP's leader Diane James is to stand down from her role after just eighteen days ought to be the kind of news that sparks celebration - the thought of UKIP, those dangerous right wing racists, imploding is excellent news.

However, what mars this welcome prospect is the fact that the present Tory government have out UKIPPED the most deranged UKIPPERS.

In conference this week, the Tories have announced the kind of stark hard line on immigration and ethnic minorities usually seen in the most extreme of fascist juntas. Companies are to declare how many foreigners are in their employ, taxi drivers must provide their immigration status, fewer migrants will be allowed to study at our universities and, most damning of all, foreign doctors are to be 'phased out' of the NHS.

Oh, and along with the plans for grammar schools, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has launched a scheme that will see 150 new units of army cadets in British schools.

Um, I don't know about you - but isn't this screaming the policies of Hitler's Nazi Germany?? But if that's your first reaction, don't worry Fallon's got it covered - he's launched the scheme at a Birmingham school where the majority are Muslim pupils, so you see they believe it is for us to criticise them for the anti-immigration fascists they are when they're surrounding themselves with olive skinned faces. 

And, like Hitler, the reason for this anti-immigration stance is seemingly to protect and preserve our 'strong' economy during these difficult times. It always amazes me that the public opinion seems to be that you cannot trust a Labour government with the economy, when the truth is that the Tories have presided over the slowest economic growth since the 1920s. And crucially, the Tories continue to get it wrong over the economy - if mass immigration is a threat to it, then how come America and Germany prosper? The answer is of course that it is not a threat at all. Like UKIP before them, Theresa May's Tory government have decided to use immigration and ethnic diversity as a scapegoat to blame all the ills of society upon. Ills that they and their ridiculous policies are the real perpetrators of.

The only thing that has changed in the hardline right wing Tory party over the years is that they've got significantly better at masking their disgusting, racist views.

We need to be rid of this government at the first available opportunity. We don't want to live in a country that elects to turn its back on the prosperous reality of immigration. We don't want to live in a country that is short sighted enough to turn its back on the skillset and knowledge base inherent in our NHS simply because they're provided by people of a different skin tone or with a different accent to us.

Please, vote and support Labour. Vote and support anyone in fact. Just don't vote and support a party that wishes to do this to our country.

Last Resort (2000)

Not a film that anyone who voted for Brexit is likely to want to to watch or recommend, Pawel Pavilowski's 2000 film Last Resort is nevertheless an extremely timely watch as we witness hate crime increasing and the continuing extremely disproportionate amount of negative prejudiced comment from the right-wing media and the professional bigots of UKIP and the Conservative party - the latter who seem to be achieving increasing positions of power since Empress Palpatine ascended to the throne yesterday. In the midst of this dangerous rift, Last Resort gives a human face to the issue of immigration.

Last Resort tells the story of Russian refugee Tanya, and her son Artyom (compellingly performed by Dina Korzun and Artyom Strelnikov respectively) who arrive at Heathrow where Tanya expects to be met by her fiance Mark. However, it quickly becomes clear that Mark has had second thoughts. Stood up but determined to seek Mark out, Tanya has no option but to claim asylum to bide herself some time, whereupon she and her son are transferred to a holding bay in  Stonehaven, a fictional decaying seaside resort in the South East of England (in reality Margate, which is ironically in the constituency of South Thanet, Nigel Farage's political stomping ground) There they make many failed attempts to head for London to find Mark and come to rely on local amusement arcade manager Alfie (Paddy Considine) for help in navigating the peculiarities of the strange new country they find themselves in, as well as the vagaries and hardships of their asylum seeker status; a life of phone cards, food vouchers and regimented, virtually incarcerated living in a drab high-rise flat. Gradually, a mutual attraction begins to blossom between the pair but, with money becoming increasingly short and with increasing desperation regarding her situation, Tanya takes up the offer of local internet pornographer Les (played by real-life pornographic film-maker Lindsay Honey, aka Steve Perry, aka 'Ben Dover') in a desperate bid to financially support herself.

