Yesterday evening Nigel Farage accused the Tories of having put huge pressure on candidates of TBP, with ‘inducements’ such as job offers and/or titles. This ought to have become the top election story in this morning’s papers, asking inconvenient questions of Johnson and the Tories. Instead it’s used as yet another opportunity to attack Nigel Farage. Here’s the relevant quote from the report in yesterday’s DT:
“Nigel Farage has threatened to report the Conservative Party to the Police for allegedly promising peerages and Government jobs to Brexit Party candidates who agreed to quit the election. The Brexit Party leader claimed that “many thousands” of phone calls and messages had been made to the party’s remaining 300 candidates urging them quit before today’s 4pm nominations deadline.” (paywalled link)
Here’s Nigel Farage’s tweet with video, here is a report in the DM, and here’s Ann Widdecombe:
“Ann Widdecombe, the party’s candidate in Plymouth Sutton, confirmed that she had received two phone calls from 10 Downing Street urging her to quit, although they were not from Sir Eddie. Miss Widdecombe [said] that she had had phone calls from former Tory ministers who worked for her in Government. Miss Widdecombe told The Telegraph: “I don’t know about offers but they have been on at me to stand down and talking a lot of rot. They have not offered me a peerage. They have been ringing up putting huge pressure on me.” (paywalled link)
Gawd, I do so want to see Ms Widdecombe in the HoC, laying into Johnson and the rest!
It is of course pure coincidence that a top TBP candidate stood down minutes before nominations closed so that no replacement could be fielded (here). His reason was that he didn’t want to split the Leave vote and let Labour in … which is of course the Tory mantra we’ve heard during this week:
“Rupert Lowe, an MEP for the West Midlands, said that he was “putting country before party” as he withdrew at the last minute with an attack on Mr Farage’s electoral strategy. Mr Lowe had been due to contest Dudley North, one of the most marginal seats in England. As he announced that he had quit, a minute before nominations closed, he said that standing could have let in Labour by the back door. His late decision meant that the Brexit Party did not have time to scramble another candidate for the seat. No Brexit Party candidate was registered in Canterbury either, a key target for the Tories where Labour has a majority of only 187.” (link, paywalled)
Of course, I am no politician nor am I a pollster with access to secret polls. So I ask naively: isn’t Labour the ‘enemy’ the Tories need to beat? Why are they then spending so much effort, time and resources on getting rid of TBP and Nigel Farage? Doesn’t Johnson want a Leave Parliament? Can’t we trust him even in that?
This war is waged not just by pressuring phone calls to candidates or by briefing journalists, it’s also waged in social media and in comments in online papers. But attacks on Labour? No – and there are so many opportunities!
For example, see these non-paywalled reports: here about immigration, here about the NHS – none of the establishment parties even try to connect the dots because that surely would be racist! – here about Labour’s EU ‘plan’ and here about yet another wild spending proposal by Labour, also reported in the Times:
“A Labour government would nationalise Britain’s broadband network and offer free internet access to every household and business in the country, the party will say today. Outlining its most radical policy of the campaign to date, John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, will say that Labour would commit £20.3 billion to speed up the introduction of broadband.It would also nationalise BT’s Openreach, which owns the bulk of the full-fibre network. The cost of this commitment is unclear as its shareholders would be compensated at a price fixed by parliament, but Bloomberg has recently estimated Openreach’s value at between £12 billion and £25 billion.” (link, paywalled)
Costs don’t matter to Labour, they’ll just ‘tax the rich’ … Johnson is of course also offering election bribes to us plebs, for example by offering to open railway lines (here) or offering an Australian points system for immigration (where have I heard that one before?).
