(Billy Stephens)
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“Imagine a village consisting of a few shops, a public-house, and a cluster of dirty little houses, all at the base of what looked at first like an active volcano,” wrote JB Priestley after visiting Shotton Colliery in 1933. The volcano was the notorious Shotton Tip, a giant slag heap that towered over the Durham pit village, smoke billowing from its peak, children tobogganing down its slopes. Priestley had never seen anything like it. It was like Pompeii before the explosion, he wrote, evidently appalled.
Shotton is barely half an hour from where I grew up, but it is a world apart. Today it is not just a place of literary interest, but real political significance. In 2019, it was one of the last solid bricks in Labour’s Red Wall. Under Boris Johnson, the Tories managed to win over other mining towns in the area, but failed in Easington — home to Shotton. Many psephologists believed that the demographic trends which had swept the Tories into the area had not yet run their course and more parts of the Red Wall could still fall, including places such as Easington. Now though, according to the polls, Labour is on the brink of rebuilding the Red Wall all over again, throwing the Tories back not only in Easington but across the north east. I returned to Shotton to find The Most Important Man In Britain. Apparently he holds the key to the next election. His name is Deano.
Deano, I should stress, is not a real person. He is an avatar, an internet meme, a representation — the personification of a certain type who can be found almost anywhere in the country. He is an everyday man; a middle manager with a new-build home and a car on finance, a large TV and a PS4. According to one of the more popular memes online he is, more specifically, “deputy assistant head of sales targeting” who arrives home every day to a wife “already home from her work as a Team Leader in a call centre”. You can almost see the disdain dripping from the page.
To many, Deano is a figure of fun: a low-brow, low-status provincial man with bad taste and too much sway over the nation’s cultural life. But the more I read about him online, whether on Reddit, Urban Dictionary, Twitter or YouTube, the more I realise his was not a life to be mocked but cheered — and even envied. Deano owns his home, gets back from work early, and has enough disposable income for new furniture and nice food. He is doing well and is a responsible, decent citizen. He isn’t rich enough to dodge his taxes and is more likely to be found in the gym than in the pub or the bookies.
In some senses, Deano is a lifestyle choice as much as an identity, which might even be boiled down to not moving to London. For many London graduates, earning £40,000 but spending all their money on a shared rented flat, Deano is the road less travelled. Deano decided not to move somewhere else; he is happy to earn slightly less while enjoying more disposable income and more space. Ninety years after Priestley’s famous journey, I thought I would find this lifestyle in Shotton. Where there were once miners and children tobogganing down slag heaps, there would now be Deanos; not folk to feel sorry for or to romanticise — just ordinary people living ordinary lives. The problem was, after a few hours in Shotton, it was quickly evident that I was only half right.
Today, the colliery has disappeared and so too has the tip. Where Priestley’s volcano stood, there is now a monument to all the miners killed. A small industrial estate has been built next-door as well as a sky-diving centre. Call centres are now one of the main sources of employment in the area. At first glance, then, it should be a perfect home for Deano. And yet, if the old Shotton tip was a symbol of economic iniquity, a real-life metaphor used by Priestley to highlight the exploitation of ordinary workers, its disappearance seems to signify something just as bad: a loss of economic purpose which seems necessary for any community to thrive. The unfortunate truth is that Shotton is now a soul-sapping place. Pubs are boarded up, hotels turned into halfway houses, poverty high and drugs rife. Kids no longer toboggan down slag heaps but compete to torch cars. With no real industry in the area, or even an economy to speak of, old miners watch helplessly as their community withers.
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SubscribeI enjoyed this article. One thing that it could’ve touched on, but didn’t, is whether or not that demographic will actually vote.
I’m from a similar background, and have known lots of people that fit the description of the ‘Deano’ but many just won’t vote.
If I had a pound for every person that has responded ‘no’ to the voting question, by saying ‘they’re all a bunch of c**ts’ – I reckon I’d have at least £15 squid.
Hard not to agree with them either…
The political parties are nearly undistinguishable nowadays. The only reason I still vote is to prevent the bigger evil… it is so depressing
Indeed.
Indeed.
I think Labour will win not because they have better policies but because we are all heartily sick of being the playthings of a few rich Tories who manipulated us into Brexit and then put a bomb under the economy with Trussonomics. Starmer’s attack ads suggest that Sunak was responsible for all the Tories’ misdemeanours but he wasn’t an MP until 2015. His current insistence on Brexit purity when the country is losing its love for it may be his downfall.