Made by Pawel Pavilowski, a Polish born, British based filmmaker and proof that immigrants make a positive contribution to our culture (so take that Farage et al!), Last Resort is not one to shy away from the issue of immigration but, treated with the upmost sympathy, it tackles the prejudices of those who would use the issue for political gain. Asylum seekers aren't living in the lap of luxury in plush residences with the top tier of benefits available to them, they live in the tower blocks long abandoned by everyone bar the most disadvantaged and desperate and make do with the vouchers for everything in a climate of extreme exploitation and a bleak limbo, as their cases are waiting to be heard. They cannot work legally, as they have no work permits. Therefore money is extremely hard to come by. To make ends meet, they must break the law and take the most debasing employment in an unofficial, invisible capacity, allowing their 'employers' to treat them as poorly as they can. This is effectively represented by the character of Les, who prowls the periphery of the holding bay, preying on the most desperate to enter the sex trade. Pawlikowski shows us how easy it is for someone like Tanya, a normally respectable and professional young woman in her homeland, to go down that ugly and exploitative path - though he perhaps thankfully spares us the more gruesome details of that journey.

Last Resort may be a socially aware film and a political statement, but it is actually constructed in a lyrical and often life-affirming manner despite the raw, grim situation Tanya and Artyom find themselves in. The central political message of the film never feels forced as the faltering, hesitant steps of courtship between Alfie and Tanya, and his keen and heartfelt surrogate fatherhood of Artyom shines through the gloom. The main focus of Last Resort isn't actually asylum seeking and immigration; its the positive message of how different cultures can rub along. As such it is the ultimate antidote of everything we see, hear and read in this country; a touching, humanist depiction of a contentious issue, which reminds us that people are people.

Fighting Back : Petitions to Sign

Julie Young lost her severely disabled son. Now she's facing eviction from her home because she cannot afford the bedroom tax. Sign this to try and get this decision reversed.

Another petition on the bedroom tax in general can be found here

Iain Duncan Smith the absolute cunt, this blog's bete noire is appealing against the publication of statistics relating to the deaths of those affected by his savage disability benefit cuts despite the Commissioner of Information watchdog ordering him to do so. It's time we stood up to this bald heartless creep. Please, if you sign one petition, make it this petition.

On a day which George Osborne tells us we need to get on with the cuts or rather the challenge the country faces right away, it's worth reminding people that the Parliamentary Standards Authority is lobbying for a pay rise for MP's. If you think this is wrong and MP's wages should be frozen, kept as they are or even cut then this is the petition to sign

Sign here to stop forcing the most vulnerable and sick into employment.

Put the Arts back into education. Sign here

More funding for Special Needs Schools

Improve Mental Health Education and Treatment in schools by signing here

George Galloway wants to stand for Mayor of London. Tell him he's not wanted here

UKIP's attitude to the LGBT community stinks, yet Pride in London have said they won't discriminate against UKIP, despite that party discriminating against LGBT people! This petition calls for UKIP's removal from this year's Pride march.

Nominate Jeremy Corbyn for Labour leader? A chance to have anti-austerity and anti-war represented in the party.

Trident This petition asks for Ian Murray MP for Edinburgh South and Shadow Secretary of State in Scotland to use his position to support the CND campaign and get Trident removed.

And lastly a local one here; a busker in St Helens has been served an unfair noise abatement notice from Environmental Health because he was performing amplified music. As far as we can see amplified music is legal and the performer's setting was at the lowest option possible. Sign here

Fighting Back : More Petitions To Sign

Because we need to do all we can to stop the Tory rot, please sign these petitions;

The Human Rights Act Call on the Tories to provide a national referendum on this pledge from their manifesto. So many rights we currently enjoy will be removed by the Tory Party including the right NOT to be tortured, the right to freedom of expression and the right to a fair trial. Let's not be the generation that loses these privileges and takes us back to the dark ages.

Decent Housing Establish a national system of rent control in the UK to ensure everyone has the right to a home.

Mental Health A demand for a realistic budget to tackle the problem of Mental Health.

