From the GWPF and Dr. Benny Peiser
Green Lobby Concerned
The UK Independence Party has overtaken the Liberal Democrats as the third party of British politics, Nigel Farage declared today as he made major gains in local elections. As senior Conservatives scrambled to justify haemorrhaging support to the anti-EU party, Mr Farage said he was at the head of a ‘wave of protest’ which would permanently change the political landscape. —Daily Mail, 3 May 2013
Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, has declared his party is on course to change the face of British politics in the wake of its strongest performance in local elections, making a series of gains across England. In the biggest surge by a fourth party in England since the second world war, Ukip averaged 26% of the vote in council wards where it stood, according to a BBC estimate. Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat president, said his party had been “obliterated” in the South Shields byelection, where it came seventh and lost its deposit. –Nicholas Watt, The Guardian, 3 May 2013
Concerns are mounting among green groups that the UKIP surge could have a knock-on impact on energy and environmental policy, given that David Cameron is now under mounting pressure to tack to the right. UKIP leader Nigel Farage has taken a vocally anti-green stance, slamming wind farm developments and questioning whether manmade climate change is happening. Westminster observers are convinced that the growing popularity of UKIP is one of the main reasons some Conservative MPs have become more openly hostile to environmental policies. –James Murray, Business Green, 3 May 2013
The UK Independence Party’s unique selling point – the policy it is best known for – is Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union. But as the party has sought to broaden its appeal beyond that single issue, it has developed a full range of policies in all areas…. UKIP is sceptical about the existence of man-made climate change and would scrap all subsidies for renewable energy. It would also cancel all wind farm developments. Instead, it backs the expansion of shale gas extraction, or fracking, and a mass programme of nuclear power stations. —BBC News, 3 May 2013
Environmentalists, businesses and carbon market investors were watching last week’s conclave of environment and energy ministers in Dublin closely, hoping to see a plume of white smoke emerging to signal that the ministers had agreed to step in with bold support for the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). But no such signal of support came. […] Analysts as well as MEPs on the committee say that the proposal is unlikely to pass a second vote in the Parliament unless the Council comes out in favour. Even if the proposal were passed by the end of the year, that would probably be too late. –Dave Keating, European Voice, 2 May 2013
“For the first time in 10 years, Europe is no longer willing to pursue the green agenda,” said Dr. Benny Peiser of the Global Warming Policy Foundation in a recent telephone interview with Friends of Science. Dr. Peiser was commenting on the continuing fallout from the April 16, 2013 vote in the EU parliament where a proposal to delay the issuance of carbon credits (or allowances) was voted down. “We face a new situation where the green lobby is being increasingly isolated and in a minority,” said Dr. Peiser. “They are still there but they no longer dominate the agenda nor do they have political majority in Europe.” —Environmental Expert, 2 May 2013
On April 16th the European Parliament voted against attempts to shore up Europe’s emissions trading system against collapse. The system is the EU’s flagship environmental policy and the world’s largest carbon market. Putting it at risk suggests that Europeans have lost their will to endure short-term pain for long-term environmental gain. Nor is this the only such sign. Several cash-strapped EU countries are cutting subsidies for renewable energy. And governments around the world have failed to make progress towards a new global climate-change treaty. Betting against tough climate policies seems almost prudent. –The Economist, 4 May 2013
“Shown above, Drs. Bridger and Clements test the flammability of the book.” Sad but true, mock book burnings appear to be acceptable behavior of professors at San Jose State University. In this case, Dr. Alison Bridger is doing the honors. She is proudly assisted by SJSU assistant professor Dr. Craig Clements. They disagree with the text’s content. Lousy texts get tossed in the trash every day at universities around the world. But when you make a public statement of it, as San Jose State did, you cross a line. You tarnish any legitimate climate research that institution ever does. Unfortunately, all they proved is how politics has stained the pristine world of science. —Inform the Pundits, 2 May 2013
Where they burn books, so too will they in the end burn human beings. –Heinrich Heine, 1821
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See also Delingpole: The old order is dying. We are living in the age of Farage
He writes: And as to why this nearly wasn’t allowed to happen, I recommend this equally incisive analysis of the hard-Left propaganda techniques which have recently been deployed against Ukip. As Margaret Thatcher (not her real name, I suspect) notes in her article, the cheap shot smear techniques which have been used in this election campaign, are straight out of Saul Alinsky’s Rules For Radicals.