Labour won’t win – Starmer will make the same foolish mistake as the Welsh Windbag, and assume that he has won long before the election. Starmer’s dreadful, inept reign as DPP is only eclipsed by the utter ineptitude he shows now as “leader” of Labour. One good shove – like the revelations about his time as DPP – will destroy any slight vestige of credibility that Starmer still has.
Labour’s ONLY chance is a complete clear out of their utterly useless Front Bench – they have to get rid of Crayons, of Diane “Mensa Candidate” Abbott and all the rest of the dross. They won’t – of course – so they’ll lose badly again, even up against the hopeless Sunak.
Well i hope so but i think apathy might win this time, Liebore second due to the shere weight of the media, civil service and other bad actors, and of course bridari. Poor old nasty party coming third, which is sad because they are the least dangerous by quite a margin.
Well i hope so but i think apathy might win this time, Liebore second due to the shere weight of the media, civil service and other bad actors, and of course bridari. Poor old nasty party coming third, which is sad because they are the least dangerous by quite a margin.
Labour won’t win – Starmer will make the same foolish mistake as the Welsh Windbag, and assume that he has won long before the election. Starmer’s dreadful, inept reign as DPP is only eclipsed by the utter ineptitude he shows now as “leader” of Labour. One good shove – like the revelations about his time as DPP – will destroy any slight vestige of credibility that Starmer still has.
Labour’s ONLY chance is a complete clear out of their utterly useless Front Bench – they have to get rid of Crayons, of Diane “Mensa Candidate” Abbott and all the rest of the dross. They won’t – of course – so they’ll lose badly again, even up against the hopeless Sunak.
The political parties are nearly undistinguishable nowadays. The only reason I still vote is to prevent the bigger evil… it is so depressing
I think Labour will win not because they have better policies but because we are all heartily sick of being the playthings of a few rich Tories who manipulated us into Brexit and then put a bomb under the economy with Trussonomics. Starmer’s attack ads suggest that Sunak was responsible for all the Tories’ misdemeanours but he wasn’t an MP until 2015. His current insistence on Brexit purity when the country is losing its love for it may be his downfall.
I enjoyed this article. One thing that it could’ve touched on, but didn’t, is whether or not that demographic will actually vote.
I’m from a similar background, and have known lots of people that fit the description of the ‘Deano’ but many just won’t vote.
If I had a pound for every person that has responded ‘no’ to the voting question, by saying ‘they’re all a bunch of c**ts’ – I reckon I’d have at least £15 squid.
Hard not to agree with them either…
An interesting piece setting out how the Conservatives are presently a disappointment to Deano. And yet you could argue that Labour have been a bigger disappointment to Deano for longer.
Deano (and White Van Man, the Worcester woman etc.) will worry about what they can gain by voting for a particular party but they will worry far more about what they will lose. Humans generally find giving up what they already have far more upsetting, not just the Deanos.
Good point although I wonder to what extent Daily Mail/Express fearmongering will reach Deano. Social media will likely be key to shaping his voting intentions (if he votes at all).
I suspect he will abstain in vast numbers. The very language of modern politics will reek to him of insincerity and its concerns appear as totally detached from his.
I suspect he will abstain in vast numbers. The very language of modern politics will reek to him of insincerity and its concerns appear as totally detached from his.
Good point although I wonder to what extent Daily Mail/Express fearmongering will reach Deano. Social media will likely be key to shaping his voting intentions (if he votes at all).
An interesting piece setting out how the Conservatives are presently a disappointment to Deano. And yet you could argue that Labour have been a bigger disappointment to Deano for longer.
Deano (and White Van Man, the Worcester woman etc.) will worry about what they can gain by voting for a particular party but they will worry far more about what they will lose. Humans generally find giving up what they already have far more upsetting, not just the Deanos.
I wouldn’t necessarily describe myself as a pure Deano, as I appear to tick many of the boxes, but hail from a comfortable rural middle class background and did live in London for some years. However, this has resonated with me as I do own my home, management job, types of holidays my wife and I take etc. I’m sure we’ve all noticed the price of everything keeps going up and you often get less for more.
While I don’t need to cut back on certain comforts, my spending is a bit more constrained and I feel like we are going to be increasingly squeezed for sometime more to cover the blunders of others.
