Norman Tebbit, UKIP's new cheerleader - is he right?

[Gromit]

http://blogs.telegrap...ukip-is-a-wasted-one/

[plautus]

He is stating the obvious, as I have pointed out on another thread. The Tories will have to come to some sort of rapprochement with UKIP or lose the next election. Without UKIP the margin of victory in Corby would have been much narrower.

[THECORBYLOON]

I have had a look at the Corby results again and the figure I gave of a 69% turnout is incorrect. I got the figure from the BBC's teletext but it also shows the majority was 1,895 which is also rubbish.

[Duncer]

If ANY by-election got 69% these days then I'd eat my hat.

[THECORBYLOON]

The turnout was about 45% and the margin was about 8,000

[Duncer]

45% is good, we got 39% at the last general election.

[plautus]

I think that the 1,895 might represent a majority over all other parties combined, rather than just second place. However this is still incorrect as the majority is normally the margin between the winner and the runner up.
.

[THECORBYLOON]

Labour got 48.4% so he got the most votes but not the majority so the teletext figure is not the figure over and above the others combined. I don't think the BBC is having the best of days...

[Gromit]

The BBC teletext service CeeFax has been switched off. That might be your problem :-)

[plautus]

None of this addresses the problem of how UKIP came from being a fringe single-issue party to being a real threat to one of the two major political parties of our system. This will have to be addressed. Dissolution of the coalition would be a first step, despite its political ramifications.

[THECORBYLOON]

Mebbes the ex-DG was doing the results...

[askyourgran]

I think a lot of people are so dissatisfied with the main parties that Ukip seems a better alternative now. Cameron is slowing sinking into the Miliband mould, and the EU seems to be binding us tighter, when everyone seems to want out. Since this farce of PCC voting I am seriously thinking of giving Norm the benefit of the doubt.

[plautus]

Cameron is the 21C version of Heath 40 years on; utterly convinced that he is right and that older, wiser, more experienced counsels are wrong. For that reason he will go the same way as Heath, but in a shorter time. Anyone prepared to take bets as to whether William Hague or David Davis will PM before this decade is half over?

[Gromit]

Shouldn't a Tory Grandee be supporting the party rather than kicking at its heels? UKIP came within 5 votes of pushing the Conservatives into fourth in the Manchester by election. Every Conservative knows they are a threat to them winning the next election without Tebbit telling potential voters that a vote for UKIP is not a wasted vote.

Do yoy think he has some kind of agenda against the current Conservative leadership?

[Duncer]

I very much suspect he does, but "why" is the question.

[Gromit]

Failing to win the last election?

[plautus]

The whole point of being a "Grandee" is that you tell it like it is, not what you would like it to be. This is probably the best service Norman Tebbit could have rendered to the Tory party since he told them to get on their bikes.

[Duncer]

Failing to win the last election?

Hardly the first time he's witnessed that.......

[Gromit]

Er...? He didn't tell the Conservative Party to get on their bikes.

He told unemployed northern folk to migrate to the south east.

[Duncer]

He didn't, he told them to "get on their bikes" and "go and look for work".

[Gromit]

// Hardly the first time he's witnessed that... //

I suspect Hague, Howard and IDS are also on his 'hitlist' .