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Recent political stuff:
- The vote to see if Britain should adopt Alternative Voting has failed.
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A link to the BBC politics page containing relevant information.
Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 3rd 2023 at 11:15:30 AM
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When the jokes write themselves like that, the only thing worse than being part of CUK is being part of the Tories when they're being CUKed.
So, apparently Ukip is dropping any illusion of subtlety and nominating a known Islamophobe and conspiracy theorist to run for MEP.
Carl Benjamin, who posts online using the moniker Sargon of Akkad, is one of two candidates the Eurosceptic party named on Thursday to stand in the southwest region.
“We went through an exhaustive process to sift over 190 potential candidates down to those the national executive committee representatives and I felt were most suitable,” Ukip leader, Gerard Batten said.
“This list is based on a number of factors that we felt would select candidates to fight for a real Brexit after the European elections. Ukip’s priority is to have ME Ps who will fight to make Brexit happen.”
Mr Benjamin has close to one million subscribers to his You Tube channel, on which he produces videos criticising feminism, left-wing politics and the European Union.
He gained mainstream attention after being accused of promoting a series of rape threats from Twitter users against Labour MP Jess Phillips in 2016.
Ms Phillips had written: “People talking about raping me isn’t fun, but has become somewhat par for the course” on the social media site, leading Mr Benjamin to reply: “I wouldn’t even rape you, Jess Phillips.”
His followers went on to repeat his statement and Ms Phillips later tweeted: “600-odd notifications talking about my rape in one night. I think Twitter is dead.”
A Ukip spokesman has previously condemned Mr Benjamin’s comments, telling The Independent at the time he joined the party the exchange with Ms Phillips was “unpleasant”.
Mr Benjamin is one of several prominent social media activists to join the party under the leadership of Mr Batten, who has been accused of pulling the party towards the hard right.
Mark Meechan, known as Count Dankula and noted for the court case surrounding a video he posted online of his girlfriend’s pug dog performing Nazi salutes, joined the party last year.
Paul Joseph Watson, the editor-at-large of Alex Jones’ far-right Info Wars website and a You Tuber with more than 1.6 million subscribers, also joined the party in 2018.
Mr Batten has also come under fire for appointing anti-Islam activist Tommy Robinson in an advisory role, a move that caused long-time Ukip leader Nigel Farage to quit the party.
The UK is likely to take part in European elections in May after EU leaders agreed to grant a flexible six-month extension to the Article 50 process on Wednesday.
Edited by DrunkenNordmann on Apr 15th 2019 at 5:03:24 PM
Welcome to Estalia, gentlemen.
Just a harmless giant from a foreign land.
Oh yeah, that particular individual of fuckcrementular rectitude.
"You can reply to this Message!"
The good news is that the guy is virtually illiterate, so if he ever got the word in EU parliament, he'd embarrass himself even worse than Farage usually does.
Edited by DrunkenNordmann on Apr 15th 2019 at 5:15:15 PM
Welcome to Estalia, gentlemen.
Just a harmless giant from a foreign land.
Unless this is enough to prevent him to filing the account information if he is elected, I begrudge any cent being spent on this asshole.
Ugh, is it too late to form a party who's main program is to shoot people like that with Nerf guns in Parliament?
Edited by 3of4 on Apr 15th 2019 at 5:28:15 PM
"You can reply to this Message!"
Disasturbator
We have the strictest gun control laws in the UK,you have to have a license to even fire a potato gun
New theme music also a box
Just a harmless giant from a foreign land.
I mean the EU parliament.
"You can reply to this Message!"
Not sure why you are complaining so much about Change UK. They either will vanish into oblivion, or, best case scenario, they will split the Torie votes. I certainly have no problem with them constantly pointing out the obvious: That the Tories have been hijacked by the far right.
A procrastination in of itself
Hijacked my arse, they’ve always been a key part of the party. If anything Cameron’s conservativeism with a kind face and social progress were the one hijacking the traditional nasty party.
Plus CUK are still far right economically, believing in the near total removal of the social safety net.
Edited by Silasw on Apr 15th 2019 at 4:13:33 PM
"And the Bunny nails it!" ~ Gabrael "If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we." ~ Cyran
True. But the main point here is that they might split the votes. And wouldn't that be a good thing for the more leftist parties?