Weirdly, the writer describes Deano both as “noveau riche” and as “petty bourgeois”; one right after the other. He appears not to know what either one means.
I presume you wouldn’t describe yourself as either – at least in economic terms?
Somewhat close to petty bourgeois I would say, but that doesn’t reflect my upbringing which was definitely bourgeois.
Ahh I’ve found out his surname… He is Deano Leounge- Settee…
Just my opinion, and not your “lived experience,” but I would have thought that the management job you mentioned initially would make you full-Monty bourgeois rather than petty.
Depends on what kind of management. Managing a call-center or car dealership is very different to managing an HR department for a very large company.
Depends on what kind of management. Managing a call-center or car dealership is very different to managing an HR department for a very large company.
Ahh I’ve found out his surname… He is Deano Leounge- Settee…
Just my opinion, and not your “lived experience,” but I would have thought that the management job you mentioned initially would make you full-Monty bourgeois rather than petty.
I don’t think either term applies. Nouveau riche traditionally meant actually rich – rich enough to want to ape the upper classes and throw their money around. Petty bourgeois also sounds French, is French and describes a French social group. I think what is attempted to be described here is simply lower middle class, gusting to middle middle class. The people with the most to lose in a squeeze and whose loss to the nation would be felt the greatest. The backbone of Britain sounds corny but so be it.
Very much the backbone of England. But our main political parties seem to take this group for granted.
Indeed. As we all take for granted that which works well and doesn’t make a fuss. It’s the squeakiest wheel that gets oiled first.
Indeed. As we all take for granted that which works well and doesn’t make a fuss. It’s the squeakiest wheel that gets oiled first.
Very much the backbone of England. But our main political parties seem to take this group for granted.
Somewhat close to petty bourgeois I would say, but that doesn’t reflect my upbringing which was definitely bourgeois.
I don’t think either term applies. Nouveau riche traditionally meant actually rich – rich enough to want to ape the upper classes and throw their money around. Petty bourgeois also sounds French, is French and describes a French social group. I think what is attempted to be described here is simply lower middle class, gusting to middle middle class. The people with the most to lose in a squeeze and whose loss to the nation would be felt the greatest. The backbone of Britain sounds corny but so be it.
The problem is that there is no accountability nor responsibility for brazen fiscal criminality by Westminster MPs, the Government, the Civil Service and criminal lobbyists representing psychopaths like Bill Gates, George Soros etc.
In my view, every MP that voted for the Coronavirus Act should lose 100% of their assets, without any right to legal due process. All the academics spouting lies about Covid19 like Ferguson, Whitty, Vallance, Bell and Walport should suffer similarly. The top 1000 civil servants across all departments should be the same. Every media ‘personality’ earning more than 100k a year should lose 100 percent of their assets to pay for the debt that they so encouraged to be run up. Not to mention their racism about the unvaccinated.
It’s time to make politicians pay personally for their incompetence, their criminality and/or their ignorance and all those who conspired with them need the same.
Only when this happens will the organised crime that has been Western government for 200 years start to stop….
I said the same (apart from last sentence ) to many of my friends (or former friends due to Brexit and covid).
But they just shrugged their shoulders and say nothing will change and no one will be punished.
Nothing happened after banking crisis…
I said the same (apart from last sentence ) to many of my friends (or former friends due to Brexit and covid).
But they just shrugged their shoulders and say nothing will change and no one will be punished.
Nothing happened after banking crisis…
Weirdly, the writer describes Deano both as “noveau riche” and as “petty bourgeois”; one right after the other. He appears not to know what either one means.
I presume you wouldn’t describe yourself as either – at least in economic terms?
The problem is that there is no accountability nor responsibility for brazen fiscal criminality by Westminster MPs, the Government, the Civil Service and criminal lobbyists representing psychopaths like Bill Gates, George Soros etc.
In my view, every MP that voted for the Coronavirus Act should lose 100% of their assets, without any right to legal due process. All the academics spouting lies about Covid19 like Ferguson, Whitty, Vallance, Bell and Walport should suffer similarly. The top 1000 civil servants across all departments should be the same. Every media ‘personality’ earning more than 100k a year should lose 100 percent of their assets to pay for the debt that they so encouraged to be run up. Not to mention their racism about the unvaccinated.
