UKIP/Reform NF Ltd and their non-racist well informed supporters

[Davkaus]

Makes a change, usually they piss people off.

[HanoiVillan]

Time to bet on them winning in Stoke?

If they were cars, the Labour party would be a clapped-out old banger on bricks, the Tories would be a Rolls-Royce “mowing down the poor”, and Ukip would be a St George’s Cross-adorned tank “fighting for the people”. The Liberal Democrats, meanwhile, were likened to a bicycle.

This is according to a group of 10 Stoke Central residents who voted Labour in the 2015 general election and gathered in a hotel in the constituency to take part in a focus group organised by BritainThinks for the Guardian.

The participants were aged between 35 and 55, white and, broadly speaking, from what pollsters refer to as social grades C1 and C2, meaning lower middle class and skilled working class. They are exactly the type of traditional Labour voters Ukip is trying to woo.

Of the 10 people invited to share their thoughts, three were clear that they would vote Ukip in Thursday’s byelection. Two said they would vote for Labour reluctantly (“because I always have done”), and only one said they would do so with enthusiasm. The remaining four were undecided, with one saying they were probably more likely to vote Labour than Ukip.

As the byelection in Stoke was reaching its final days, the group seemed unsure of what to make of questions surrounding Ukip candidate Paul Nuttall’s disputed claim to have been at Hillsborough on the day of the 1989 disaster and admission that claims on his website that he had lost close friends there were untrue.

“There’s no need to say something like that [about Hillsborough] around here,” said John, 48, a bus driver. “This isn’t Liverpool.”

They all seemed generally mistrustful of negative reports surrounding the Ukip leader. “I just don’t know what to believe,” said Pete, 35, a team leader. Janet, 50, a factory worker, said the Ukip leader had been treated unfairly by the media and all agreed that he was the candidate they would be most likely to have a pint with.

The group was less ambiguous about comments made by the Labour candidate Gareth Snell, who described the panelists on ITV’s Loose Women as “squabbling sour-faced ladies” and a woman on The Apprentice as a “speccy blonde girl”.

“He’s the one who says negative comments about women on TV and doesn’t like Janet Street-Porter,” said garage-owner Jamie, 48, when the group was shown a photo of Snell. (Snell described Porter as a “polished turd”.) “You can’t make flippant sexist comments and not have some sort of backlash from it,” said Lisa, a 38-year-old student.

Although they agreed that the outcome of the byelection was unlikely to stall what they saw as the decline of the local area (“The Taliban could get in and nothing would change around here,” said Janet), they all agreed that a Ukip win would have an impact on a national level as it would force people to listen to the area’s concerns.

Stoke was nicknamed Britain’s Brexit capital last year, when 70% voted to leave the EU. Physiotherapist Jason, 45, who is a fan of Jeremy Corbyn, said the high leave vote came in part because of the high levels of immigration to Stoke, and described the area as “a post-industrial wasteland”.

Although, none of the group said they disliked Corbyn, only two people had anything positive to say about him.

Lisa was impressed when the Labour leader resisted calls on him to resign last summer. “I thought that showed real strength of character,” she said.

Feelings towards Theresa May were generally positive, with some describing her as “British” and “strong”. “She didn’t want us to come out [of the EU], but the country voted for it and she’s doing what she’s got to do,” said Janet.

Asked to draw a car that summed up the Labour party, the group produced sketches of clapped-out old bangers, variously on bricks, or in one case with a steering wheel at each end “because they don’t know which way they’re going”.

The Tory party was likened to a Rolls-Royce or limousine, with the passengers drinking champagne and “mowing down the poor”.

The drawings of vehicles that represented Ukip all included either the St George’s Cross or the union flag – and in one case a union flag on top of a swastika “because I’m not sure what to think of them”.

One group drew a tank. “It’s a loud and brash killing machine,” said one man. “Hopefully it gets some results by being a bit more aggressive and doing what the people want and fighting for the people.”

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/feb/22/labour-is-clapped-out-banger-on-bricks-according-to-stoke-focus-group

Those descriptions of cars are brilliant! I didn't realise focus groups were so fun. 

[tonyh29]

I would have thought the recent coverage of Nuttall has been music to Labours ears and ended any chance of a UKIP win in Stoke

 

mind you I thought the Cox killing and the desire to link it to Brexit had also scuppered any chance of a Brexit win either , so nobody should listen to my predictions 

[Chindie]

Hmm.

[Davkaus]

16 minutes ago, tonyh29 said:

I would have thought the recent coverage of Nuttall has been music to Labours ears and ended any chance of a UKIP win in Stoke

 

You'd have thought so, wouldn't you? I think it'd basically end the career of anyone in Labour or the tories.

UKIP supporters seem content to bury their heads in the sand though. I've read quite a number of them talking about it being 'fake news' by media trying to undermine Brexit, it's astonishing. 

[Amsterdam_Neil_D]

9 hours ago, HanoiVillan said:

The Tory party was likened to a Rolls-Royce or limousine, with the passengers drinking champagne and “mowing down the poor”.

 

[jon_c]

If UKIP can't win a by-election in Brexit Britain in the constituency that vote the most for Brexit, then what is the point of them?

