Well that wasn't a bad morning's canvassing. It seems that so-called 'shy Tories' have been replaced by 'shy Libdems'. Not a single person told me on the doorstep that they were voting Libdem. A good number said they hadn't made up their minds, which actually means they're voting for the yellow peril, but no one proudly declaimed that they were going to do so.
Perhaps of more interest was the overt hostility towards Gordon Brown, particularly among women voters. They really cannot stand him. A couple of people said they could never vote for a Scot as PM while others said he had ruined their pensions.
Fakenham is a LibDem stronghold so I am not expecting miracles here, but the fact that one of the four Libdem candidates doesn't live in the town and another is away at university won't help their cause, I suspect.
Good luck to Roy, Roy, John and Theo on May 3rd. And now I am heading off for a pleasant afternoon on Holkham beach. Over and out!
48 comments:
As a Scot I find voters indicating that they won't vote for Brown purely because he's Scottish deeply offensive.
There's absolutely no reason why Brown shouldn't be the PM of the UNITED KINGDOM, any more than a Welshman, an Ulsterman or an Englishman.
If this is a widely held view in England, little wonder the Nationalists are so far ahead in the polls in Scotland.
I hope what these people mean is they don't want Brown leading a government which maintains a situation where Scottish MPs can vote through England-specific bills. In that case I completely sympathise.
Hopefully there will soon be some effort to deal with the West Lothian question and this kind of ugly English nationalism - which seems have been on the rise for the last 10 years - will wither and die.
Otherwise, the Union is pretty much doomed.
My wife and her friends can abide Gordon Brown (and Miliband) "He makes my skin creep" is pretty much a universal response from all the women I meet. They shoot left-wing voters in my area, so sadly their opnions won't make a dent in the election results.
Marginal swing voters in the UK seem to be women these days whose socio-emotional reactions determine the outcome of an election. Forget reason, it's the love factor that determines the winner in the UK. Tony's election chances bowed out with his forelock. So much for democracy.
And how many told you they vote by secret ballot?
And that by the very asking, some think you abuse that process!
Such time would be better spent summarising policies (especially those different from your competitors) and past good decisions.
Best regards
The news that Norfolk folk in this Lib Dem/Tory battleground won't be voting for Brown as PM will send shudders round the eaves of Number 10, Number 11, and a good part of Dunfermline and East Fife. Thanks for revealling this secret intelligence Iain.
Javelin: can abide? Shome mishtake? Otherwise they have a funny way of showing their affection.
The contempt for Gordon Brown is quite stark isn't it? People seem to enjoy expressing hate for him. What are the Labour Party thinking of sacrificing themselves for his ambition ? It's quite perverse.
Gordon Brown inspires a visceral dislike in women . It's quite startling.
The bit that great about all this is that Brown is a disaster for Labour (and their Lib Dem pals - ref: Ming's willingness to only support Labour for coalition ).
We all, and you in particular, keep pointing this out to the lefties, but they are stuck in some strange sort of denial.
Hence not only do we get to win the next general election - but we can add in a chorus of we told you so too !
did you venture out as far as Sculthorpe, Iain?
"A couple of people said they could never vote for a Scot as PM"
Replace Scot with "Black", "Jew" or "homosexual".
Would you have felt their views were worth reporting, Iain?
Women loathe a man for two reasons
1,They think that he is an arrogant self reguarding shit but Deep down want to shag him.
2, They sense that he is a peculiar not nice to be around effing weirdo who couldnt be trusted around children or pets.
Make your own minds up as to which category gordon falls into.
Oh and Women prefer men who know where the shower is and what its for.
Javelin said "Marginal swing voters in the UK seem to be women these days whose socio-emotional reactions determine the outcome of an election. Forget reason, it's the love factor that determines the winner in the UK."
Ah, so that's the rason Alex the Salmon is doing so well in Scotland. The answer to every question can be found on Iain Dale is you delve deep enough :-)
The Mail went to town today on promoting the Bogey Man.
After her usual bit of poison about Cameron, Amanda Platell describes Brown as substantial and principled.
Remember Platell? She's the half-wit who persuaded William Hague to wear a baseball cap at the Notting Hill Carnival, to universal derision.
Worse; there is a nauseating two page feature on Cyclops by Mary Ridell, no doubt ordered by Brown's mucker Paul Dacre. Ostensibly it's about Brown's JFK copycat book about courageous people. I'm sorry, but I couldn't bear to read the article after seeing the sub heading: "I started the book right after jennifer died".