It’s time to make politicians pay personally for their incompetence, their criminality and/or their ignorance and all those who conspired with them need the same.
Only when this happens will the organised crime that has been Western government for 200 years start to stop….
I wouldn’t necessarily describe myself as a pure Deano, as I appear to tick many of the boxes, but hail from a comfortable rural middle class background and did live in London for some years. However, this has resonated with me as I do own my home, management job, types of holidays my wife and I take etc. I’m sure we’ve all noticed the price of everything keeps going up and you often get less for more.
While I don’t need to cut back on certain comforts, my spending is a bit more constrained and I feel like we are going to be increasingly squeezed for sometime more to cover the blunders of others.
Deanos have something that politicians, civil servants, celebs and the media class increasingly lack: common sense. Unfortunately, the more centralised government becomes, and the more it is captured by institutional vested interests, the less influence their common sense has.
Agreed. It’s weird though. Voters seem to both blame the government for all their problems. Then demand ever more of it to fix them. https://open.substack.com/pub/lowstatus/p/the-government-is-rubbish-more-please?r=evzeq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Agreed. It’s weird though. Voters seem to both blame the government for all their problems. Then demand ever more of it to fix them. https://open.substack.com/pub/lowstatus/p/the-government-is-rubbish-more-please?r=evzeq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Deanos have something that politicians, civil servants, celebs and the media class increasingly lack: common sense. Unfortunately, the more centralised government becomes, and the more it is captured by institutional vested interests, the less influence their common sense has.
The author is all over the place with his descriptions – you can’t be petty bourgeoisie, nouveau riche and working class. Class isn’t about money. At the beginning of the article “Deano” and his wife are described as managers. This is middle class. “Upper working-class” would be a skilled labourer who might well earn more than “Deano”, not what the author describes.
As with most general elections the next one will come down to who people think is most trusted with the economy.
I thought middle class was about aspirations and culture not just work status?
So you could be sales manager but have aspirations and habits of working class.
But poorly paid art worker is considered middle class?
Not exactly. Working class people can have lots of aspiration; self-employed tradesmen will likely earn more than junior managers if they are any good. I work in a working class company where managers will refer to themselves as working class but if asked to do the job of the workers they manage couldn’t last a day. It’s all a matter of opinion though.
By art worker you could mean an artist or artisan (working class) or an arts grad (once you have been to uni it is a pretty safe bet that you aren’t working class any more unless you are doing a job that doesn’t require a degree).
Not exactly. Working class people can have lots of aspiration; self-employed tradesmen will likely earn more than junior managers if they are any good. I work in a working class company where managers will refer to themselves as working class but if asked to do the job of the workers they manage couldn’t last a day. It’s all a matter of opinion though.
By art worker you could mean an artist or artisan (working class) or an arts grad (once you have been to uni it is a pretty safe bet that you aren’t working class any more unless you are doing a job that doesn’t require a degree).
I thought middle class was about aspirations and culture not just work status?
So you could be sales manager but have aspirations and habits of working class.
But poorly paid art worker is considered middle class?
The author is all over the place with his descriptions – you can’t be petty bourgeoisie, nouveau riche and working class. Class isn’t about money. At the beginning of the article “Deano” and his wife are described as managers. This is middle class. “Upper working-class” would be a skilled labourer who might well earn more than “Deano”, not what the author describes.
As with most general elections the next one will come down to who people think is most trusted with the economy.
Deano, Mondeo Man, Worcester Woman, Bozo Boy, etc.
I have to wonder whether the people who come up with these stereotypes have ever met a real human being.
Deano, Mondeo Man, Worcester Woman, Bozo Boy, etc.
I have to wonder whether the people who come up with these stereotypes have ever met a real human being.
I think the political winds have changed direction.
When Rishi Sunak became PM in October, LAB had a 36% lead on CON in Redfield and Wilton’s opinion polls.
Here is what has happened to the LAB lead since February:
26 Feb – 27%
5 Mar – 26%
12 Mar – 21%
19 Mar – 21%
26 Mar – 19%
2 Apr – 17%
9 Apr – 14%
16 Apr – 12%
If the Conservatives can keep their heads, if inflation drops and the small boats legislation leads to Rwanda flights taking off, I can see things getting back to level pegging by the summer.
I suspect the voters cut the government more slack for having had to deal with the pandemic and the knock on effects of the invasion of the Ukraine than most commentators – above and below the line.