Voting A petition suggesting voting should be compulsory within the UK. I'm not altogether sure of the notion of a compulsory democracy, but having heard some absolute shite being discussed from people who pass on their right to vote I'm leaning towards it.

Elect a New DWP Secretary Our old 'friend' Iain Duncan Smith is responsible for at least 60 deaths in the last three years as his cuts and intimidating decisions came into force and has made the govt write off £34m in the middle if a recession on a troubled Universal Credit system. He needs to go NOW!

We're Only Making Plans For Nigel Bit of a fun one this. Since UKIP's Farage has gone back on his word and the official word is that the party's national executive refused his resignation, this petition asks them to reconsider and allow Nigel to go free!

Dan Jarvis Although he's stood down as a contender for the leadership of the Labour party this petition wishes it to be known that should Dan Jarvice reconsider his position, there are people supporting him.

Split up the Country! Another fun one; This petition demands that the North be allowed to join Scotland and break away from the rest of the UK. I like the sound of this myself!

The Good, The Very Bad and The Downright Ugly

After a few hours sleep I'm trying to see the positives. After all, Esther McVey The Cunt got booted out of her seat a little before I turned in at 6am this morning, as did George Galloway for Respect, so these are very good things. Other good things; I woke up to hear Nigel Farage lost Thanet and therefore stepped down as UKIP leader which will hopefully signpost his ridiculous party towards oblivion and obscurity. I woke up to hear Nick Clegg, egg well and truly on his face, managed to wipe a bit away to realise he too had to step down as leader of the Lib Dems. 

But losing Ed Miliband seems harsh. Even though I never felt utterly confident in him as a leader I'm worried for the only real rival party to the Tories, the party that still more or less represents my interests and what I believe in.

And we still have IDS. We still have Michael Gove. The Tory big hitters are still here.

It's so utterly depressing and it's hard to see just what happened and went so spectacularly wrong. I feel like someone has died, except all around us on TV there are people with smiles on their faces expecting us to be happy to see that "Mr Cameron" has got his majority. How can you be happy with the prospect of five more utterly soul destroying years of severe cuts and hardships as the divide between the rich and the poor gets wider and wider?

We can't deny that people didn't turn out this time around, the sad fact is that people did turn out - they just turned out for the cunts. But it's hard to keep a civil tongue in your head when you go online to find some people proudly proclaiming that they did not vote and that they did not believe that their opinion doesn't count as a result, because their opinion is still valid. Listen, a ruptured appendix is still a valid life threatening illness but if you don't go out and seek medical attention you have to realise you're on your fucking own with only yourself to blame. That one such person was explaining the reasons they didn't vote for the Labour party they believe themselves to be naturally associated with because they want to see our troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan (Um, they are out luv) just proves to me how out of touch people who blindly refuse to take part in the democratic process actually are.

And if people are that deluded is that why parties like the Tories with their horrendous policies continue to thrive?

England Expects (2004)

The shadow of Alan Clarke's seminal films The Firm and Made In Britain loom large over England Expects, a hard hitting 2004 BBC drama  about racism from the pen of Frank Deasy. It's a shadow that is perhaps unsurprising when you consider that producer Ruth Caleb had won the award for Creative Contribution to TV given in Clarke's name just three years prior to this film's broadcast.

Like Clarke's best work, England Expects takes the temperature of the nation at the time. The early 00s were a hotbed of racial tension with riots in Bradford and Oldham and a growing post 9/11 suspicion, hatred and demonisation of Islam which extremist political parties like Nick Griffin's BNP milked for all its worth as a propaganda tool. This previously considered lunatic fringe organisation of violent hooligans, neo Nazis and racist thugs began to hoover up votes in the deprived and disadvantaged working class areas of the UK, wrestling their traditional political sympathies from the incumbent Labour party - a government such frightened and angry residents no longer believed represented their interests - and bringing them perilously close to the mainstream.

Steven Mackintosh delivers a strong and compelling performance as Ray Knight, a security guard at the trading floor of London's Canary Wharf,  whose life begins to spiral out of control following a series of family problems, ultimately drawing him back to his violent, far right past.

