Another record breaking poll

[-:Undertaker:-]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/poli...oons-slur.html

Tories begin defecting to Ukip over 'loons' slur

Conservative activists have begun defecting to the UK Independence Party in protest at the Tory leadership’s “arrogant and insulting” attitude towards grassroots members.

Local Conservative party campaigners, including the chairman of one constituency association, will this week pledge their support for Nigel Farage after one of David Cameron’s allies described grassroots Tories as “mad, swivel-eyed loons”.

Mr Farage uses an advertisement in Monday's Telegraph to urge Conservative voters to back Ukip. The “loons” description, he says, is “the ultimate insult” from a party leadership that has betrayed the trust of its own supporters.

He writes in the advertisement: “Only an administration run by a bunch of college kids, none of whom have ever had a proper job in their lives, could so arrogantly write off their own supporters.”

The advertisement published in todays Daily Telegraph.

The Telegraph, which reported the comment along with other newspapers on Saturday, has not named the individual who made the remarks.

Lord Feldman, the co-chairman of the party, denied over the weekend that he had been responsible and was said to be considering legal action after internet rumours suggested he had made the comment.

The peer, who has known the Prime Minister since they were students at Oxford together, will be questioned by members of the party’s executive board, which he chairs, at a meeting in London on Monday.

The remarks were made by a senior figure in the party who has strong social connections to the Prime Minister. The figure argued that Tory MPs did not have a problem with Mr Cameron, but were being pressured to rebel on issues such as Europe and gay marriage by their local party associations, who are “all mad swivel-eyed loons”.

Last week, 116 Conservative MPs voted for a motion criticising the Queen’s Speech for failing to include a Bill allowing a referendum on European Union membership.

This week, up to 200 are said to be ready to reject the plan to legalise marriage for same-sex couples.

Many Tory MPs fear that Mr Cameron and his inner circle are out of touch with the concerns of grassroots activists and voters.

The Prime Minister’s own position was called into question as Tory members demanded that the Conservative leadership identify the individual responsible for the “loons” comment and eject that person from the party.

Six members of the Tory group on Merton council in south London are quitting. One, Richard Hilton, who has been acting chairman of the local Conservative association, said he would join Ukip because the insult was “the final straw”.

He added that the comment demonstrated “the arrogance and the attitude of the liberal elite that runs the Tory party nowadays”.

Suzanne Evans, another defecting Merton Tory councillor, said grassroots members worked “phenomenally hard” and would feel insulted by the comments.

Delyth Miles, a councillor and chairman of the Clacton constituency association in Essex, said Mr Cameron had “a duty” to show that the party does not tolerate such insults and should expel the person responsible for the “loon” comments from the party immediately.

Downing Street issued strong statements of support for Lord Feldman and denied “categorically” that anyone in Number 10 had made the comments.

Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, told BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show he did not believe the reported comments: “The person who is alleged to have said that has denied it, and I know the individual and I trust him – he’s a man of great honour.”

Lord Feldman said on Saturday that the allegations on the internet which suggested he had made the remark were “completely untrue” and that he believed local Conservative associations to be “hard-working, committed and reasonable people”.

However, Lord Feldman will have to answer questions in person from his colleagues as he is due to chair the monthly meeting of the Conservative Party board in London this afternoon.

Brian Binley, a Tory MP and member of the party’s 19-strong ruling board, said: “The whole thing disturbs me enormously and needs to be discussed by the board because we need to have some answers.

“From what I have been told, comments of this kind were said. Whether they were said as a joke or not matters not because they were said to senior journalists and I do not believe journalists at that level or any level lie about a thing of this import.

“If it is a joke, it underlines a state of mind. If it isn’t, then it highlights an attitude to the voluntary sector in the party which is unacceptable.

“The voluntary sector is the Conservative Party. The leadership are the party’s caretakers, not its proprietors. These are the very people we will need to deliver leaflets, canvass and knock on doors.

“All this sort of remark will do is make it more difficult to get back those people who voted Ukip as a protest. This is therefore a very serious matter.”

Another source on the Conservative board said the remarks were “horrifying but not surprising” because they fitted a pattern of “complete contempt” with which the party leadership treated the grassroots.

“These are people who give up their lives for the party,” the source said.

“There has to be some definitive action from the party leader. It is his party. He leads it. He is there because we put him there.”

Lord Howe, the former chancellor, claimed Mr Cameron was “losing control” of the party to growing euroscepticism. Writing in the Observer he said: “The Conservative leadership is in effect running scared of its own backbenchers, let alone Ukip, having allowed deep anti-Europeanism to infect the very soul of the party.”