The great unknown is Scotland. If the SNP support transfers to LAB, Starmer might win anyway.
This is dangerous, I agree.
With SNP winning most of Scotland Westminster seats, at least Conservative could play “vote Labour and loose Scotland”.
Assuming price for NATs support would be referendum…
Still, if Labour wins, especially with many Scottish seats, we will see even more money going from England to Scotland to fix their rotten country…
SNP has simply occupied former Labour heartlands in Scotland. They pretty much vote with Labour anyway on non-constitutional issues in UK parliament, don’t they?
All the more reason for England to get rid of Scotland soon as is humanly possible.
This is dangerous, I agree.
With SNP winning most of Scotland Westminster seats, at least Conservative could play “vote Labour and loose Scotland”.
Assuming price for NATs support would be referendum…
Still, if Labour wins, especially with many Scottish seats, we will see even more money going from England to Scotland to fix their rotten country…
SNP has simply occupied former Labour heartlands in Scotland. They pretty much vote with Labour anyway on non-constitutional issues in UK parliament, don’t they?
All the more reason for England to get rid of Scotland soon as is humanly possible.
I think the political winds have changed direction.
When Rishi Sunak became PM in October, LAB had a 36% lead on CON in Redfield and Wilton’s opinion polls.
Here is what has happened to the LAB lead since February:
26 Feb – 27%
5 Mar – 26%
12 Mar – 21%
19 Mar – 21%
26 Mar – 19%
2 Apr – 17%
9 Apr – 14%
16 Apr – 12%
If the Conservatives can keep their heads, if inflation drops and the small boats legislation leads to Rwanda flights taking off, I can see things getting back to level pegging by the summer.
I suspect the voters cut the government more slack for having had to deal with the pandemic and the knock on effects of the invasion of the Ukraine than most commentators – above and below the line.
The great unknown is Scotland. If the SNP support transfers to LAB, Starmer might win anyway.
Sadly the rallying cry today is vote for my Party and we promise to ignore you
As the next to worthless so called Tory Party have proved so lamentably over the past ten years and more.
If only they would ignore us Andrew. They seem to see it as their mission to meddle in ever more aspects of our lives, while failing at the basics. Leave me alone, and get on with the job we pay you for, would be my plea. https://open.substack.com/pub/lowstatus/p/please-stop-ruining-literally-everything?r=evzeq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
As the next to worthless so called Tory Party have proved so lamentably over the past ten years and more.
If only they would ignore us Andrew. They seem to see it as their mission to meddle in ever more aspects of our lives, while failing at the basics. Leave me alone, and get on with the job we pay you for, would be my plea. https://open.substack.com/pub/lowstatus/p/please-stop-ruining-literally-everything?r=evzeq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Sadly the rallying cry today is vote for my Party and we promise to ignore you
The Reform candidate for Sinfin, Derby describes voting Tory or Labour as choosing between one disgusting portaloo and another at an outdoor event. Deano’s patch would seem ripe for Reform UK if only they’d spend less time preaching to the converted like GBNews. I notice Alex Phillips and Belinda de Lucy are rising to the Party’s surface. Better looking than the rather moribund ex UKIP middle aged men usually seen, they have something to say. Sunak and Starmer have their speeches written for them and they are hardly eye candy.
There’s a reason Nigel Farage failed to get elected seven times, in apparently friendly seats, in apparently friendly times, and that’s because the majority of voters in every single constituency across the country are decent people. So, luckily, we will never see a NewKip MP.
Was he not elected as an MEP?
No. That’s not how the European Parliament Elections worked.
UK Members in the European Parliament 2014-2019
.
There are 73 UK MEPs. They are elected in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Other EU member states elect MEPs from their countries. European Elections take place every 5 years and the last elections were held on 23-26 May 2019.*
(*European Parliament
Liaison Office in the United Kingdom.)
No-one voted for any single individual, regions voted for parties, and MEPs came from a list. The turnout was low, much lower than in a General Election and susceptible to protest voting. My point was that no constituency in the country would want their town or whatever associated with Nigel Farage MP or any of his flying monkeys.
The fact that Nigel Farage failed to get elected 7 times says more about how simply rotten our electoral system has become.
When you think of some of the other morons who have been elected, the mind boggles. But if one the three degenerate major political Parties selects you, you are almost ‘home and dry’.