Servant of the Omnissiah
Wait, UKIP just fielded goddamned Sargon of Akkad as a candidate? You sure that's not an Onion Article?
Shit, it's going to be hilarious if he wins, just in time to get utterly and thoroughly wrecked in the EU Parliament.
I hold the secrets of the machine.
She/Her Pronouns
Not sure how "hilarious" it would be, Buzzfeed posted an article about how his discord he directed people to for the campaign is crawling with hardcore neo-Nazis, White Supremacists, and anti-Semites. (I'm not linking, its really bad. Seek out at your own risk). Its, frankly, rather terrifying.
Edited by AzurePaladin on Apr 15th 2019 at 1:22:43 PM
The awful things he says and does are burned into our cultural consciousness like a CRT display left on the same picture too long. -Fighteer
What, didn't you know about his connection to them? No surprise there….
This looks like a job for Lord Buckethead.
A procrastination in of itself
X5 Oh very much, I’m hoping that CUK finds itself a voter base amongst socially progressive Tories, one because they’re better than the alternative and two because that vote split sounds mighty nice.
Edited by Silasw on Apr 15th 2019 at 5:26:36 PM
"And the Bunny nails it!" ~ Gabrael "If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we." ~ Cyran
Disasturbator
yep so with their hands tied Labour can take votes.at this point its Labour or nothing
New theme music also a box
Well, I for my part will cheer every vote the CUK can steal from Ukip or the Tories.
Now if Labour gets it act together, there might actually be a chance for the UK.
Carl Benjamin was one of multiple alt-right darlings to sign up with UKIP in an attempt to "launch a soft coup" - other ones include Paul Joseph Watson and the Nazi pug guy.
Welcome to Estalia, gentlemen.
Figure of Hourai
I will complain about CUK so long as they use a name that leeches attention for an established petition/political pressure group that is generally opposed to Tory policies.
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There was talk about whether the acronym would be CHUK, with all attending jokes about it being one letter short of someone's name.
It's worth remembering that UKIP and Brexit are not allies, they're competitors. So far, Brexit has poached donors, MPs and MEPs from UKIP. They're obviously banking on poaching the voter base, too, because they're very heavily playing up the 'UKIP has gone right-wing extremist' card about why the poaching is happening.
Brexit's origins are a repeat of UKIP. UKIP started as the party for people who didn't want to be painted with the BNP brush. Now that's no longer possible, they're creating a new party and hoping that UKIP drops into the same garbage dump as the BNP. History is repeating itself.
So, we're not going to see Brexit and UKIP joining forces in the EU elections. They'll be fighting for the same voter base. The question is what the size of that voter base ends up being in a galvanised election.
Edited by Wyldchyld on Apr 15th 2019 at 8:54:45 PM
If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.
Let them fight and smear each other. It would be a nice change to see the far right cannibalizing each other instead of the left doing it.
I don't really see what's that to do with what I was saying - I wasn't claiming the Brexit Party and UKIP are allying, I was only stating that whatever veneer of deniability UKIP might have had at some point just got taken out back and shot.
Edited by DrunkenNordmann on Apr 15th 2019 at 9:40:23 PM
Welcome to Estalia, gentlemen.
Disasturbator
> It would be a nice change to see the far right cannibalizing each other instead of the left doing it.
Sure but then one remaining will be the strongest far right group
New theme music also a box
Do you remember Cameron's A-List? He'd only been party leader for about a year, so it was before he became prime minister, and he wanted to improve the party's image by recruiting more Tory MPs who were female or BAME. People had to recruit election candidates from the list. Here are a couple of names from the list (some aren't Tories any more and some aren't MPs any more).
Stephen Barclay, Nick Boles, Karen Bradley, Steve Brine, Damian Collins, Zac Goldsmith, Andrew Leadsom, Phillip Lee, Esther McVey, Louise Mensch, Priti Patel, Annunziata Rees-Mogg, Amber Rudd, Anna Soubry, Liz Truss, Sayeeda Warsi.
I was expanding your point, not arguing against it.
Edited by Wyldchyld on Oct 20th 2021 at 1:17:45 PM
If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.
I loved that TV show, and it doesn't deserve the association.
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