I have seen members of UKIP isolated this way on Twitter. The Attack Dogs cut off the support network by throwing standard accusations out, other members, frightened to be tarred with the non-existent brush remove themselves from debate. The attack dogs have then isolated their target.
The attackers go after people and not the party; people hurt faster than institutions. Direct, personalised criticism and ridicule works. It is cruel, but very effective.
The Big Three political parties are worried about UKIP. If they weren’t they wouldn’t set their attack dogs to savage the aspiring politicians and the yet to mature new boy on the party political scene.
I’ve seen it too. Experienced it as well. It’s horrible and frightening and can all too easily sap your will to go on.
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Sound familiar?
Just a little more context – UKIP took 24% of the vote whilst neither the Conservatives nor labour could muster more than 3 or 4% above them.
Due to the vagaries of “first past the Post” elections, the 144 seats acquired by UKIP were dwarfed by the 1000 plus Conservatives and the near 500 Labour seats engendered by the marginally small extra percentage that those parties enjoyed.
Some might question the fairness of such an outcome, but it is the British way, and I suppose it has allowed for peaceful evolution rather than horse scaring revolution down the ages.
It would be a mistake to construe today’s events as less than a seismic shift in the British political balance.
‘They have given us into the hands of the new unhappy lords,
Lords without anger and honour, who dare not carry their swords.
They fight by shuffling papers; they have bright dead alien eyes;
They look at our labour and laughter as a tired man looks at flies.
And the load of their loveless pity is worse than the ancient wrongs,
Their doors are shut in the evenings; and they know no songs.
We hear men speaking for us of new laws strong and sweet,
Yet is there no man speaketh as we speak in the street.
It may be we shall rise the last as Frenchmen rose the first,
Our wrath come after Russia’s wrath and our wrath be the worst.
It may be we are meant to mark with our riot and our rest
God’s scorn for all men governing. It may be beer is best.
But we are the people of England; and we have not spoken yet.
Smile at us, pay us, pass us. But do not quite forget.’
(Chesterton)
The three identical political parties in Britain, filled with millionaires and men who’ve never worked in their lives except as politicians or politicians’ creatures have indeed forgot. As this article below points out, there are historical parallels (perhaps strained at the moment, who knows?). Climate fraud may play a part in today’s political events in the UK but it’s about much, much more than that:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/seanthomas/100215196/eastern-england-is-in-rebellion-this-has-happened-before/#disqus_thread
‘ As the results came in last night, any student of English history must have felt a definite frisson. Because the counties where Ukip did best, as of last night, are two of the most emblematic counties in the annals of English insurgence: Essex and Lincolnshire. The east of England.
The English Civil War was rooted in England’s eastern hinterland. The military leader of the parliamentary forces, Robert Devereux, was the 3rd Earl of Essex. Oliver Cromwell himself was born in Huntingdon. The mainstay of the parliamentary army was the so-called “Eastern Association”, a militia raised from the counties of Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire in 1642. ‘
Here in the UK we live in interesting times, for readers who are not familiar with British politics [everybody] there is no actual democracy in the UK, most of our rules and regulations emanate from Brussels and the executive and legislature in Westminster passes all EU diktat on the nod.
Worse than that, the British administration in all its ‘wisdom’ usually augment EU diktat- therefore making it a more onerous burden on the long suffering people, taxpayers and consumers residing in the UK. They said about the Nazis, the Ukrainian SS ‘the Galician’ were always the worst and most avid adherents of Nazism.
We ‘the people’ of the UK, were not asked before the political government of the time – Ted Heath’s Conservative party in 1972 – rammed through legislation and with a paltry and weak series of negotiations railroaded Britain’s entry into the then – what was known as the Common Market.
As it was long suspected it has come to pass what Heath’s government knew at the time – critics of the EEC suggested that the then EEC was a Trojan horse – a precursor of ‘le grand projet’ a federal state, of a Union of European nations. It was always the dream and goal of Monnet, Schuman and Adenauer – the co-conspirators and original formulators and designers of the EU.