The first cracks in his rigid controlled existence starts to appear when his ex wife and daughter (Camille Coduri and Sadie Thompson) are refused a flat on a new estate. Angry that they have to remain in their ill equipped slum housing, Ray begins to notice that much of the flats on the new estate seem to be going to Asian families - though in his far right paranoia he naturally chooses to ignore that these families lived in the same slum flats as his former wife and teenage daughter do, or that they're specifically being rehoused in flats and houses with five-six bedrooms, abodes which are just too big for his own estranged families circumstances.  His sense of frustration gains a sympathetic ear from an old friend and arch manipulator played by Keith Barron who is effectively the head of a BNP like party hoping to put a candidate forward for the local council elections and promises to do all he can to highlight what they perceive to be the unfair practices of the housing association via the local media and their own political campaign. 

Ray's world further disintegrates when he discovers that his beloved daughter Nikki is involved with the wrong, predominantly Asian, crowd and is using heroin. Lastly, he develops a sexual obsession with Alison (Susan Vidler) one of the traders at work who's colleague and boyfriend just happens to be Jewish.

All these things bubble up and boil over, putting Ray back on the path of violence with disastrous consequences. 

Unfortunately I think the film overeggs the pudding a little and ultimately gets a little too melodramatic in places, especially in its final stages. I'm also not convinced at all that it needed the subplot with Susan Vidler, as I don't feel it adds anything to the story and just muddies the intentions elsewhere. It is at its best when exploring the Machiavellian like nature of these far right organisations and how, those members in the public eye ensure they keep their hands clean by using the younger generation to do their dirty work by spoonfeeding them just the right amount of vitriol and sense of unfairness. In many ways it's a practice not too dissimilar to the hate clerics who convince young people to become suicide bombers that so often fuel their argument for 'keeping Britain white'. England Expects shows us how these racists have become more intelligent and more media savvy through the years, using and manipulating racial tension to highlight their cause. Barron's character discusses the days when he would campaign door to door flanked by football hooligans to be met with spit and flying bottles and bricks, but now he's the respectable face of a 'mainstream' political party. At the time of broadcast the BNP was  'evolving' in exactly the same way and the fear was they would gain a foothold in our democracy. Thankfully that proved not to be the case, but have they really gone away or have they just got more media savvy and morphed into the equally threatening UKIP? 

Equally the film benefits greatly from a great central performance from Mackintosh who, in donning a deeply unfashionable 'tache, puts us in mind for better or worse of Gary Oldman's Bex from The Firm. It's a performance of lethal, barely suppressed anger as Ray edges towards breaking point and a complete breakdown. The scary or accurate thing is Deasy presents a man who is, despite his abhorrent views, surprisingly easy to relate  to - he just wants the best for his daughter and wants her kept from harm. It's how he ultimately goes about this though that is totally inexcusable and the irony being that, in trying to keep and protect all he holds dear, he is actually moving further and further away from it and allowing it to slip through his fingers.

The film is available to watch on YouTube though be advised to ignore the comments below it as its full of the usual 'blah blah blah typical left wing woolly liberal propaganda blah blah blah....'

UKIP: The First 100 Days

"A biased, partisan depiction" of his party. That's what UKIP leader Nigel Farage thinks of this alt reality docudrama.

Well to quote the recently deceased Mandy Rice-Davies, ''he would say that, wouldn't he?''

But unfortunately some fifteen hundred (and counting) complaints have swamped Channel Four and Ofcom since the broadcast of UKIP: The First 100 Days, the 'what if?' drama on Monday night which depicted a future in which Nigel Farage won the general election in May 2015, which I guess just goes to show how quick to assemble and complain racists can be.

Thankfully of course the prospect of UKIP becoming the next party to lead our country is an unlikely one, but that's not the purpose of this docudrama from film maker Chris Atkins which mixes real-life archive material alongside scripted drama detailing the fledgling career of the newly elected fictional MP for Romford, Deepa Kaur (Priyanga Burford) a token Asian in Farage's party. The main aim here is to highlight UKIP's policies and encourage debate among the viewers in a manner which would hopefully open the eyes of anyone who is considering placing a X next to Farage's name in May. 

