tito

True.

With that on baord, the 7% in Wales seems huge!

Britannist

You know Tito - what I am particularly pleased with is the fact that UKIP has come out with a simple, clear and potentially very popular policy which no other party can copy - i.e. 'scrap the assembly' and 'abolish the Scottish Parliament - make the MSP's redundant'.

Where they can, other parties will try to copy (or copy and 'water down') UKIP policies and try to make them their own.

They are having extreme difficulty doing this with UKIPs blatant and very catchy 'Scrap the Assembly' flagship policy (in Wales).

It reminds me of Mrs. (now Lady) Thatcher and the hugely popular policy of council house sales in 1979. Labour would have loved to copy that vote-winning policy - but (because of ideology) couldn't (and lost :twisted: )!

tito

I'm with you Britannist, but scrap the assembly won't prove popular because people simply haven't got the facts.

I was speaking to a man supporting Plaid, I presented him my case for scrapping the assembly and he said

"England rules us and if we don't leave the UK Wales will be forgotten"

People don't want to hear the truth, hopefully our party election broadcast will change some of this.

Afterall, the global warming swindle broadcast has convinced a good few people around here, I'm forever hearing from people about the "Co2 lie". I could have told them this years ago! They just need the TV to say it before it becomes official.

Britannist

I hope people will learn about the cost and dangers of the Assembly in Wales. I am sure they will. They key may be to get it across just how much the cost of running it is.

I recall with amusement that when the referendum was held on setting up the Welsh Assembly, the Welsh capital voted No. So the pro-devolution lobby ended up with their Assembly approved on the narrowest of margins and based in Cardiff which was against this expensive talking shop.

As for the Plaid Cymru-supporting person saying the English rule Wales. What nonsense. Apart from going on holiday to Wales (or a few English people buying Welsh holiday homes) most English people do not interfere in the internal affairs of the nation of Wales. The Welsh are British and England and Wales belong together.

If the Plaid Cymru crowd have their way, Wales will become an EU-controlled region with Welsh politicians taking orders from an EU Commission in Brussels which couldn't care less about Wales or any part of these islands.

By the way, I'm not hearing a great deal from UKIP about the London Assembly (GLA) and the obnoxious europhile Mayor of London, Livingstone. Perhaps the UKIP campaign against Livingstone and his £60 million work-palace will all come later this year or early next year as we approach the 2008 GLA and Mayoral Elections.

22ANDUK

It now appears a 'given' that not only are the three big parties, but that there is now a 'Big 6' of small parties:

Greens/SNP/Plaid/UKIP/Respect/BNP - are all now pretty established and most people on the street are aware of these.

Britannist

UKIP needs to learn to target wards/constituencies just as the Greens/SNP/Plaid Cymru/DUP/UUP/'Respect' and others do.

Through careful targeting the Greens came closer than any other small party to seriously challenging in a parliamentary constituency at the May 2005 General Election (the Greens nearly came a good second at Labour-held Brighton Pavilion).

rjt

yes that is a good response from UKIP there is no diffrence in ideology between the leadership of the two main partys.

22ANDUK

Britannist wrote:
Definitely. There must be scores of material available on this. UKIP always seems to pump its money into big, brash campaigns which is great when trying to secure MEPs through the whole PR/Regional election campaign, but achieving MPs is different.

I'd certainly think that a policy of UKIP HQ in pumping time, effort and resources into building up from the bottom teams and branches in Hartlepool (already achieved 10.2%) Boston & Skegness (already achieved 9.6%) and South Staffordshire (already achieved 10.4%) and amongst many others if people are aware of them.

Don't forget the news of 1 UKIP MP posed to being elected or indeed being elected will not only generate not only massive (and free) publicity in the press - perhaps more than a broad, sweeping 'national' campaign, a UKIP House of Commons Member will also be able to be in the media spotlight for 4-5 years - this will galvanise other areas and branches.