It would need a heart of stone.....
...particularly among women voters. They really cannot stand him...
Taht's really rather interesting and is not wholly different from the Sarkozy thing.
Don't usually agree with The Hitch - but he's right on the money this time (4.59 posting). Can't stand Gordon Brown, strikes me as being a liar and a coward (always somewhere else when solids strike airconditioning), and this wrapping himself in the Union flag is nauseating, plus his personal habits (nose picking at PMQs) are repulsive.
For the first Anon at 2.09pm & Danny at 4.58pm - it's not voting for a Scot I object to, but voting for someone who represents a Scottish constituency - ie, not accountable to the voters of England. Someone who cheerfully forces through legislation in England which doesn't apply to Scotland, so his own constituents aren't affected by it and therefore less likely to throw him out.
Destroying the private pension system hasn't endeared him to me, either.
And West Ham won 1-0, just to make your day.
Went out with Tory candidate Geoffrey Brooking in Lincoln the other night.
As if Labour were not already worried the local MP is now going around with Cabinet Ministers.
Iain, I hate to rain on your parade, but two Liub Dems in 2003 didn't live in the Town and they beat one of your Roys (who was then a County Councillor for the Town as well as District Councillor).
Last time you canvassed Fakenham you put on your blog about how many switchers you had coming to you from the Lib Dems, that seems to be missing this time.
Oh, and one of the Lib Dem who is at Uni finishes her studeies in a few weeks. Presumably we should be asking questions about Norwich UEA students standing for the Tories ?
Hope you enjoyed Holkham, just a shame your team beat mine this afternoon !
From one of the current councillors for Fakenham
I don't think we have to make personal attacks on Gordon Brown to express our desire to see him and the rest of his party back in Opposition.
At the time I remember ordinary folks hailing his decision to give the Bank of England independence on interest rates. I was derided by friends and colleagues for saying forget that - Ken Clarke was edging towards that with "Steady Eddy" and it would have happened if the Tories had been re-elected. Instead, I said we will pay dearly for all his social re-engineering plans. OK it's taken 10 years but that is exactly what's happening now. And people are just waking up to it.
But for the record, my wife has always thought he was awful. But she swears she doesn't fancy him!
Iain, this is off-topic, but I think important for your readership.
I have had you in my RSS reader for as long as you've had a feed, and it drives me nuts that you only provide a partial text feed. As a result, I read a lot less of you than I would like to, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that. Please consider offering a full feed.
You may be interested in this from well-known blogger Scoble, which outlines some advantages of full feeds to the blogger.
Norfolk Blogger either has the DTs or should spell check his postings.
It's a worrying thought that our children are being taught by people like this.
And it seems he supports Everton as well...
Is there any lost cause that he doesn't get behind? No wonder he's a Liberal.
Iain, can you tell these geek-a-thons going on about 'rss' readers [whatever they are] that if they surfed into your site, they would see everything you had to say and wouldn't miss a thing !
Broon's decision to give the BofE independence has been the most overrated economic decision in history. The only reason people have praised it so much is because we've had fairly low inflation compared with our past, but so have lots of countries around the world, not all of whom have independent central banks. What it has undoubtedly meant is that the strain of politicians' meddling in the economy has been taken by fiscal policy not monetary policy: i.e. Brown has rigged taxation and public spending to buy votes, hence we have a big budget deficit at the top (or near it) of an economic cycle. (NB that excludes all the Enron-style off-balance sheet financing that Broon has engaged in).
As far as him picking his nose or biting his nails is concerned, I wouldn't care if he had doubled the value of pensions, or cut taxes, rather than reducing the former and raising the latter. As it is, Labour is voting for suicide by apparently selecting a man with no charisma, no courage and no political judgement. His only good political quality is that he can command the House of Commons, but then if that were enough to win elections, Hague would have won the landslide in '01, not Blair.
pj
You're the man! Blood!
I was campaigning in Sheffield last weekend and just after I knocked on someone's door, I saw that they had a barely noticeable Liberal Democrat pamphlet cut out and stuck in their window. They claimed they were solid Labour, nailed to the mast, so I humoured them. I wondered myself, just why was he so embarrassed about it, especially if he has a Lib Dem pamphlet up? Weirdo. Still, there's no point trying to explain Lib Dems...
noel
You're not de man! Non blood!
I had the pleasant experience of baiting a Scotsman in de Hems tonight who accepted self-determination for scotland but would not transfer the same privilege to the Orkneys or Shetlands. He muttered some evil nonsense about abiding by the will of the majority.
