The stability of chaos
Posted on
March 02, 2013 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Not content with this morning’s Daily Mail masterclass in misinformation on pensions and embassies, eagle-eyed reader Andy Inglis also offers us this quite remarkable interpretation of the Eastleigh by-election result from the same source:
There’s been a “seismic political upset” in England, so Scotland should stay in the Union to ensure “continuing political stability”, even though being in the Union has brought us “an unknown future at a time of global crisis and financial meltdown”. Eh?
In fact, reading between the lines the piece SEEMS to say “If Scotland doesn’t stay in the Union, the Tories won’t be able to win the next election”. We’re not absolutely sure that’s quite the No-campaign vote-winner the Mail appears to think it is.
I thought perhaps it was trying to say “Look! The English are rejecting the Tories too, so it’s safe to stay in the union”
I’m personal development trainer. On the last paragraph the phrase ‘That means’, I’m sure some already know is a complex equivalence.
Someone has been on an NLP or Ericksonian hypnosis course.
Very telling and sticks out like a sore thumb to me. Even though the paragraph after, obviously does not equate to the section before, that fact may escape some people …unfortunately.
A right wing newspaper, reporting on a right wing party getting hammered by an extreme right wing party and referring to Italy’s answer to UKIP, (Beppe Grillo).
What the hell does that have to do with Scotland!?
We don’t do RW
There really has been some crazy reporting with this by-election. The media are having a laugh if they think that UKIP are going to break the tory vote in a general election.
So they really think that a UKIP voter in 2015 will take the chance on not voting tory and having a labour government elected. Then they can kiss goodbye to an EU referendum.
So if Scotland votes No, the English will vote Tory? That certainly turns all their earlier ‘Scots ensure Labour gets into power’ guff!
And, as already mentioned, Vote Yes to destroy the Tories Forever isn’t a scary slogan!
a “seismic political upset” They returned the same party!
The only guaranteed political stability Scotland gets is that we always get the government England votes for.
Eh? Read it a few times and I still don’t follow what the hell they are on about! What a lot of rubbish. Vote no due to something in Italy, which I have no knowledge of and don’t care about either. Might as well add the South African police stuff to the article.
Guaranteed political stability…… that must be an oxymoron and a half with elections held every 4 or 5 years depending on which government is due for replacement
Rev,
You live down south, and therefore, have your finger not only on the pulse of England, but also of how it views Scotland. This is the irony of it all. We, up here, grumble about how the English don’t care, yet for yourself, who lives in that nation, the people of England do not have a clue as to the actual mood in Scotland.
This ‘misinformation’ is probably going 2 ways amongst the general population of the UK (note that I am not including the media in this, only the population of the UK).
As I said in a previous entry (a minute ago on ‘ Our English correspondent writes‘ ) to Morag, we up here in Scotland, can’t relate to UKIP. It has no meaning for us. We just see it as an anti-EU party that wants to curb immigration. For you, however, you probably get a lot more coverage on them, and therefore, are ahead of the loop, in regards to the folk in Scotland.
To the English, they see the SNP as some sort of ‘up-start’ party (even though it is an old party, and was voted in with a majority), where all they are interested in is being anti-english (which is nonsense). Therefore, they can’t relate to the real issues or feelings in Scotland.
If Scotland does vote ‘Yes’, then I suspect England will go into shock, and be utterly baffled as to why Scotland has voted itself out of the UK. At the same time, if UKIP ever do come to power, I think the people in Scotland will wonder about English politics, and where it is really going.
Established politicians and parties have failed the public, so the solution is..to invest even more trust in those established politicians and parties. Right.
Even for the newspaper which supported Moseley’s Blackshirts this is a piece of cretinism which stands out (and in the Daily Heil it’s up against some pretty stiff competition, like the other article today by Struan Stevenson MEP claiming that wind farms will lead to another Darien).
There is something very obvious about the Eastleigh by-election result which the MSM has either ignored (which is likely) or there too stupid to notice. There was a massive protest vote against the parties in government … but they didn’t go to Labour, the official Party of Opposition, despite vigorous campaigning by Labour big-guns. Make no mistake, Labour went into this campaign looking to win or vastly improve their vote share considering the circumstances of the by-election. But the Labour vote stagnated and they were ignored. That to me that indicates a real danger for Labour in SE English seats because the Tories can do a deal with UKIP (they are after all Tory voters with a gripe). So, Labour are not picking up the Tory votes they need to win the next election. Milliband and Balls are becoming invisible. Come the Euro Elections in 2014 UKIP will probably do really well but I can see the Conservative vote (Tory and UKIP) galvanising for the GE 2015. There is no reason to suggest that Labour are going to win in 2015 as SE England moves more to the right aided by a rabid Press with their anti-Europe anti-benefit stories. Scotland will see this developing and watch how the Labour leadership becomes more hapless. Eastleigh by-election does not see Labour in the ascendancy, far from it.
The Mail’s appeal is very simple: ‘Everyone else is rocking the boat, so Scotland has a patriotic duty to contribute to the UK’s stability by not breaking it up.’ For those Scots who see themselves as British first and Scottish second (many of whom may be Mail readers) this is an attractive proposition – bonkers though it may seem to the rest of us. I forsee something along these lines as being the next tactic for Better Together as they run out of scare stories. ‘We need you to save us from ourselves. Would you want your English grannie to be assaulted by Bulgarian immigrants/UKIP blackshirts/(whatever group happens to be DM hate-of-the-day)….’
….And while I’m on the subject, the same argument is already being used on the left, where the appeal is for solidarity with the English victims of the evil Tories (i.e. We need you, Scotland, to make sure the Tories don’t get in in 2015). If you haven’t read this Better Nation post, it’s worth visiting, not only for its demolition of this argument, but for the BTL discussion of Bedroom tax. http://www.betternation.org/2013/02/walk-the-solidarity-talk/
I reckon UKIP will continue to do well in England up to the 2015 General Election. Before that the Tories will make impossible demands on the EU, and they will be told these are unacceptable. When this happens the Tories will probably have to give a commitment before the next election that they will be campaigning for a withdrawal from the EU in the referendum. This will probably ensure that UKIP supporters vote for the Tories at the 2015 General election, and there will be a referendum on the EU in the UK in a few years, possibly 2016 and 2017.
We should all be rooting for the Tories and UKIP in England.
If a right wing Government looks likely in 2015 it will provide a massive boost to the ‘Yes’ campaign.
@orkers
Maybe we should all threaten to vote Tory if there’s a No vote 😉
Could Eastleigh be England’s version of the ’62 west Lothian bi election? I see and hear a lot of similar comments about this being a protest vote etc. it seems to me circumstances are very similar to what occurred in Scotland 50 years ago and seem to following a parallel path, just that it’s on on the other side of the political fence and consequently more right wing. Just to be clear I am NOT comparing UKIP and SNP, just the historical circumstances we find (re?) occurring.