The Westminster Bubble - aka 'Them'

Gawain Towler, England Expects, posts on a meeting which is not open to the public, access being invitation only, hosted by YouGov and the University of Cambridge who have created a new think-tank called YouGov-Cambridge, which combines academic expertise and professional polling in one place. GT remarks that Goldman Sachs is well represented and that this is being organised by Cathy Ashton's husband, the boss of YouGov Peter Kellner, with a media partner in DGFT. On the subject of Peter Kellner, both Richard North EU Referendum and I have posted here, here and here - you get the picture, no doubt!

Leaving to one side my present differences of opinion with Ukip, I can but echo GT's disbelief that not one representative of the only party campaigning for this country's withdrawal from membership of the EU is not represented - nor invited. When considering the speakers listed the first question is just what the hell is Polly Toynbee doing there? If the Symposium is discussing ‘Public Opinion, Economic Governance and the Future of Europe’ and will examine how both experts and the public view the same key questions, just where is 'a member of the public'? When considering the session titles, just where is the subject of sovereignty? What we have here, as with so many discussions about matters EU, is 'the club' - aka the 'Westminster Bubble' - talking among themselves and 'at' the public, not that the latter will be present to hear them.

With the number of candidates to be strung up growing by the day, I begin to wonder whether we will have sufficient lamp posts or piano wire - but I am sure we will 'improvise' when the time comes.

Why Ukip languish in the polls

Exhibit 1 (and only 1 example is needed, really) Gawain Towler, Ukip Press Officer, posts on Twitter:

"@GawainTowler: I liked a @YouTube video http://t.co/jzHzzG22 New Project"

a link which appears not to be 'repostable', but one in which Lawrence Webb, the Ukip Mayoral Candidate, talks about third place being up for grabs as Ukip are on 6%, only 1% behind the LibDems.

6%?! Bearing in mind the political climate why the hell are Ukip not on 26% - more importantly, for a party that would have us believe they are a force in British politics, why are they boasting that third place is 'up for grabs'? Would not any political party, 'worth its salt',  not be proclaiming it could take 1st place - whether it believed that or not?

The mind 'boggles' - let alone go into decline. Who allowed such a 'message' to be produced? Where is the leadership, the strategy, the management? If a political party, one that maintains it could form a government, cannot put out a positive political campaigning message and do so competently - what chance does it have of convincing a country that it is capable of forming a government?

Just asking.................

A 'fog' of news?

Richard North, EU Referendum, posts on one example wherein is shown that our 'news services' are totally incompetent and thereby worthless. But this is but the latest example of the lack of real journalism from which we in this country, suffer.

Gawain Towler, England Expects, posts on some 'research' carried out by the BBC in which it is intimated that Hannan (and, by intimation, Farage) may not be a household name in British politics.

Neil O'Brien, writing in the Daily Telegraph, asks the question why has the proportion of households where no-one has ever worked, doubled; yet nowhere does he bother to go further and ask for the root causes of this fact. Perhaps it is beyond the intellectual capability of this man to look at the emasculation of the education system that has taken place; the 'social-engineering' that has taken place? This man is head of a 'think-tank'? Methinks the first word is totally misplaced!

How often have we been bombarded about Cameron's 'phantom veto on a phantom treaty'? "There was no draft treaty before the European Council, just a set of conclusions..." So who, exactly, is the "Straw Man" here.........?

That Orwell's 'Big Brother' has arrived is beyond doubt - it has arrived through a combination of political 'verbal dexterity' and a compliant MSM (in the politician's pocket, or in the case of the BBC - the EU) who are not in the 'news/comment' business - rather the 'parrot' business.

Just saying...................