I rather see Farage as a later day Tom Paine, and likely, as you hint at, to suffer the very same fate.
As an aside you can understand the revulsion many feel for the EU when you read their epistle (above) about how our 73 MEP’s were ‘elected’.
Thank God we are rid of them.
ps: the remark “ any of his flying monkeys” was unnecessarily coarse and should have been left behind on ‘Twitter’, would you not agree?
I, on the other hand, see Farage as a massive fraud and the ultimate welfare Queen. 19 years ‘representing’ the South East of England and yet there is no piece of legislation, no report bearing his name. After the referendum he stayed as an MEP, taking taxpayers money, but spent most of his time in the US trying to get Trump to give him a job.
Brexit has made us poorer, more divided and with less global influence than ever before.
Why fraud? Deranged possibly, but NO fraud.
As a lone MEP it would have been simply astonishing if he had managed to enact a single piece of legislation would it not?
Brexit may have made ‘us’ temporarily slightly poorer, but the wretched COVID much more so.
As our ‘global influence ‘ that chimera vanished in 1916, and
jolly good too. We are not the worlds Charity Shop, and should stop luxuriating in our bogus grief.
A man who sells himself as a great patriot but shouts up the RA for £80? A man who stands on a fishing boat for a photo op but can’t be bothered to turn up for meetings of the EU committee where he’s meant to represent UK fishermen? A man who says he’s taking a sabbatical and goes off to the US but is still paid to represent the people of SE England? Not a fraud? We can agree to disagree on that.
Brexit has not delivered the benefits that were promised in the referendum and people are more and more aware they were deceived.
Even after the Second World War, even after Suez, Great Britain had a degree of soft power that has been increasingly squandered. Again we can agree to disagree as to whether this is a good thing.
Thanks for an amicable discussion.
Thanks for an amicable discussion.
A man who sells himself as a great patriot but shouts up the RA for £80? A man who stands on a fishing boat for a photo op but can’t be bothered to turn up for meetings of the EU committee where he’s meant to represent UK fishermen? A man who says he’s taking a sabbatical and goes off to the US but is still paid to represent the people of SE England? Not a fraud? We can agree to disagree on that.
Brexit has not delivered the benefits that were promised in the referendum and people are more and more aware they were deceived.
Even after the Second World War, even after Suez, Great Britain had a degree of soft power that has been increasingly squandered. Again we can agree to disagree as to whether this is a good thing.
Well said!
Why fraud? Deranged possibly, but NO fraud.
As a lone MEP it would have been simply astonishing if he had managed to enact a single piece of legislation would it not?
Brexit may have made ‘us’ temporarily slightly poorer, but the wretched COVID much more so.
As our ‘global influence ‘ that chimera vanished in 1916, and
jolly good too. We are not the worlds Charity Shop, and should stop luxuriating in our bogus grief.
Well said!
I, on the other hand, see Farage as a massive fraud and the ultimate welfare Queen. 19 years ‘representing’ the South East of England and yet there is no piece of legislation, no report bearing his name. After the referendum he stayed as an MEP, taking taxpayers money, but spent most of his time in the US trying to get Trump to give him a job.
Brexit has made us poorer, more divided and with less global influence than ever before.
The fact that Nigel Farage failed to get elected 7 times says more about how simply rotten our electoral system has become.
When you think of some of the other morons who have been elected, the mind boggles. But if one the three degenerate major political Parties selects you, you are almost ‘home and dry’.
I rather see Farage as a later day Tom Paine, and likely, as you hint at, to suffer the very same fate.
As an aside you can understand the revulsion many feel for the EU when you read their epistle (above) about how our 73 MEP’s were ‘elected’.
Thank God we are rid of them.
ps: the remark “ any of his flying monkeys” was unnecessarily coarse and should have been left behind on ‘Twitter’, would you not agree?
No-one voted for any single individual, regions voted for parties, and MEPs came from a list. The turnout was low, much lower than in a General Election and susceptible to protest voting. My point was that no constituency in the country would want their town or whatever associated with Nigel Farage MP or any of his flying monkeys.
UK Members in the European Parliament 2014-2019
.
There are 73 UK MEPs. They are elected in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Other EU member states elect MEPs from their countries. European Elections take place every 5 years and the last elections were held on 23-26 May 2019.*
(*European Parliament
Liaison Office in the United Kingdom.)
No. That’s not how the European Parliament Elections worked.
