Why Would Anyone Switch From Labour To Ukip?

[10ClarionSt]

People are free to choose, of course, but I can't understand why any Labour supporter would switch to the ultra right wing of the Tory party and vote Ukip. They (UKip) are targeting our constituency as a possible gain. Can't see it myself. It's Middleton and Heywood btw.

[ichkeria]

If you want to be crude about it there are broadly two types of Labour voter: those who vote labour for political reasons (altruistic) and those who do it for self-interested reasons. The latter tend to be poorer and more disaffected generally : they're more likely to go for the populist identity politics of ukip. So ukip hopes anyway. Not sure it's going to work largely because the mess ukip are in makes Labour look good

[mikey4444]

AOG....no, probably not, but by the time the about Election came in May 2015, Cameron had already pledged that he would hold a Referendum.

Its now 2017, and we are in the process of leaving the EU, so I still can't see the point in continuing to vote for a Party that is as completely washed up as UKIP.

Its current Leader, Paul Nuttall, can't even decided whether to stand in June's GE or not, and he ran away from reporters, without answering their questions.

[anotheoldgit]

mikey4444
/// AOG....that isn't what I said though, is it ? ///

/// "UKIP appeals mainly to the uneducated and credulous" ///

Yes it is, because you craftily chose to ignore your first statement.

/// But especially now that they have scared Britain into voting for BREXIT. ///

If UKIP were able to 'scare' British people into voting for BREXIT, then they must have supported UKIP's views, which automatically makes them uneducated and credulous, well in your mind anyway.

[mikey4444]

AOG....your words, not mine !

But that doesn't answer 10ClarionSt's question does it ?

[anotheoldgit]

mikey4444

/// But that doesn't answer 10ClarionSt's question does it ? ///

That's an easy one, never heard of a protest vote?

Much more constructive than not voting at all.

[mikey4444]

Protest against what ? A Tory Government ?

[ichkeria]

I doubt if Europe would sway many labour voters: most labour in voters in the north contrary to popular belief voted Remain. Even in those real hard Brexit areas like Barnsley it seems unlikely that many people would turn to ukip? Why? If they want to vote on referendum lines they may as well go for the Tories. If they want to vote on things like defence and foreign policy well UKIP are little different from Corbyn on that, albeit for different reasons. As long as they think May is going to deliver no nasty foreigners because of Brexit then they might as well vote Tory.
But in places like Midleton they do need to try some sort of tactic even if it's rather desperate

[youngmafbog]

Oh, here we go another insult flung at BREXITers. BREXIT is about much more than immigration, contrary to the liberal elite belief.

So now, in just this thread we are uneducated, credulous and utterly xenophobic. I wonder when the rest of the usual insults will be flung?

[youngmafbog]

//
Protest against what ? A Tory Government ? //

No, a protest against a Party that is imploding itself when it needs to be strong and challenging the Government.

[ToraToraTora]

I agree with mikey, there is no reason to vote UKIP, they have been the most successful party in history and achieved their aims.Even the name is now superfluous, they should disband and transfer their support to the Tories and continue to assist in implementing the democratic will of the people that they made possible. Many thanks UKIP for delivering us from Tyranny.

[youngmafbog]

I'll second that TTT.

[max137]

I stopped voting Labour in the seventies as a trade union member at the time I was often on strike on purely political grounds,did I or the other members benefit no hope, I suggest a little light reading of Animal Farm would help.

[naomi24]

max137, I've lost count of the number of times I've mentioned that book.

[bednobs]

mikey you say "Emmie....so why did you vote for UKIP in the first place ?

You must have known that they had zero chance of winning an Election."
that statement equally applies to the current labour party, yet i doubt it will stop some people voting for them

[Jackdaw33]

Must be one of the finest allegories ever written. A damning indictment of socialism.

[Baldric]

///I still can't see the point in continuing to vote for a Party that is as completely washed up as/// . Labour.

[ichkeria]

"Oh, here we go another insult flung at BREXITers. BREXIT is about much more than immigration, contrary to the liberal elite belief.
So now, in just this thread we are uneducated, credulous and utterly xenophobic. I wonder when the rest of the usual insults will be flung?"

The point I was making, if you are referring to what I wrote, is that those people who voted "out" to reduce immigration, and they are many, can be comforted in their supposition that the Conservatives are now the party of Brexit. In places like Barnsley that does seem to be the major concern.
Animal Farm, by the way, is a satire not about socialism but totalitarianism.

[Jackdaw33]

Socialism/ totalitarianism? I'd be hard pressed to put a pig between the two.

[ichkeria]

If you recall, at the end of Animal Farm, the pigs and the humans are playing cards and the animals looking in on their game can no longer tell them apart. Orwell's portrayal of the injustices of the farm at the start of the book have thus returned: nothing has really changed. Orwell's view is not that this regression is inevitable. But the plot of the novel largely follows the progress of the Russian Revolution up to 1944, although he satirises Fascism too. His is a classic savage socialist critique of communism.