Unfortunately however, I don't think it does this all that well and the rather hollow satire Atkins deploys is not in any way original or daring enough to truly merit the controversial status it clearly aspires to. Yes, it does its job of addressing the concerns that UKIP's policies are ill conceived, headline grabbing and empty, and that they would lead to nothing but an embittered, hate filled nation. But its drama is preaching to the converted at best and, at worst, has actually just added fuel to the fire of the notion that many UKIP supporters have - that the media is a metropolitan bunch of trendies sneering at the interests of the average common (white van) man and that their's is the only party that can truly represent this underdog. In many ways, I worry if this will actually have helped rather than harmed Farage and his ignorant cronies and his vocal protestations towards it, inspiring the rising complaints, can certainly help to achieve that. 

Ultimately, UKIP: The First 100 Days follows the same fatally flawed path as previous Channel 4 complaint heavy docudramas like The Execution of Gary Glitter and The Taking of Prince Harry.

Don't Be Reckless With The Beast Of Bolsover

God bless Dennis Skinner (dead ringer for my late grandfather) for taking to task the odious UKIP MP Mark Reckless during his swearing into the Commons following his success at the Rochester and Strood By-Election. 

Good old Dennis pointed to Reckless and the only other UKIP MP in the house, Douglas Carswell, and rightfully accused them and their obnoxious, racist party of wanting to deport foreigners from the UK. Claiming that he had 'a United Nations heart bypass' carried out by a Syrian cardiologist, a Malaysian surgeon, a Dutch doctor and a Nigerian registrar, Skinner argued that such skill set would be lost in the UK if UKIP, a party that allegedly has our countries best intentions at heart and which Reckless was on record this week as saying would consider deporting long term immigrants, ever came to power.

See Skinner's memorable and well received address here

Far be it from me to suggest anything to the great man, but maybe he sould have included the fact that not only would UKIP wish to deport such talented medics, they would also wish to privatise the NHS completely.

Once again I am staggered by the stupidity inherent among certain members of our voting public. Shame on Rochester and Strood for giving this literally Reckless man and his party a position of power, and praise be for the likes of Dennis Skinner.

Now You See It, Now You Don't

Why has the shaven Bungle from Rainbow that is UKIP's deputy leader, Paul 'nutty' Nuttall deleted comments about the NHS on his website?

Could it be that UKIP want to mask or hide away the stances they have on anything other than their rapidly (though bafflingly) populist beliefs on the EU and immigration because they know that the prospective supporters and voters they get from espousing their Little England, borderline racist crap would soon change their minds if they heard about their unsavoury prospective policies and beliefs regarding things we hold dear such as the NHS?

I'm genuinely worried and astounded that such a madcap party of zealots, eccentrics, shysters and Tory floorcrossers can propel themselves forward on just one policy and I urge people to wake up and read the small print, read between the lines, see more than one opinion and actually realise how damaging a potential UKIP protest vote can be to everything we have fought for and become accustomed to.  

Don't fall for their flannel!

The Farage Mirage and the Recall Scam

This cunt is laughing today. But he's laughing at you; because the joke is on you if you voted for his ridiculous right wing Tory reject party.

Because what was it exactly that you voted for?

I'm fed up of hearing how UKIP voters are just as fed up of being painted as bigots, scared of immigration or simply not understanding the issues raised by the election. Because that suggests these voters knew what they were voting for.

How?

Go and look on the UKIP website (if you can stomach it) and tell me just what policies they have.

They have none. They trade on fear, racism and right wing values. And that's it.

Their site is full of what they're against, but there's precious little of what they'll actually do.

Where are their actual policies?

Did you know that they hold the NHS largely in contempt and that such hard fought privileges that we presently enjoy such as maternity are things they are keen to change for the worse or dispense with altogether?

Of course you didn't. Because that means actually taking time out to do some researching into just what it is you're placing your precious vote - something people fought and died for and something which many are still not entitled to have - for.

