Posted on 04/09/2006 2:09:03 PM PDT by NZerFromHK
David Cameron yesterday branded the UK Independence Party "a bunch of fruitcakes and loonies and closet racists".
His apparently spontaneous remarks are the Tories' most outspoken attack on the Eurosceptic party. Michael Howard, Mr Cameron's predecessor, dismissed them in 2004 as "cranks and political gadflies".
Mr Cameron's comments, in an LBC radio interview, came a day after Ukip threatened to use Freedom of Information laws to force the Tories to disclose the names of people behind £5 million of loans hastily repaid to the party.
Despite threats of legal action from Ukip leaders, Mr Cameron refused to back down and went further on the offensive. "I don't think I'm saying anything that hasn't been said before," he said on a visit to Leeds.
Mr Cameron - whose press aide, George Eustice, was a Ukip European parliamentary candidate in 1999 - also claimed that Alan Sked, Ukip's founding member, "left the party because he thought they had been infiltrated by the far-Right".
The Tories later issued a list of alleged links between Ukip and the far-Right British National Party. Ukip leaders were last night consulting lawyers over whether a political party could collectively sue for libel.
Nigel Farage, Ukip's leader in the European Parliament, dismissed the Tory allegations out of hand and demanded an apology from Mr Cameron.
He said: "For Mr Cameron to resort to this combination of petty name-calling and disgraceful smears is hardly a statesmanlike approach for someone who hopes to become the next-but-one Prime Minister.
"We are a non-racist, non-sectarian party whose offence, in Mr Cameron's eyes, has been to attempt to force his party to disclose its sources of finance."
Mr Farage, who secured a correction from The Times in 1999 for claiming that he had had contact with BNP political extremists, added: "He should apologise, not just to us, but to the 2.7 million voters who supported us in the European elections in 2004. We have a sense of humour but we draw the line at his accusation." Ukip, which has only 20,000 members, is a lesser threat to the Tories now than in 2004 when it came third in the European Parliament election with 16.1 per cent of the vote.
But despite polling only 2.3 per cent of the vote at the last General Election, Ukip claims it prevented the Tories from winning 26 more seats. There appeared to be mixed reactions last night on the ConservativeHome.com website, with one applauding Mr Cameron for "showing some edge".
But a South-West Tory warned that at the rate he was going, the Cameron-led Tory party would be "concentrated around tavernas and wine bars in Notting Hill".
As opposed to the Tories, who have been taken over by closet homosexuals?
According to Helen Szamuely at Albion's Seedlings ( http://anglosphere.com/weblog/archives/000312.html ) and a Briton herself, the UKIP's policy platform consists of:
1) Opposition to Britain's continuing membership in the European Union
2) lower and simpler taxation
3) choice in health and education
4) controlled immigration
And Tony Cameron DENY each and every single item listed. This shows what this chap stands politically.
He needs to expand the vocabulary. 'Fruitcakes' and 'loonies' are cliches. I'd suggest 'dwarves', 'pygmies' and 'mental [or moral, or both] defecatives'. The added 'a' in 'defecatives' could be handled in untraceable way, if not committed to writing - and even then be blamed on an editor.
Sounds like a sloppy smear job - and he had motive:
"Mr Cameron's comments, in an LBC radio interview, came a day after UKIP threatened to use Freedom of Information laws to force the Tories to disclose the names of people behind £5 million of loans hastily repaid to the party."
What is the worse evidence against them being skin-head types?
I think a breakout for that organization would require a dynamic, charismatic leader.
The real skinhead types vote for the BNP and the UKIP would be considered conservative Republicans had they been American. This is like the standard smears the MSMs deployed on Ronald Reagan when Gipper was in the White House. ("Reagan is a Nazi far-right extremist!" etc)
Political leader attacks rival party, who tend to be competing for similar votes in many areas. Wow, who'd have thought it?
"And Tony Cameron DENY each and every single item listed. This shows what this chap stands politically."
I presume you mean David Cameron? And when did that happen then? Presumably you have links showing him opposing lower and simpler taxation, choice in health and education and controlled immigration? You can have number 1...
A year ago I thought that the Canadian Conservatives were a lost cause, too. But along came Stephen Harper, and that made all the difference.
RE: "1) Opposition to Britain's continuing membership in the European Union
2) lower and simpler taxation
3) choice in health and education
4) controlled immigration"
Strange that Ukip's platform sounds EXACTLY like what a conservative party should be endorsing in the first place, yet the Tories are whining about it like it was the second coming of Mussolini. Jealousy, perhaps?
Cameron sounds like a wimp and a coward, and lacks the vision and initiative necessary to change things for the better in the UK today. They called people like him "wets" in Thatcher's time, and you know what happened to the wets when they got too far out of line? Thatcher soaked them up. Beware, Cameron...your days will be numbered if the Conservatives can manage to find anyone within their ranks that can revitalize the spirit of the '80's.
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