In 2015 UKIP under Farage won over 12% of the vote, putting them in 3rd place overall. Unfortunately for them their vote was evenly spread throughout the country so this translated as only winning a single seat out of 650.
By contrast the Tories won 330 seats on 36% (so 3x the vote won 330x the amount of seats) and the SNP won 56 seats on less than 5% of the vote.
It wasn’t Farage that kept UKIP out of parliament in their heyday, it was the electoral system
Was he not elected as an MEP?
In 2015 UKIP under Farage won over 12% of the vote, putting them in 3rd place overall. Unfortunately for them their vote was evenly spread throughout the country so this translated as only winning a single seat out of 650.
By contrast the Tories won 330 seats on 36% (so 3x the vote won 330x the amount of seats) and the SNP won 56 seats on less than 5% of the vote.
It wasn’t Farage that kept UKIP out of parliament in their heyday, it was the electoral system
There’s a reason Nigel Farage failed to get elected seven times, in apparently friendly seats, in apparently friendly times, and that’s because the majority of voters in every single constituency across the country are decent people. So, luckily, we will never see a NewKip MP.
The Reform candidate for Sinfin, Derby describes voting Tory or Labour as choosing between one disgusting portaloo and another at an outdoor event. Deano’s patch would seem ripe for Reform UK if only they’d spend less time preaching to the converted like GBNews. I notice Alex Phillips and Belinda de Lucy are rising to the Party’s surface. Better looking than the rather moribund ex UKIP middle aged men usually seen, they have something to say. Sunak and Starmer have their speeches written for them and they are hardly eye candy.
Excellent essay. Deano also represents a cohesive society where people are happy to pay their taxes to provide public services for their own communities. What we have at the moment is a gigantic welfare dependent class supported by a gigantic army of State employees, all of whom believe that, if only some far off “rich” people (not them, naturally) were forced to cough up more taxes, their problems would be solved.
Ahh… State employees real tax contribution is zero, as the tax that they ” pay” came from the tax payer and the gilt investor in the first place.
40% of all taxation is in any event wasted due to gross innefficiency- Lower taxes with individuals spending money into GNP/GDP, investment is far more efficient, but the majority of voters are too stupid to understand.
Ahh… State employees real tax contribution is zero, as the tax that they ” pay” came from the tax payer and the gilt investor in the first place.
40% of all taxation is in any event wasted due to gross innefficiency- Lower taxes with individuals spending money into GNP/GDP, investment is far more efficient, but the majority of voters are too stupid to understand.
Excellent essay. Deano also represents a cohesive society where people are happy to pay their taxes to provide public services for their own communities. What we have at the moment is a gigantic welfare dependent class supported by a gigantic army of State employees, all of whom believe that, if only some far off “rich” people (not them, naturally) were forced to cough up more taxes, their problems would be solved.
An excellent article. Both main parties have abandoned/mischaracterised the English ‘working class’. It’s time for something different, or perhaps a return to older values.
https://open.substack.com/pub/lowstatus/p/in-praise-of-populism?r=evzeq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Why isn’t anybody see the obvious?
The party who see this,will win.
And yes,I’m thinking of the White and working class people.
But it’s also clear signs that we don’t have much time left.
Why isn’t anybody see the obvious?
The party who see this,will win.
And yes,I’m thinking of the White and working class people.
But it’s also clear signs that we don’t have much time left.
An excellent article. Both main parties have abandoned/mischaracterised the English ‘working class’. It’s time for something different, or perhaps a return to older values.
https://open.substack.com/pub/lowstatus/p/in-praise-of-populism?r=evzeq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
The author is looking for Market Rasen. Deanoville.
Perhaps he flew English Electric F.6 Lightnings from nearby RAF Binbrook?
Perhaps he flew English Electric F.6 Lightnings from nearby RAF Binbrook?
The author is looking for Market Rasen. Deanoville.
Can Deano tap with a stick, ? Could offer him a job as a beater next shooting season?
Isn’t the NE a Coldstream recruiting area. Or is it perhaps Grenadier?
Coldstream
Coldstream
or perhaps whitening my Hunting boot garter straps?
Isn’t the NE a Coldstream recruiting area. Or is it perhaps Grenadier?
or perhaps whitening my Hunting boot garter straps?
Can Deano tap with a stick, ? Could offer him a job as a beater next shooting season?