Moreover, it’s not as if working-class voters were running away from Johnson instead of flocking to him (here), and it’s not as if the LibDems are on a course to self-destruct with their leader stating she’d demand another election if there’s a hung parliament (here). Here’s a comment by Sir John Curtice in the DT:
“Reviewing the latest polls – which give the Tories a lead of 13 points – Sir John said it is “highly likely” Boris Johnson will win an overall majority if he can take a 10-point or greater lead into December 12. If the lead sinks below six or seven points, however, a hung parliament becomes more likely, according to Sir John. He described the election as a “binary contest” that would most likely deliver either a Tory majority or a Corbyn-led minority administration.” (paywalled link)
If it comes indeed down to a binary choice, why are the Tories not attacking Labour instead of Farage and TBP? Is it because Labour and Corbyn are part of the establishment? Is it because Cummings hates Farage?
So where does all this leave us peasants? Whom can we vote for – who is standing in our constituency? Here is a handy site called Who Can I Vote For where all you need is your postcode to find out who your candidates are.
And that, dear friends brings us to the important question: what do we do if there’s no Leave candidate, no candidate of TBP standing in our constituency? Let me reiterate, with added emphasis, what I said yesterday (here): staying at home, not voting, is not an option! If you don’t go to the polls your absence means you tacitly support the winner.
The best way of taking votes away from incumbents and challengers in all constituencies where there’s no candidate of TBP is simply to spoil your ballot. It seems that this idea is catching on. It’s already being talked about informally in groups and across the internet.
Remember: spoilt ballots are seen and are counted. More importantly, they count towards turnout. A low turnout means the winners can still parade around in their newly elected positions, claiming they were given a mandate. We cannot give them that satisfaction.
Moreover, each spoilt ballot means that a vote is taken away from the tally of the PPCs. If that leads to a hung parliament – the bugbear of Johnson and Swinson – then so be it. If that means Corbyn can sidle into No 10: tough. He’ll have to deal with being a minority government, only supported by Sturgeon and the SNP who demand their pound of flesh in the form of another Scottish IndyRef.
That, btw, is another lovely argument we can slap around the heads of Labour canvassers because the Tories won’t do it: it’s not the Brexiteers who are willing to break up the Union, it’s Labour who are willing to do so, just to get into No 10.
Meanwhile, we must keep up-to-date with the latest bribes and shenanigans offered by the establishment parties because we need to keep slapping them down – on the doorsteps, in social media, in comments in the MSM where permitted.
We’ll vote for TBP candidates where they stand. We’ll deny our votes to the Establishment parties. We’ll challenge them on the beaches, we’ll challenge them in the streets and in the hills. We’re not going home, we’ll
KBO!
I Suggest crossing out all the parties you dont want with a red pen. At the bottom of the form write TBP & WTO.
Those people who are going to spoil their ballot paper by writing in the name of the Brexit Party, please don’t forget that it is the leader of the Brexit Party who has prevented you from ACTUALLY voting for the Brexit Party!
Do you consider passing the Vassalage Treaty, which looks likely, as “getting over the first hurdle?”
Boris gave a harshly rude rebuff to Nigel’s incredibly generous – actually profligate – gesture.of standing down 317 candidates.
Nigel could then have said, on Wednesday, “Since BoJo has now shown that he does not care about getting a Leave majority, but only about keeping his own Party together, I see he is part of the problem, not the solution. So we are now REINSTATING ALL OF OUR CANDIDATES. Remember,how in March you voted in the EP election – 5.5 mn for TBP vs 1.5 mn for the Tories. Just do it again!. If anyone is splitting the Leave vote it is BoJo, not us.”
Alas he fluffed that opportunity.
Now he won’t even be able to vote for his own party in his own constituency.
So now it is:
Vote Farage and you get BoJo.
Vote BoJo, and you get Barnier. (please do READ BoJo’s Treaty, if you don’t believe that: just look at article 95….FFS)
What a grim prospect.
Johnson rejected the offer of a rival party which, although you may say it was rude, he had a perfect right to do.
On the other hand, Farage has let down so many of his own supporters and potential voters and I fail to understand what on earth his motives can have been.