Emma Pidding, chairman of the National Conservative Convention, the voluntary wing of the party, said she and several colleagues would support Lord Feldman in the board meeting.

The Tory activist said she had phoned Lord Feldman personally on Saturday to ask him about the allegations and would give him her “absolutely full confidence and backing”.

Peter Hitchens has commented many times before how the leadership of the three main parties actually loathe their own supporters - and again and again we see this. From the comments made by Gordon Brown to Gillian Duffy over concerns with mass immigration, to Cameron's fruitcake comment - now the loongate scandal. They show utter contempt for their own supporters, all three of them.

Meanwhile the latest ICM poll had UKIP on 20%, only 7% behind the Conservatives on 27%.

Thoughts on the unfolding crisis in the Tory Party?

[AgnesIO]

Is that letter genuine?

Impressive, he has insulted the entire student population (who can vote), the greens and gay people all in one letter. Good effort. And obviously those pesky Romanians, but they have no vote in national elections, so I didn't mention them.

Would love to see how many people he can write off in a book!

[-:Undertaker:-]

http://www7.politicalbetting.com/ind...urvation-poll/

Tonight's Survation poll - UKIP two points away from overtaking the Tories after 'Loongate' scandal

Bloody hell.

[AgnesIO]

http://www7.politicalbetting.com/ind...urvation-poll/

Tonight's Survation poll - UKIP two points away from overtaking the Tories after 'Loongate' scandal

Bloody hell.

I am still very cautious on the real story behind these polls. Under two years to go. ALso, I can't remember which thread it was, but you used the SDP as an example of a party rising - but surely that particular example supports my (and many others argument), that UKIP will simply fade away...?

[-:Undertaker:-]

I am still very cautious on the real story behind these polls. Under two years to go. ALso, I can't remember which thread it was, but you used the SDP as an example of a party rising - but surely that particular example supports my (and many others argument), that UKIP will simply fade away...?

Diffence between SDP and UKIP is that SDP was formed from a breakaway group of MPs rather than starting as a grassroots party from scratch, like UKIP. Also, the SDP likely would have won in the 1980s had it not been for the Falklands victory that Mrs. Thatcher secured along with the fact that many Labour voters clung to Labour because they wanted rid of the Conservative Party. Had the SDP just done slightly better on that day, they would probably be one of the major two parties today.

In the Canadian example of the Reform Party, it was a grassroots party set up in the late 1980s at a time when the Progressive Conservative Party was seen as very out of touch with conservative voters. By the early 1990s, Reform had wiped out the Progressive Conservatives under FPTP and eventually went on to form the government of Canada of which the are still in office today - the former Progressive Conservative Party no longer exists.

In the Australian example of the One Nation Party, the party was set up in the late 1990s and became a grassroots movement. The party never secured enough votes to even gain many seats at all - however, it still achieved many of its objectives because the new Conservative leader John Howard virtually adopted all of its policies and went on to become Prime Minister for three or four terms. So although it never won office itself, it won by having one of the established parties adopt its ideals and beliefs - in contrast with the Canadian example where the Progressive Conservatives simply ignored the threat Reform posed and brushed it off as a 'protest'.

Many would also argue that the SDP achieved its objectives also in that control of the Labour Party was wrestled back from the 'Militant' tendency group of the Bennites and the likes of Michael Foot with SDP being a major factor in having Labour reunite behind a more moderate and less socialist manifesto and outlook - resulting in the eventual election of Blair. So there's more than one way of winning.


Interesting also in that Survation poll above, the breakdown figures for the 55+ age group (the age group least likely to change their minds, and the same group that is most likely to turn up and vote) the figures are as follows....

UKIP 33%
CON 27%
LAB 25%
LDEM 8%

[AgnesIO]

So your latest results suggest that UKIP are the most popular party in Britain?

Lets be realistic, who actually does these polls? :L

Just putting it out there, does the Green Party have a seat in Westminster? I believe that is what, at least one more than UKIP?

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

[-:Undertaker:-]

So your latest results suggest that UKIP are the most popular party in Britain?

Lets be realistic, who actually does these polls? :L

Eh? I don't own a polling company and nor have I posted a poll or seen a poll suggesting UKIP are the most popular party.

Just putting it out there, does the Green Party have a seat in Westminster? I believe that is what, at least one more than UKIP?

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

It does as Green Party support is concentrated in the Brighton and Hove area.