eublues

Iain Dale talking some sense and some rubbish, but at least he's reminding people about us.

Tories should pledge a vote on being in the EU - Telegraph

Wolfie Smith

Dale is just a bitter and twisted faggot who is sore because he can never actually get himself elected as anything....

I used to like his bookshop, but even that failed.

Anthony Butcher

Are UKIP staff supposed to use language like that?

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Britannist

I read that Mr. Dale's bookshop continues successfully - but it is now on the internet, just like Amazon books.

Britannist

Mr. Iain Dale is a moderate eurosceptic who, although not being the number one fan of UKIP, has courteously invited UKIP people onto his interview programme on 18 Doughty Street internet television (a political channel supported by one or two people at the anti-euro Conservative Home website) and given them (the members of UKIP) the time 'on air' to detail UKIP policy and their opposition to the EU.

UKIP leader Mr. Farage is among those who have been interviewed at length at 18 Doughty Street by Mr. Dale.

To his credit, Mr. Dale is also a campaigner for England to get constitutional equality with Scotland within the UK.

I am sorry Mr. Dale failed to defeat the high-profile sitting Liberal 'Democrat' MP he stood against at the last General Election. The less members of the europhile Dim Libs there are in the House of Commons, the better.

Britannist

Mr. Dale makes a clear point in his article (last paragraph) - that the Conservatives cannot afford to write off 20/30 seats and half a million votes (i.e. the votes it has lost to UKIP since the europhile Major took over as Conservative leader and since Major was thrown out of office).

I have written on the forum a number of times that in keeping the Conservatives on a rigidly pro-EU path, the europhiles in the Conservative Party (none of whom are real Tories) have cost that party up to 30 seats in the Commons (27 constituencies at the last General Election according to the eurosceptic Bruges Group).

My forecast now is that unless the Conservative leadership start to take the pro-sovereignty issue and the threat to the UK from the EU seriously, the Conservatives will fail to win 50 target marginal constituencies at the next General Election (because strongly eurosceptic and anti-EU voters will either stay at home and not vote Conservative or they will stay with/switch to UKIP/English Democrats).

As Mr. Dale writes in his article (on the link in the first posting to this thread) "it (people voting UKIP and not Conservative) might mean the difference between a hung parliament and an overall majority, or even the difference between a hung parliament and a Labour majority."

I think that Mr. Dale's message to the many pro-Conservative and Tory-voting readers of the Daily Telegraph is clear - take what UKIP says on the EU seriously or risk Labour holding on to many seats the Conservatives need to win to stay in the race as a serious competitor.

To show that they mean their euroscepticism - the Conservative leadership should (as a first step) immediately bring back the commitment (abandoned by David Cameron) to quit the EU Common Fisheries Policy and the ban on anti-EU Conservative MPs sitting in the Shadow Cabinet (also introduced by David Cameron) should be - very publicly - ended. The delay in the Conservatives quitting the anti-British and pro-euro EPP group in the EU 'Parliament' should also stop. The Conservatives need to pull their MEPs out of the EPP right now (as was originally promised by David Cameron) and ignore complaints from 'Conservative' europhile MEPs about such a move.

devilskitchen

He sold Politico's and moved solely to internet sales. He sold the internet arm about a year ago, to Harriman House.

Iain has a bee in his bonnet about UKIP because he sees them as a threat to his beloved Tories. Having said that, I have attacked him, often quite viciously, at The Kitchen and he has always reponded courteously.

He has also invited me onto 18DS a number of times: the first time he had to fight strenuously with one of the directors to make it happen.

Whilst I disagree with a lot of what he says, you must remember that he sees everything through the prism of total loyalty to the Conservative Party. That he is attacking UKIP is a good thing: it means that he sees us as a threat.

Personally, I get on with him very well, notwithstanding his slight UKIP fixation.

I would fisk him again, but England Expects has done it perfectly well.

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Britannist

The EU is the threat, but there seem to be some in the Conservative Party who do not realise that UKIP was born as a result of pro-euro 'Conservative' Prime Minister Major handing more British sovereign powers to the EU.

John Major and the 'Conservative' europhiles are responsible for the Conservative Party losing millions of votes which the Conservative Party has not managed to recover in any General Election since 1992.

My forecast is that the Conservatives losing strongly eurosceptic and anti-EU votes could cost that party 50 gains in target seats at the next General Election (the Bruges Group say 27 constituencies which could have voted in Conservative MPs did not do so at the last General Election due to the loss of pro-sovereignty voters to UKIP/Veritas).

It is a pity that there are some in the Conservative Party who see UKIP as a greater threat than the EU.

The Conservative Party will not realise its full electoral potential until it removes the europhile impostors from its ranks and then starts to treat the return of our lost sovereign powers from the EU as its main priority.

pentameter

From the Telegraph article:

There's nothing odd about the Europhile Lib Dems putting suggesting such a thing at all. They gave a manifesto commitment to a referendum on the Constitution which they now want to forget, and this is a diversion. The Tories have a clear and popular target to aim at in the referendum on the Constitution, which is the matter in hand, and the one the LibDems want to avoid.

I don't believe Iain Dale understands UKIP support very well. A lot of us just don't trust the Tories with regard to the EU or much else. I don't think he can see things except in terms of narrow electoral tactics for the Tories, and even from that point of view, proposing a referendum on "In or Out" would be a poisoned chalice, at least now.

The fact that the LibDems have proposed an in/out referendum may well be useful, in the future, but not now.

stathan

The self righteous Dale of course is also the one who 'Innocently' pointed out that the little monkeys at the BNP had published a list of our candidates for the May council elections giving the general impression by association that there was some sort of co-operation between the two parties.


He of course backtracked a touch on the sharpish side when heavily criticised for this shameful piece of electioneering proganda by all and sundry on the comments section of his own site.