And why do that?

Remember, this is the party whose own leader admitted to never reading its manifesto at the last election.

If you voted UKIP last week you were sold on this Farage mirage. You voted for one reason only; an unreasonable fear and hatred of anyone living in this country who isn't British.

And I despair that such a voice is now being heard in the UK. Because that isn't my England. That isn't my England at all. We are clearly living in different worlds, never mind a different country.

Nigel Farage may be laughing, he may be claiming he is now the leader of the nation's third party, but he's someone who would crumble at the first sign of any actual responsibility, because he stands for nothing but contempt.He has no policies and until he does, he'll always be outside the tent pissing in - the position he's happiest in, the position he's always wanted to have.

On the plus side, at least the odious Nick Griffin of the BNP lost his MEP seat here in the North West.

* * *

MP's need to regain our trust, says today's Telegraph.

Well, amen to that.

MP's can fiddle their expenses, go to gaol and break every promise they've ever pledged to us and we can only get rid of them on election day. 

This is wrong and a bill is currently in the offing to 'recall' MP's, to sack them, if they misbehave.

Sounds good eh?

Wrong. Because its taking the power away from the constituents, us, and placing it solely and squarely into government's hands. 

Real recall is giving us the power to demand by-elections to get rid of MPs. This is far more democratic, this keeps the power with us. Please sign the petition to get Cameron and Clegg to think again  here

The Alternative Party Political Broadcast.

Taken from Keith Topping's blog. Quoted for truth.

Floods and UKIP

Now that's a blog post title to grab your attention right?

And just as well, because this is important; I really despair of some of the people who find their way into elected office and David Sylvester (pictured above) is no exception. The UKIP councillor for Henley on Thames has claimed that the recent flooding that has struck the UK this last month or so is the result of parliament passing the same sex marriage bill?!

Please sign this petition demanding this prize idiot's resignation

https://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions  

Bloom-in' Heck!

Excellent moments from Friday night's Have I Got News For You (an extended version also appeared on BBC1 last night) in which this blog's favourite Victoria Coren Mitchell roundly trounced the odious former UKIP MP, the racist, homophobic and sexist Godfrey Bloom (he of 'Bongo-Bongo land' and 'women are sluts' comments) and showed him up for just what a cretin he is, with the help of her team mate Ian Hislop.

Sad then isn't it, that a friend has just drawn my attention to some absolute idiot of a young lady over on twitter, who has been defending the odious decrepit waste of oxygen with tweets like this...

Busy typing up a complaint to @BBCOne about @VictoriaCoren's behaviour on tonight's HIGNFY. My opinion: rude, patronising and disrespectful

and when challenged, she adds....

I disagree (obviously) thought Godfrey Bloom was treated unfairly, and used as a whipping boy throughout

and worryingly....

I don't think he's racist just old fashioned, not intending harm just putting his foot in it accidentally

I seriously utterly despair. I mean I don't want to go all 'kids today' over this, but how are we ever going to eradicate the kind of fnar fnar fnar landed gentry jingoistic right wing racism that UKIP stand for when there's a new generation of voters out there who think they're just harmless old fogies?

Politics and Petitions, Again.

Petition

I make no apologies in asking you to take some time to sign the above petition from Jayne Linney and Debbie Sayers. We need to get that ignorant idiot Iain Duncan Smith to realise that he either simply doesn't understand the statistics he spouts or that he's deliberately building up a wall of misinformation to discredit the honest disabled people out there claiming benefit because, quite simply, they are incapable of work, in an attempt to turn the populace against one another. 

Also please remember that its the local elections today. People fought and died for your right to vote, so please do so. Ok, a lot of the 'candidates' couldn't run a whelk stall, but it is still important that your voice is heard. We have to use the sounding boards we have. Just don't vote for the Tories. Or UKIP for that matter, whatever you do. 

Seriously, Nigel Farage? Do you really want to give a man who looks like a cross between a crooked country squire from a Will Hay film and Toad Of Toad Hall your vote and a shot at power?