In other words, we Brits were sold a lie – the ‘common market’. In 1972 Britain was not given a choice to vote on it – the lies, deceit and democratic deficit since then has become a chasm – that’s how the Brussels machine works – there is no democracy in the European Union and the law makers reside far away and that is how our political masters in Britain like it.
You see, it doesn’t matter who you vote for in Britain, there is no choice, whether you vote left or right, liberal or Conservative or Labour. All the mainstream political parties believe and adhere to the Brussels line and none desire to leave the EU. The EU is destroying itself and the green agenda is a big part of that industrial destruciton – all of the EU’s problems exacerbate those of the UK – we are sliding down the economic league into third world status – soon we won’t even be able to keep the lights on.
In the intervening 40 years the EU-ropeanisation, dumbing down of the education system the systmatic creep and takeover of cultural Marxist precepts, the rampant secularization – coupled with moral decadence – has formed a society that is too accepting of the status quo, unable to form an opinion and if it does – is shouted down as a racist, or hounded as a denier.
This national defilement, of the corruption and debasement of all basic liberty and freedom has sorely tested many of us who know that the political class and the woeful administration beholden to statist micro-management and big government solutions – is responsible for this mess.
‘We the people’, know absolutely: that things can be made infinitely improved with not much more than a simple cross on a ballot paper and through the auspices of a political party who see common sense, pragmatic policies and the right to full independence to run our own affairs will lead to real freedom, actual liberty and real justice and that – is of paramount importance.
We do no believe the great lie of man made global warming, we do not believe in UN agenda 21, we do not believe in mass immigration.
We do believe in one nation and independent solutions.
UKIP is that party.
Mr. or Ms. Knoebel [@1149] — Tsk, tsk.
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Dear Mr. Courtney,
I (who wholeheartedly agree with at least 90% of “Tea Party” positions) am happy to inform you that THE TEA PARTY LIVES! [See: http://www.teapartypatriots.org/%5D [#:)]
Your comrade in the AGW fight (even though, as you gently informed me, we disagree about socialism),
Janice
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Mr. Ed Ohiguma, THAT’S GREAT NEWS. (and three cheers for Farage, too!).
Thus, I say………… HALLELU YAH! #[:)]
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Ms. Stevens, good for you. I hope that your tax pounds (I mean Euros — I DETEST recognizing their reality!) are also staying in the Bahamas.
Hal Javert,
It appears that ‘jim’ actually believes that the Arctic is ice free, and for the first time in 200 million years.
I wonder where he gets his misinformation?
“The UK Independence Party has overtaken the Liberal Democrats as the third party of British politics, Nigel Farage declared today”
The dear leader is somewhat prone to extravagant pronouncements, that sadly fail to square with reality. UKIP came fourth in the council elections, winning 147 seats, out of a total of 2362 up for grabs, putting them fourth behind the LibDims with 352 seats…
http://www.ukpolitical.info/
I’m politically neutral so don’t take this as support for any party but if this truly is an indicator of a shift in voting tendencies on the right this is terrible news for any right leaning voter.
It means the vote on the right is split and as the electorate on the left has lost any faith in the libs that leaves only one party for them to vote for.
The Tories need to get their act together if they want to win the next GE or there is only going to be one outcome. New Bloody Labour, who lead us into this mess. And considering that Cameron and his pals have shown themselves to be bumbling idiots reduced to throwing ideas at a whiteboard to see what sticks I think that it is unlikely they will come up with a plan to get themselves out of this mess.
All we need is a roadmap out of economic despair. Carry on like this if the alarmists are even 1% right we won’t be able to afford to deal with a changing climate as we’ll have no energy, no industry and no bloody money.
roger:
At May 3, 2013 at 1:08 pm you assert
No, it would be premature to construe today’s events as being a seismic shift in the British political balance.
Your assertion may be right, and in 2015 we will know if it is.
But it is a mistake to permit your exuberance to overstate your judgement in this forum where many (perhaps most) onlookers are not familiar with UK politics.
