tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1663680578112260744.post6407688122833343734..comments2024-03-13T08:18:08.922+10:30Comments on Catdownunder: Who are these UKIP people?catdownunderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08189081688973141295noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1663680578112260744.post-39356359162789142022014-05-07T11:45:07.633+09:302014-05-07T11:45:07.633+09:30:) indeed - wish I had been around to join in with...:) indeed - wish I had been around to join in with you!catdownunderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06959328192182156574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1663680578112260744.post-87580480641828611072014-05-06T21:03:49.028+09:302014-05-06T21:03:49.028+09:30I remember sitting next to an attractive young wom...I remember sitting next to an attractive young woman at a meeting arranged for supporters of UKIP and a number of other fringe groups at the Bath Pump Rooms.<br /><br />It turned out she was German, and a politics student at Bath Uni. She was there to research the British right wing fringe.<br /><br />I told her that she might care to leave, as she would be hearing some very unpleasant things said from the platform about foreigners in general and the Germans in particular. She said she was made of sterner stuff and would stick it out come what may. Sensibly, she left after the first two speakers had finished.<br /><br />However, it did give me unutterable pleasure to converse with her in German in a room full of xenophobes. The Apoplexy Meter was off the scale... :)Philip C Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506199502085466202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1663680578112260744.post-14160290028490334852014-05-06T20:58:01.506+09:302014-05-06T20:58:01.506+09:30I first started attending UKIP meetings (and those...I first started attending UKIP meetings (and those of their fellow euroseptic travellers) for intel-gathering purposes back in 1996/7. It's hard to shake off the culture that defines an organisation in its formative days, and many of the things uttered by UKIP members and candidates this year are MILD in comparison to what they would say when they felt they were 'amongst their own'.<br /><br />They would bus fanatical supporters in from surrounding counties, as a puffer fish inflates itself to make it appear larger than it is. <br /><br />Their favourite style of debate was the harangue and concerted baracking. <br /><br />As they were mostly middle-aged or elderly their violence was limited to verbal rather than physical abuse.<br /><br />For those reasons I nicknamed them COMBAT-68 (after the much younger and more thuggish COMBAT-18).Philip C Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506199502085466202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1663680578112260744.post-47077614118036575862014-05-06T19:19:52.815+09:302014-05-06T19:19:52.815+09:30Well said, Cat. And it's right to highlight by...Well said, Cat. And it's right to highlight by an individual example how wrong are the sweeping generalisations uttered by (we are told - by UKIP, naturally - what is a small minority) of UKIP candidates. But they keep coming out of the woodwork and one by one UKIP disown them. How many ducklings do you need to count before you know the mother is a duck?<br /><br />UKIP is racist. Their entire philosophy is based on labeling whole groups of people (immigrants, the disabled, gays, etc) as 'all the same' and then targeting and scapegoating them for the imagined offences of their group of which they are innocent; for which they bear no responsibility and over which they have had no influence, and therefore seek to deny them their human rights. <br /><br />That is the DEFINITION of racism. And no parading of the odd female, black or Asian candidate is going to change that because liberals accept that women, and black people and those of Asian ancestry have the right to be as misguided as are some aged white middle class males...Philip C Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506199502085466202noreply@blogger.com