Oh what exclusive tidings I bring you this Sunday morning. Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Conservative mayoral candidates might as well give up the fight, for a titan of the right is entering the London mayoral fray. Yes, Garry Bushell has put his name forward as the candidate for the English Democrats. He will formally launch his campaign in early July. I'll just get my coat...Bushell has already chosen his campaign slogan - SERIOUS ABOUT LONDON. It seems he will have plenty of time to spend on his campaign because I hear that TalkSport are about to can his radio show and offer it to .... well, I couldn't possibly reveal that, could I?
I love it when these professional "men of the people" types stand for public office. They invariably get an absolute drubbing - and a lesson in humility at the same time.
ReplyDeleteLooks like it's Ken then!
ReplyDeleteIt's Time
ReplyDeletefor the English Democrats
you normal party types are in for a shock
Garry Bushell will be the Anti-Ken candidate.
ReplyDeleteHe's a Londoner and talks a lot of sense.
Gary Bushell is a member of Mensa - fact. I heard a rumour that he was offered Prof Hawking's job but he turned it down in favour of a career in tabloid journalism. I've also heard that he secretly advises the G8 on economics.
ReplyDeleteDon't underestimate him!
Dear Iain,
ReplyDeleteThe English Democrats would welcome all "trad tories" to our fold and we would also welcome any patriot from any party who is sick of the " big three" pro EU parties!
callmedave and his NUCON mob are a nonstarter! The LIBDUMS are non entities! NULAB are just scheming crooks!
So who on earth is going to halt the decline and fall of England? Which party can unite the silent majority of England?
Simply put, a vote for the big three is a vote for the death of England.
At least they have a candidate
ReplyDeleteWill Bushell form a pact with the BNP or will they just split the Neanderthal vote between them?
ReplyDeleteAnother former Trot International Socialist......surprised Dave hasn't co-opted him
ReplyDeleteWho is Gary Bushell?
ReplyDeleteI thought the Mayor should not be a Big Party politician but a celeb from the media. I suggested an ex-Spice Girl. What the hell. Why not a radio presenter? It would get democracy warmed up again from its current feeble state, as Kilroy Silk did for a while.
ReplyDeleteSmall parties have a role. They can exert more influence than their number of supporters would suggest.
For example, the Referendum, Party ensured all parties copied the offer of a referendum on the Euro.
And UKIP was the first to offer a referendum on the Constitution. That levered Michael Howard, then Blair, then Chirac.
This process helps the leaders of the big parties, because the big parties are often internally divided about policy on big issues like England's place in the world. If a small party gets a head of steam behind a campaigning idea, that usually pressures the big parties to follow suit.
If too many small parties get established (they now have 16% of the vote compared to 8% 10 years ago) they could start to defeat themselves by helping their political enemies. UKIP supposedly blocked the Conservatives from maybe 30 seats in 2005, and helped the LD's to win 10.
Ultimately only a Conservative majority can deliver on UKIP's policies.
The small parties win in Britain by moving the policies of the big parties. If they begin to erode the big parties, in a First Past The Post System, the small party can lose influence and no longer be of use as they destroy their own vehicle.
Under PR, small parties are more easily excluded and ignored. The ruling coalitions usually exclude the small parties. That's why Britain stands outside the Euro, and Germany for instance does not, where the vast majority of Germans did not want to lose the D Mark.
Small parties should demand to keep First Past The Post, and set themselves the limited objective of levering the big parties. Goldsmith understood this. Once the Referendum Party had levered the others to promise the referendum, the party disbanded.
He is a former left winger.
ReplyDeleteAnd one of the Sun Reader favourite ever columnists even now.
Doesn't he spell his name Garry Bushell (with two Rs)?
ReplyDeleteAnd why do you spell your friend Louise Bagshawe's name without an "e" on the end of it on your masthead?
Sorry to be pendantic but I was taught that if you spell someone's name wrong in the first sentence then you undermine the credibility of your story.
A numpty candidate for a numpty party. He has substantially less chance than Jodie Marsh of actually winning even though he has bigger tits.
ReplyDeleteSurely the interesting point is who is going to be on talk Sport Mr Dale. Come on - fess up!!
ReplyDeleteAnd one of the Sun Reader favourite ever columnists even now.
ReplyDeleteWasn't their a story a while ago about the Sun doing a reader survey to find out who was their most popular columnist, and it was Bushell despite the fact that he had left two years earlier.
Who on earth would wish to vote for the candidate of a party whose aim is to build a society which accommodates the interests of all the people of England in an enlightened, non-racist and democratic way, believing that good politics is a matter of good judgement and pragmatic decision-making within the bounds of general principles and objectives? (Extracted from
ReplyDeletehttp://www.englishdemocrats.org.uk )
What an intriguing choice. Gary Bushell is certainly the type of candidate who could draw the worst out of Red Ken.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it would do any harm to see the English Democrats get a foothold in local politics either.
Go Garry Go!
TalkSport jabber jabber... Iain's new mate Alistair Campbell?!
ReplyDeleteAren't the Eng Dems a sort of BNPlite? Fascists'R'Us!
ReplyDelete"TV Personality "
ReplyDeleteYou suggesting there's a woman in there? But wheres the personality?
Dear Annon 3.57,
ReplyDeleteEr no, NULABOUR is now the BNP lite! They have stolen most of the BNPs ideas and passed them off as their own. They can do this as they have got their "brownshirt scum" ie searchlight/UAF to blackmail and bully all media outlets so they dont carry any BNP information! Anti democratic ways for an anti democratic party.
I think you have the wrong end of the stick - surely you mean the TV guy Peter Bazalgette ?? At least he might introduce a novel policy on immigration - 'Who stays, who goes, YOU decide..'
ReplyDeleteCharlotte C: what, pray is "pendantic"?
ReplyDeleteThe sound you hear is that of you being hoist by your own pe(n)tard.
It is quite possible to be a membber of Mensa and a complete eejit at one and the same time.
ReplyDeleteBTW, doesn't Bushell have some well-documented links to neo-Nazi skinhead "Oi!" bands? Skrewdriver, anyone?
The English Democrats? Garry Bushell.
ReplyDeleteWow! 1.5% here we come! No doubt Christine Constable will trumpet her policy as being "the wishes of England", despite the fact that, er, 98.5% of the population will vote against her candidate.
Hmmm.
ReplyDeleteThe English Democrats raison d'etre is an English Parliament. Devolution to London has been popular. An English Parliament might undermine regional government for London, particularly as the English Democrats seem to want to base local government on the traditional counties.
His last two elections (Greenwich & Woolwich and South Staffs) polled 3.4 and 2.51% respectively. Not a huge threat, I feel.
Does anyone know what will happen with UKIP and One London? It does seem that there might be three parties fighting for the 'to the right of the Tories' vote (and I don't mean that to mean fascist or anything like that - I just mean to the right of the Tories).
xD.
I'd vote for Garry Bushell. We need a populist anti-Ken candidate. None of the frankly libellous far-right slurs here have any basis in fact. He's an ex-socialist, oi was largely socialist, he hated skrewdriver who hated him. Besides if we go back 25 years who was Ken in bed with?
ReplyDelete