Tory MP defection.

[McWigglebum4th]

And Arron Banks a major Tory party donor has jumped shipped to UKIP

[Timsta]

McWigglebum4th said:

And Arron Banks a major Tory party donor has jumped shipped to UKIP

With a starting donation of £100,000

[Halb]

Fittster said:

"Tory MP Douglas Carswell has defected to the UK Independence Party and will stand down as MP for Clacton to seek re-election in a by-election.

If he wins the by-election he will be the first UKIP MP to take a seat in Westminster."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-28967904

Quite impressed he's got the balls to call a by-election. Never like it when an MP switches parties without calling a by-election (yes, Emma Nicholson I'm thinking of you).

That is impressive....something unusual in this age of clap-happy party thuggery.

[z4RRSchris99]

Timsta said:

With a starting donation of £100,000

make that £1m

[230TE]

At this point in the run-up to the 1987 election Labour were 5-6 points ahead despite the Left vote being split by the SDP/Liberal Alliance. Then people started really thinking about having Kinnock as PM and just couldn't take the idea seriously. If Cameron is the 'heir to Blair', Miliband is the heir to Kinnock.

[irocfan]

230TE said:

Miliband is the heir to Kinnock.

I fking hope so!!!

Edited by irocfan on Thursday 2nd October 17:19

[gpo746]

if he did it in public its just disgusting.

[MarshPhantom]

230TE said:

At this point in the run-up to the 1987 election Labour were 5-6 points ahead despite the Left vote being split by the SDP/Liberal Alliance. Then people started really thinking about having Kinnock as PM and just couldn't take the idea seriously. If Cameron is the 'heir to Blair', Miliband is the heir to Kinnock.

Cameron is/was nowhere near as successful as Blair and Miliband is nothing like Kinnock.

My autocorrect tried to turn Miliband into militant. Whoops.

[anonymous-user]

MarshPhantom said:

Cameron is/was nowhere near as successful as Blair.......

How was Blair successful?

[MarshPhantom]

REALIST123 said:

How was Blair successful?

Really? Well he won 3 elections, Cameron has yet to win one.

[unrepentant]

REALIST123 said:

How was Blair successful?

Blair was one of the most succesful PM's of the 20th Century. He took a party that was close to unelectable and turned it into an election winning machine and him into one of the longest tenured PM's ever and one of the very few to have left on his own terms.

[turbobloke]

unrepentant said:

REALIST123 said:

How was Blair successful?

Blair was one of the most succesful PM's of the 20th Century. He took a party that was close to unelectable and turned it into an election winning machine and him into one of the longest tenured PM's ever and one of the very few to have left on his own terms.

OK that's success as a politician but then the country got progessively screwed after 2001/02, so by another measure of success his ability to get Labour elected and re-elected was a disaster.

[unrepentant]

turbobloke said:

unrepentant said:

REALIST123 said:

How was Blair successful?

Blair was one of the most succesful PM's of the 20th Century. He took a party that was close to unelectable and turned it into an election winning machine and him into one of the longest tenured PM's ever and one of the very few to have left on his own terms.

OK that's success as a politician but then the country got progessively screwed after 2001/02, so by another measure of success his ability to get Labour elected and re-elected was a disaster.

Umm.... he was a career politician. As a career politician he had a brilliant career! Compare him to the "greats" - Churchill won the war and was promptly booted out by the electorate. Thatcher won 3 elections and then got turfed out by her own people. Wilson is the only other pre war PM that walked away (Churchill was basically forced to retire second time around by Eden who was losing patience).

I can't stand Blair but he was a success by anyone's reckoning. As well as his personal success he introduced the minimum wage, brokered a succesful peace in Northern Ireland, persuaded Clinton to act with him in Kosovo which bought down Milosevic and introuduced civil partnerships amongst other things and most importantly kept Gordon Brown out of No 10.

[turbobloke]

He succeeded in getting Labour elected and re-elected, nobody is questioning that, but he did so as a snake oil salesman and the country didn't do well out of it in the long run. So he's a success for getting into office and staying there while presiding over the country's demise, to some that makes him a failure as well.

[MarshPhantom]

turbobloke said:

He succeeded in getting Labour elected and re-elected, nobody is questioning that, but he did so as a snake oil salesman and the country didn't do well out of it in the long run. So he's a success for getting into office and staying there while presiding over the country's demise, to some that makes him a failure as well.

Cameron can't even sell snake oil successfully.

Blair's greatest achievement was keeping the Tories out for 13 years.

[turbobloke]

MarshPhantom said:

turbobloke said:

He succeeded in getting Labour elected and re-elected, nobody is questioning that, but he did so as a snake oil salesman and the country didn't do well out of it in the long run. So he's a success for getting into office and staying there while presiding over the country's demise, to some that makes him a failure as well.

Cameron can't even sell snake oil successfully.

Maybe he didn't try to, but I can't say a great deal about what he's done for the Conservative Party as it would take too long to think of something. CMD is not the reason I'll vote Conservative in 2015, if I do.

MarshPhantom said:

Blair's greatest achievement was keeping the Tories out for 13 years.

To Labour supporters yes that's an achievement but we've seen the mentality of a large slice of Labour supporters who want higher income tax rates even if it doesn't bring in more tax. They're not the sharpest tools in the box, but do the chippy envy thing very well.

By the time Blair's Party left office the country had spent the taxes from our children's future earnings, child and pensioner poverty was up, wealth gaps were wider, social mobility had stalled and despite billions spent on education and young offenders, there was nothing to show for it except grade inflation, illiteracy, and higher youth reoffending. It's a pity he kept the Conservatives out for so long.

[Esseesse]

turbobloke said:

MarshPhantom said:

turbobloke said:

He succeeded in getting Labour elected and re-elected, nobody is questioning that, but he did so as a snake oil salesman and the country didn't do well out of it in the long run. So he's a success for getting into office and staying there while presiding over the country's demise, to some that makes him a failure as well.

Cameron can't even sell snake oil successfully.

Maybe he didn't try to, but I can't say a great deal about what he's done for the Conservative Party as it would take too long to think of something. CMD is not the reason I'll vote Conservative in 2015, if I do.

MarshPhantom said:

Blair's greatest achievement was keeping the Tories out for 13 years.

To Labour supporters yes that's an achievement but we've seen the mentality of a large slice of Labour supporters who want higher income tax rates even if it doesn't bring in more tax. They're not the sharpest tools in the box, but do the chippy envy thing very well.

By the time Blair's Party left office the country had spent the taxes from our children's future earnings, child and pensioner poverty was up, wealth gaps were wider, social mobility had stalled and despite billions spent on education and young offenders, there was nothing to show for it except grade inflation, illiteracy, and higher youth reoffending. It's a pity he kept the Conservatives out for so long.

It's a pity Cameron 'won' the last election (yes I know he only half won).

[carinaman]

Carswell is on Radio 4's Any Questions tonight.