Thomas, Absolutely right, the Brexit Party have been a total let down here in the South having utterly de-motivated their PPC’s and activist base in the process, and leaving millions without anybody to vote for. Quite a few of us are now talking in terms of returning to the UKIP fold.
I’m feeling a bit perkier. In addition to David Kurten UKIP standing in Bognor Regis and Littlehampton as the only leaver on the ballot paper, Fiona Mills is standing in Carlisle, Rob Scorer in Moray, Margaret Dennis in Tiverton and Honiton, and Duncan Odgers in Exeter. Good luck to all of them and a big thank you for brightening up my day to see UKIP back on the pitch! I am sure they would all appreciate boots on the ground to help campaigning. Looking forward to seeing the list of seats that UKIP has targeted.
And at least two, probably more, in Hampshire
https://www.melaniephillips.com/nigel-farages-painful-calculation/
“Costs don’t matter to Labour, they’ll just ‘tax the rich”
That is what Labour want their core vote to think – that they will tax the rich to give to the poor – but in reality they will stuff us all and wreck the economy too. In the long run the super rich will be smart enough to circumvent paying higer taxes, the low to middle income earners will pay a heavy price whilst unskilled and unwaged immigrants from poor countries will be much richer whatever the circumstances, receiving a range of welfare/housing/schooling benefits. The heaviest price of all, economically and in terms of social mobility will most likely be borne by the White low income group via retail price inflation, energy costs, continued wage compression due to mass unskilled immigration and indirect taxation (VAT).
It has always puzzled me why a great swathe of this income group vote Labour when Labour has a vested interest in maintaining their economic status for electoral purposes.
No BXP or other species of leave candidate in my Tory held constituency so spoil it will be.
I have a tory that supports boris in my area. I will not be voting for a boris brexit. Not what i voted for, not what i campaigned for, not why i delivered all those leaflets. I will spoil my vote with a message straight to the candidates for the returning officer to show them.
Same with me. Most of Wales is desolate despite a majority leave vote in the referendum.
‘We’ll vote for TBP candidates where they stand’ . Vote for UKIP candidates where they stand too. Not seen a full list yet but UKIP is standing candidates in two of the constituencies in Devon.
Cheri- now THAT is pure common sense and I applaud you for it.
I feel like banging heads together. Be practical. Vote strategically. Do your best to ensure that no Remain MP is elected. If that means voting Tory, TBP, UKIP or Labour do it. It doesn’t help our cause to condemn Nigel Farage who has done so much to promote Brexit. It doesn’t help to condemn or criticise any Leave leader. It’s time to unite if we are serious about regaining some form of democracy. Of course NF isn’t perfect but he has done more than anyone else to get us even this far.
A question. Are there any do’s and don’ts when it comes to spoiling one’s ballot. I think there is likely to be a lot of that going around. Indeed I may well be leafletting my area with that in mind. Comments welcome.
I believe the rules are that if you put anything at all on a ballot paper except your cross, it counts as ‘spoiled’. But if we all put the same message, surely that must be noted somewhere, and even if they are just counted as ‘spoiled’, that will show our politicians our disdain for them.
As Viv says, if we don’t vote that’s a tacit approval of whoever wins.
I personally don’t have a Leave candidate to vote for so I shall watch this conversation with interest. I will go to my polling station and spoil my vote in the same way as the majority of voters on this site, whatever that is.
NOTA! Compete with screamer!
But is this enough to punish those who have ignored the democratic choice of the electorate? Some days I think it is. Other days…
JF
NOTA! is good. Or ‘LEAVE NOW!’ Any other suggestions? I think it would be best if we all agreed and all did the same, whatever it is.
And as far as punishing those who have ignored the democratic choice of the electorate, the ballot box is just about the only place we can do that…
…unless anyone else has any better ideas.
As I have no suitable leave candidate in my area to vote for, I will be spoiling my ballot paper by writing on it: BREXIT PARTY [X]
Using the link above, I’ve checked our candidates.