At present this mid-term local government election result is a surprise. But it may be no different from a mid-term By-Election which overthrows a ‘safe’ seat: such an overthrow is common, but the seat usually returns to the usual party at the following General Election.
In a TV Interview (BBC2) this afternoon Farage was surprisingly honest about this. He recognised that UKIP needs to analyse the data from this local election with a view to deciding target constituencies for the 2015 General Election, and then to pour its resources into those constituencies. If UKIP can thus obtain some MPs then UKIP will have made progress. He did not state the obvious corollary that if UKIP fails to obtain any MPs then it will have made less progress than the the Green Party which also promised a “seismic shift” a few years ago.
Two probabilities are in UKIP’s favour. It seems very likely that there will be a hung Parliament (i.e. no individual party having overall control) after the next general Election. And the collapse of the Liberal Democrat vote is not likely to recover at the General Election. These probabilities provide opportunity to gain MPs in target seats by collecting sufficient votes from voters who previously would have voted tactically to prevent another party winning in close seats.
But, on the other hand, the local government election results have marshaled the ‘main’ parties against UKIP and (as Henry Galt says at May 3, 2013 at 12:08 pm) the press have yet to decide if they want to oppose UKIP.
Added to that there are the points made by M Courtney (at May 3, 2013 at 12:22 pm) and John Law at ( May 3, 2013 at 12:53 pm). It cannot be known if those issues will work for or against UKIP. When that becomes clear then the ‘main’ parties and the press will respond.
Prediction is difficult, especially of the future. But in 2015 we will learn if your assertion is correct.
Richard
Surely only a plurality!
People from outside the UK should note that:
1 – these are minor elections for part of the UK’s local government structure. Although these elect councillors who deal with local issues, traditionally this election is used as a protest vote against central government.
2 – The UKIP party has cross-party support, but is more likely to appeal to right-wing voters since it has a strong libertarian ethos. In the current elections there were a large number of Conservative seats being contested, so there were a lot of disgruntled right-wing voters voting.
3 – UKIP therefore did quite well. This is not, however, an indication that the party will do well in General Elections across the whole country.
Janice Moore:
re your comment to me at May 3, 2013 at 1:14 pm.
I apologise if you thought my comparison was disparaging to your political party. That was not my intention.
I used that example as a way to try to explain to US readers how an apparently important new party may not alter the result of a following national election by winning seats from established parties. Which is not to say that new parties do not affect a nation’s politics. For example, some analysts say Kerry’s response to fear of losing support to the Tea Party assisted Obama to retain the Presidency. Whatever the truth of that, the UK Labour and Conservative Parties will adjust as a response to the success of UKIP in the local government elections.
Sorry, that I offended. I was trying to provide dispassionate information on the UK political situation and perhaps my use of a US illustration was mistaken.
Richard
UKIP’s sensible energy policy for the UK is described at http://ukip.org/media/policies/energy.pdf.
It’s energy spokesman is the excellent Roger Helmer, a Member of the European Parliament who defected from the Conservative Party to UKIP just over a year ago (http://www.rogerhelmermep.co.uk).
Dodgy Geezer says:
May 3, 2013 at 1:46 pm
So you’re saying if they didn’t advance in this election, we should expect them to do well in the Generals? How weird…
What has been overlooked here is something very rewarding, reassuring. When it happens, it always seems to amaze. It is that when policy gets bad enough, THE VOTER is far wiser and miles ahead of politicians. Tories, Liberals and (hopefully) Labour are right to be scrambling about to distance themselves from the stink of two decades of self-immolating policy – disastrous to the economy, deadly for the poor and fixed income elderly. Equally amazing, is that politicians, like those in UK would never even suspect they are miles off the track if ordinary folks didn’t tell them. The reason the policy stinks is because it was put forward by those who don’t give a hoot for people. For the future, you budding politicians, if the policy is such that it ignores the well-being of its citizens and wreaks harm on the economy – IT STINKS!
As Maggie would have said, probably, UKIP – if U want to – but this lady is wide awake!
Exciting but not game changing. The UK electorate are well known for protest votes at local council and by-elections,i.e. Westminster seats that have become vacant mid-term.
Nevertheless, there would seem to be a change in the MSM, excepting the BBC, regarding both climate alarmism and the totally undemocratic EU. We can only live in hope.