Would oil undermine their principled allegiance to democracy? If they pass a consultative referendum on independence under a Tory administration, I hope that we have the courage to allow the Orkneys and Shetlands a chance to stay outside the United Scottish Soviet Republic. An amendment in the enabling bill would suffice, with corroborating referenda.
PJ
are you the same pj who worked/s for jonny corporate? Did your son attempt a monty don in the loft?
either way your are bang on and i cant wait to see the labour party implode.
Iain,
I can confirm your findings after a house hunting visit to Fakenham, Wells, Holt etc over the past few days.
I think the real question is what is going to emerge from wreckage of the NuLab implosion. NuLab are utterly unelectable as a result of Bliar and Broon, people are either embarrassed that they have EVER voted Labour and I simply cannot find anyone who will admit to intending to vote for them in sunny norfolk. Most people are sickened by the corruption, lies and total lack of humanity shown by Labour. The NHS and migrant stories are playing very badly against NuLab it seems in my discussions with locals (given they have already discounted them as an electoral option/force).
The death of NuLab was confirmed for me by the appalling performance of Hilary Benn on Any Questions. I am staggered that even he, the son of a highly principled and widely admired politician, could be corrupted by NuLab. His views on Iraq were frankly immoral, his pensions comment idiotic and he came across as an insincere wanker- something I never imagined I would/could ever accuse someone with that surname of in my lifetime. If that is the level they now operate at they will be lucky to hold a lead over the Libdems on a % of national vote. i thought Hilary Benns performance was offensive.
I see the Brownites are sticking the knife into Miliband. Piece in the "Mail on Sunday" about how young David took advantage of Inheritance Tax avoidance schemes to inherit his father's £1 million+ house.
Personally, I had no idea that being a Marxist academic was so lucrative.
The first post here complains of 'ugly English nationalism'. I seem to remember that during the World Cup the Scots murdered one man and beat up a small boy just because they were supporters of England. No-one in England has yet been killed or beaten up for being Scottish. So when it happens just remember - you started it.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article1687490.ece
from this morning's Times...
wonderful!
Iain, I don't think you've ever reported a canvassing session which didn't end with everyone being a Tory. Happily for the people of North Norfolk, it's what they actually vote for and not what they tell you ojn the doorstep that counts.
That didn't fit, so let's try this link:
http://tinyurl.com/34hwz2
Don't underestimate the extent of the moral and political dilemma for Lib Dems these days, Ian. A significant proportion of Lib Dems are now former Lib Dem supporters and genuinely uncertain about who to vote for.
Many of us who believe it's our moral and civic duty to vote are so sickened by corruption in political life and mendacious politicians that we no longer know who to vote for at either national or local level.
I'm gobsmacked by the volatility of my political allegiance these days. I continually bounce to and fro between devout Cameronian, ballot paper spoiler and even Lib Dems returner. I've never in my life been in this horribly uncertain position and never felt so conflicted about my political allegiance.
The wishy washy Lib Dems used to be an easy way out for those of us who are totally repelled by political corruption. We could do our civic duty by voting for them, safe in the knowledge that this, apparently, slightly more ethical party would never win power in most constituencies.
Now, however, the Lib Dems are tainted with mendacity at national level and by collusive deals with nulab which betrayed their community politics ideals at local level. The prospect of a mendacious nulab-Lib Dem pact nightmare in Government is very real too.
I still haven't a clue whether I shall vote or spoil my ballot paper on polling day, let alone who vote to for if I do vote. I suspect I'll make up mind at the very last moment.
Auntie Flo'
"A couple of people said they could never vote for a Scot as PM"
That's a bit racist, isn't it?
I presume these are the same people who could never vote for a homosexual as their MP, which is why you lost to Norman Lamb by over 10,000 votes in what had been the Tories' number one target seat with a Lib Dem maority of less than 1,000?
And anonymous at 9:36am, no one was murdered for supporting England. Don't lie! And are you seriosuly telling me that no one anywhere in England has ever been assaulted for wearing the "wrong" football shirt? Somehow I doubt it.
Iain, do you think the Tories will try to reverse Gordon Brown's decision to turn Britain into a tax haven for dodgy foreign billionaires, money laundering gangsters and spivvy businessmen?