There’s Call Me Matt Hancock, our flexible friend, he who as Energy Minister didn’t know that when electricity is generated by those ‘eco-friendly’ wind and solar farms it doesn’t just hang around, you need it to be stored; who as Minister for Digital (who thought of that one?) had an app hat gave addresses away; who as Secretary of State for health is currently presiding over the longest queues ever at A&E with non-emergency GP appointments in his constituency at 2 to 3 weeks. And always looks during interviews as if he’s waiting for inspiration or understanding to strike.
There’s A member of the LibDems, the Wouldn’t It Be Nice If Everyone Was Nice Party. Well yes, Ms Tealby Watson, it would, but this is a grown up world. Look what happened to Mrs May when she became a LibDem and she was nice to those EU goblins. She was nice. They weren’t. That’s the way the world works if you’re a pushover.
Labour. Well, is he the ideological Labour type, the down with the bosses and damn the jobs that go, abandon defence, cosy up to dictators and terrorists, the sort who loves every extremist around the world but hates his own people? Or is he sensible old Labour, keen to make his constituency more prosperous with fair shares for all and a fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work? The odds of the latter are slim — even if he were he’d be out of place with the rabid Momentum Labour that will be in charge of the arty when Corbyn retires. Open borders, rampant inflation, bankruptcy.
Green? If the Greens were not just CND with greenwash they’d be a perfectly acceptable. As it is their unicorn droppings and fairy dust plans for de-carbonising’ the world would, if enforced, kill a lot of people by driving energy prices up beyond the reach of the old, the poor and the sick.
How did we get into this state? It’s because people thought that they could trust our politicians, our judiciary, our constitution, the integrity of our political class. We were fools. We were fooled.
JF
Fooled? We are being fooled on a minute by minute basis……….but, as the man said, “…..you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.”
Do I like Nigel? Not particularly – but, relatively speaking he has been the one most consistent leaver, the most resolute, and perhaps even the most entertaining.
They have had something like TWENTY-FIVE years to destroy him…..and have failed miserably to do so. Just listening to the bribes the others are supposed to be offering makes me laugh.
Who the Hell do they think they are fooling? NOT ME!
You of shorter than short memories………
CAMERON:
“We will reduce immigration to the TENS of thousands……”
“This is your once-in-a-lifetime decision..” (paraphrased)
Believe ME. THIS is your LAST “Once in a lifetime decision”…..
VOTE TBP…….no other choice.
Draw an extra box; label it The Brexit Party; make your cross.
In Biro or the equivalent. Never pencil.
We’ll co-ordinate all responses and recommend the most popular nearer polling day.
My favourite suggestion as brief and to the point.
I’ve been to many a count. Judging the spoilt ballots is always the most fun part. It always amazes me that nearly everybody draws cartoons of male genitalia in almost exactly the same way.
Who on earth thinks male genitalia are attractive?
Debbie, I don’t think they are meant to be attractive, lol.
I was going to respond, but I’m not biting.
Ooh er misses, that came out all wrong.
If it came out all wrong, perhaps you’d better put it away again!
Mine are……………..
My favourite spoiled paper at the Referendum count in Totnes was the large red penned ‘CAMERON IS A NOB’
I’ll just do my normal
NO. NO. NO. to. EU
What on earth is the point of ‘spoiling’ a Ballot paper? At least vote for the lesser of all the evils. Never mind what they did to us over the Referenbum – bite the bullet and vote for the only RELATIVELY honest bunch TBP. Please!
Remember, most of us are sick and frustrated – THAT was their sick treacherous plan – so, if you don’t vote? Well that is EXACTLY what they have planned that we do.I am the Master of my fate – I am the Captain of my soul – pro-tem!
Love to, but I don’t have a TBP candidate.
How to vote NONE.
http://www.votenone.org.uk/
Its Friday not Thursday. Otherwise thank you for always giving a good true and balanced report/assessment.
Thanks for pointing that out – now corrected.