UKIP needs more policy depth if it is to make a long term impact.
I suspect it will require five more years of no warming, and perhaps as much as ten, before the forces of the AGW paradigm are forced to admit defeat.
In the meantime we can only hope that our politicians can keep from inflicting irreparable damage to our economies with misguided and panic-stricken carbon strangulation policies.
RockyRoad says: May 3, 2013 at 2:13 pm
“So you’re saying if they didn’t advance in this election, we should expect them to do well in the Generals? How weird…”
That doesn’t follow.
1: The logic is that ‘UKIP advancing in this election’ is not necessarily related to ‘UKIP advancing in the General Elections’
2: Preposition 1 does not imply a fixed relationship between this election and the General Election.
That’s the point.
How they do in this election;, advancing, retreating or spinning round and round has no proven relation to the General Election.
dbstealey says:
May 3, 2013 at 1:14 pm
Hal Javert,
It appears that ‘jim’ actually believes that the Arctic is ice free, and for the first time in 200 million years.
I wonder where he gets his misinformation?
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‘Jim’ has a pond in the back yard which he calls the North Pole.
‘Jim’s’ time frame is a little different to us normal people. 1ms = 1 year
‘Jim’ checks out his pond every year or so.
It was so cold this winter that ‘Jim’ didn’t check his pond until the weather warmed up a bit.
This is the first time ‘Jim’ saw water in his pond for a few years our time (200 mill his time)
Agreed.
With reference to other comments here: Yes, these were local elections and no, the level of support may not hold up in a General Election but the key thing is the pressure it puts on the ruling elite to re-assess their positions.
No party can hope to do well at the national level unless it has a strong grass-roots movement which means the local councils. People get incensed about local amenities and if UKIP can demonstrate skill at the base, they are more likely to get support higher up the food chain.
It wasn’t that long ago that the Scottish National Party were seen as a fringe bunch of loonies […personal snip] and look where they are now.
From Wikipedia: “The Labour Party was founded in 1900 and overtook the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s.”
I voted UKIP at the last general election after years of prevaricating. I am a ‘small c’ conservative, and have been concerned that my voting for UKIP would split the Conservative vote. (Not all on my own, you understand!) However, one has to start somewhere. The above quote about the Labour party shows the two party system can be altered. We just have to be brave and go for it. I have come to the conclusion that it would be worth letting Labour in by default in 2015. Another four or five years of them would be the making of UKIP. These things take time.
There is also Richard North’s Harrogate Agenda for the future. See EUReferendum.com.
Great result for UKIP in the local elections, and second place in the bye-election is the cherry on the cake!
I think this is far from just a protest vote, as most people I know are fed up with the established parties who have all forgotten what the people of the UK want and offer no alternatives to green energy, a united Europe and subservience to the multinationals and bankers who have bled us all dry.
A change is long overdue and UKIP will only get stronger as they get better organized, with more of a voice in the main stream media.
If you want to make sure they will succeed, then us UK voters need to get off our arses and join UKIP now – it’s only £30 for a full years membership and they are looking for people to help bolster their local infrastructure for those that are interested.
Lets push our current bunch of self-seeking complacent politicians off their pedestals and support a party who listens to the people.
This was a comment I posted on James Delingpole’s blog. It highlights the problem of postal votes in bye-elections. UKIP possibly won at the ballot box.
Let’s do away with postal votes!
Absolutely. Based on the blog below there might even have been a chance of UKIP winning South Shields purely on the ballot box. Who knows? Even Eastleigh only stayed LibDem by dint of postal votes.
“We earned them votes tonight”, said Emma Lewell-Buck. The House of Commons has gained a social worker who can’t speak English.
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2013/05/we-earned-them-votes-tonight-in-south-sields/
My view is that the UKIP result was massively inflated by protest votes. Until the Coalition the Lib Dems were the habitual beneficiaries of protest against the main parties but, now that they are in government, that vote has nowhere else to go.
Like down here in Australia, we have 3 parties that are all basically left-wing in ideology.
Centre left, far left socialist and far loonie left green.
A decent new real conservative party would be a real fox in the hen-house !!