As the IMF brands Britain a tax haven, Gordon Brown has to defend himself against claims the rules favour the super-wealthy, writes Nick Mathiason
Sunday April 22, 2007
The Observer
The International Monetary Fund has effectively branded Britain a tax haven. The world's most important financial organisation last week published a working paper seeking a definition of offshore financial centres. For the very first time it ranked Britain alongside the likes of Bermuda and the Cayman Islands - unregulated jurisdictions associated with illicit funds....
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2062543,00.html
Forget canvassing in Fakenham, Dullsville...[yawn].
It is Sunday, Mr Dale, and it's sleaze we are after, pure unadulterated sleaze...
Sleaze, even if it is 'second-hand'..
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=FDXSVGBYN2LAZQFIQMFCFFWAVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/2007/04/22/nhons22.xml
For the benefit of anonymous 9.41AM & 9.42AM (and anybody else)
If you type:
This is <a href="http://tinyurl.com/34hwz2">my link</a>.
you get:
This is my link.
Anon 11:26 said:
"A couple of people said they could never vote for a Scot as PM"
That's a bit racist, isn't it?
I presume these are the same people who could never vote for a homosexual as their MP"
It's not a question of racism, it's a question of self preservation for the people of England. We have learned not to elect a Scots PM or government again in response to the appalling discrimination inflicted on those of us in England - whether English or not - by a government with Scots in most of the top jobs.
English taxes have been pillaged to fund exemplary levels of Scottish services and education, while England's sick and elderly, even cancer sufferers have been denied the exemplary care and treatment that's routinely funded for Scotland. England's students are either kept out of HE or saddled with huge debts by Scots MPs - who voted for elitist services and higher education for Scotland. England's health service and education system has been pauperised and our public services near bankrupted in an attempt by nulab to buy votes in Scotland.
Even worse, nulab have effectively tried to ethnically cleanse the English out of existence by smearing the words 'England' and 'English' as racist terms. Those of us who object to this racist attack on us are smeared as 'Little Englanders' - the only racist expression which is still legal in UK. And nulab have attempted to divide and rule the people of England by splitting us up into regional factions, setting us against each other in a dog eat dog fight for funding and services.
In view of all of that, why are you surprised that the people of England have woken up to this scandalous discrimination against us by the Scots Mafia clique posing as our national government and are fighting back?
Auntie Flo'
"Hopefully there will soon be some effort to deal with the West Lothian question and this kind of ugly English nationalism"
Errr....If English nationalism is ugly does that make Scottish Nationalism something out of the shop of horrors????
anon, 14:05
If you'd actually read my post, rather than selectively editing it, you'd see that I was suggesting that this "ugly English nationlism" was directly caused by the government not dealing with the West Lothian question.
I WANT democracy for England. Most Scots do. We lived with the UK parliament voting through _specifically Scottish_ legislation for 290 years. England suffering the same situation in reverse is just as unacceptable.
And I don't hear any Scottish Nationalists saying it's unacceptable for an Englishman to be PM of the United Kingdom. (Perhaps because the Scots understand that the Union is SUPPOSED to be a partnership of equals).
realpolitk:
thanks for tip!
Anonymous 2.28pm
I've just checked and I now realise that the disabled driver who was pulled from his car in Aberdeen and punched and kicked about the head did not in fact die. So that's all right then.
"They think that he is an arrogant self reguarding shit but Deep down want to shag him."
Tell me about it.
Get this all the time.
"I presume these are the same people who could never vote for a homosexual as their MP, which is why you lost to Norman Lamb by over 10,000 votes in what had been the Tories' number one target seat with a Lib Dem maority of less than 1,000?"
It's very sad to say this, but unfortunately, I think this *is* the reason Iain lost so heavily in Norfolk North.
They are not the most.. erm.. cosmpolitan? of people in Norfolk. Believe me.
Iain should have toned it down to win there.
From what I hear, he "toned it up", which was about the worst thing he could have done.
Horses for courses and all that..
Hilary Benn battered at the Unison conference, this is the depth of NuLep unpopularity. If a 'decent' (NuLep adjusted) minister cannot even defend their record on the NHS without heckling from trade unionists then it really is curtains for the Labour Party.
John McDonnell/Cruddas/Meacher should pull out of the NuLep races and start a new party in my opinion. The idea that NuLep can recover from this parlous state is fanciful. Brown/Bliar/Goldsmith/Jowell/Blears/Straw/Prescott/Browne/Hewitt/Levy/Turner/Powell/Hain/Beckett etc are so totally busted in terms of credibility with the public why would you bother with it?
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