[Davkaus]

20 hours ago, HanoiVillan said:

Time to bet on them winning in Stoke?

 

Pretty good odds on them, and I generally lack faith in humanity. I'll have a punt on that  

[snowychap]

56 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

Pretty good odds on them, and I generally lack faith in humanity. I'll have a punt on that  

Currently 9/4 with Lads. I imagine the reporter for ITV is on that as he's just claimed that it's 50/50 (perhaps he just reads VT).

[Davkaus]

I got 4.5/1 earlier. Could be a fun morning!

[snowychap]

Labour MP on QT: Their leader has told so many lies he makes Trump look honest.

Dimbleby: Douglas Carswell?

Carswell: We were always the underdogs in this contest...

 

A resounding stab from Mr Carswell.

Edited February 23, 2017 by snowychap

[tonyh29]

Do we move UKIP into the dead pool thread now ?

[peterms]

2 hours ago, Davkaus said:

I got 4.5/1 earlier. Could be a fun morning!

More dead money to enrich the bookies.

The fun will mainly be watching Ukip explain their result.

 

[snowychap]

One semi-detached house now for sale.

[snowychap]

Nutty has **** off and flounced out of the hall.

[Seat68]

His chickens came home to roost. 

[chrisp65]

congratulations to Mr Nuttall, I see from his bio that he is now the MP for Stoke Central

 

 

[peterms]

Ukip and Brexit donor Arron Banks under financial spotlight

Quote

The business career of Arron Banks, the biggest financial backer of the Brexit campaign, has come under scrutiny, after a court case alleged “serious and widespread” financial failings during his time as chief executive of an insurance company.

The dispute centres on events that took place during Mr Banks’ tenure at the head of Brightside Group, an insurance company that he co-founded but from which he was ousted in 2012.

Under Mr Banks, Brightside paid £17m to buy technology platforms that he co-owned. But Brightside’s new owners allege that the key software “suffered from a number of fundamental failings”.

They complain they would not have bought the company for £127m in 2014 had they known Brightside’s true financial position and have brought a negligence case against the company’s previous auditors, Baker Tilly, now RSM.

RSM has denied all allegations and said that it was never asked to review the technical merits of the online platform that Brightside bought.

Mr Banks is not a party to the negligence claim and was not present at Brightside for the entire period covered by the claim.

But the auditors, in their defence, stated that if negligence did occur the responsibility should lie with Brightside’s former directors, implicitly including Mr Banks, for failing to carry out proper due diligence and failing to “take any adequate steps” in response to problems revealed by annual audits. It also accuses the directors of “failing to bring all relevant matters to the attention” of the auditors.

Mr Banks told the Financial Times that his current insurance company, GoSkippy, and Brightside had settled a separate legal claim, preventing further claims against him.

A close ally of Nigel Farage, Mr Banks has donated £1.3m to the UK Independence party since 2014, and during the referendum campaign set up his own group, Leave. EU, to which he lent £6m. This week, after tensions with Ukip’s new leader, he pledged to transform Leave. EU into a “direct democracy” group, modelled on Italy’s Five Star Movement.

Brightside claims that its owners AnaCap have had to spend £35m to stabilise the company and have lost a further £25m because of software problems.

The company would have “ceased trading” in 2014 had its true position been known, its claim argues. Auditors RSM argue that the claimants have failed to show a connection between any alleged breaches of accounting rules and their subsequent losses.

Mr Banks has thrived on controversy, launching a rightwing news site and saying that he is “sick to death” of hearing about the Hillsborough disaster. He has identified insurance as the source of most of his wealth, although he also has mining and other investments in Africa. After co-founding Brightside in 2005 with John Gannon and Paul Chase-Gardener, he was chief executive between 2011 and 2012. In an interview with the New Statesman, Mr Banks recalled being so angry at being ousted that he punched Mr Gannon in the face “as hard as I could”.

During Mr Banks’ time as chief executive, Brightside bought ESystems and EDevelopment for £17m, in what Mr Banks called “a significant step forward”. The companies, which provided the online platform and software used by Brightside, were owned by Rock Holdings, which was beneficially owned by Mr Banks, Mr Gannon and Mr Chase-Gardener.

In their legal claim, Brightside’s new owners state that the software’s back office functionality “never worked” and that it was “incapable” of the controls necessary to protect “client money”.

Brightside’s claim accuses its auditors RSM, of failing to conduct proper due diligence. It also argues that Brightside’s wider financial problems should have been recognised by its auditors, including during Mr Banks’ time as chief executive.

RSM says it identified “a significant deficiency” in Brightside’s internal financial controls in 2011 but that the problem remained unaddressed a year later. It says it passed the relevant audit report to various executives including Mr Chase-Gardener, then the finance director, but not Mr Banks, who left in June 2012.

Brightside has also filed a claim against Mr Chase-Gardener alleging breach of his duties as a director. Mr Chase-Gardener, who is contesting that claim, did not respond to a request for comment, made via his accountant.

RSM said in a statement that it “would not be appropriate for us to comment on ongoing litigation”.

As it's the FT, link may not work, but googling any specific phrase will yield a working link.

[StefanAVFC]

Man of the people.

[peterms]

Talk about Billy Big Bollocks...