General Chat

Eight key policies thanks to the D.T. So now we know what GH is on about. This is what UKIP wants:

UK to leave the EU.

Deport migrants

Legalise handguns

US Style NHS

Speak English on trains

Blow up wind farms

Make friends with Vladimir Putin

Bar HIV positive people and people with tuberculosis from the UK.

The DT omitted to say that UKIP also plan a flat rate of income tax of about 25%, no allowances.

It is a sobering thought that a majority of people in what looks and feels like a normal commuter town in SE England may support the above program.

Beggars belief - I could comment on what I actually think of UKIP but GR's T&C's restrict me from doing so ;-)

Sadly it does not 'beggar' my belief...I have known since day one that UKIP are merely the BNP in better suits. Anyone who can't see that is a sixpence short of a shilling ( IMNVHO).

PS I assume the 'speaking English on trains' isn't going to apply in Wales...because I'd be interested to see how that went down ;-)

I really hope no one is stupid enough to vote for them. What a disaster.

The motives of current UK politicians are not unquestionably superior to those of our primitive ancestors - or, at least, those few I have read about in my old school history books.

The Electorate of Rochester and Strood aren’t as daft as Rollo may think.

Yes, it’s possible that Reckless will get a majority, but on the other hand the total votes for the other candidates would out number his supporters.

Reading the online paper Kentonline, the majority of UKIPers are anti EU, uncontrolled EU immigration and illegal immigration from other parts of the world.

It’s difficult to disassociate Rochester and Strood from the Medway Authority as far as statistics are concerned.
http://www.medway.gov.uk/pdf/Census%20Report%20Final.pdf
shows that although the population born in the UK – which also includes 1st and 2nd generation Brits- is still a sizeable 89.6% in the 2011 census, that has decreased from 93.8% in 2001. Page 8 has some interesting stats for the ethnic distribution.
The increase of ‘not born in the UK’ numbers may be small, but a sizeable presence which would be obvious on a day-to-day basis. Those numbers are likely to have increased in the last 3 years.

One must also remember that the children of recent immigrants will not have English as their first language when they start Primary School, requiring funds to be diverted to support them.

According to this article dated 3 Sep 2014 (links within the page) http://tiny.cc/9yzkpx
“With 30 out of 65 primary and infant schools in Medway ranked either as requiring improvement or inadequate by Ofsted, 46% of children will be going to struggling schools”.

Page 11 http://tiny.cc/32ykpx shows the level of unemployment as at Oct 2014. From what I can make out, there is a small area which could be in the constituency at 20%.
The constituency boundaries are shown here http://tiny.cc/b4ykpx

The main Hospital Medway Maritime has areas of concern according to the QCA last report published 10 Jul 2014. http://tiny.cc/0bzkpx The Conservative led council are getting some of the stick for that.

As we all know, people don’t just live and work within their constituency boundaries – they are influenced by what is happening in the wider area.
A new Mosque has been given planning permission to be built on what is currently a Station Car Park next to Gillingham station. http://tiny.cc/9yzkpx
Posts on Media pages have expressed concern about the perceived positive discrimination of parking wardens when it comes to ticketing illegally parked cars around the current mosques during Friday prayers, and when a home game is on at the near by football ground at the weekend.

Around Rochester Cathedral the high street is very tourist orientated (and a nice place to mooch) even though there are a number of charity shops. However, the drive through Strood High Street is depressing with a number of boarded up shop fronts, Charity shops or discount stores.

While UKIPers won’t be looking at the party’s other policies, assuming Reckless is elected, please do try to understand why they have voted as such.

Come the General Election, hopefully one of the established parties will regain the seat.

NB - we don't live in Medway, nor would I vote for a UKIP candidate

Two of my cousins were born in Chatham and went to the Kings School from where they seem to have done ok! The latest generations are at the Gads School, Bryony and For Pitt. I have been told that primary schooling in the area is very poor and that it is a hot local issue. My rellies for sure blame it on the L.A. and the immigrant population. They are less than thrilled about having to fork out school fees.

What though would UKIP do about education if it got one of its sticky little fingers onto a lever of power through some sort of Tory/UKIP alliance in Westminster or the Local Authority ?

Going on their announcements (a) extreme laissez-faire, private schools for those that can pay, board school USA style for those that cannot and (b) forced deportation of the immigrants.

I suppose it is the second of these options that Mr Reckless is suggesting.

Teaching muslim children in a western setting is very difficult and demanding especially with low income families. The problem is not really language - children under 11 pick up languages rapidly and easily - but culture. First off many islamic families rate education for girls as of very low priority especially after 14. Secondly in the west we are used to an open enquiring sort of education. The islamic system tends to a prescriptive rote based approach careful not to offend age old tenets.

It is not very difficult to see that it will take a great deal more than OFTSED reports to sort out the cultural train wreck. UKIPs approach of denial/delete is hardly constructive.

If - as seems likely - UKIP wins this by election it will not only be very damaging for the Tories but feed an alien cancer spreading through British politics from Glasgow to Margate.

Has Mr Polly fallen off his trolley? Maybe.

Wreckless Turncoat Reckless - vote him 'out'.

For those who aren't aware

Kings School, Rochester, Gads Hill and Bryony are all fee paying schools. KIngs has an excellent reputation.
Bursaries are available for Kings and Gads - tbh, never heard of Bryony before.

Fort Pitt is an LEA Grammar school.

As an interesting aside, a substitute teacher at an LEA school many moons ago commented about what he considered the poor behaviour of some ESN students.
"It would never happen at King's"
When asked what happened to fee paying students with similar behavioural problems? As far as he was concerned they were told to leave, where to he neither knew or cared.
Hopefully their pastoral system has improved since then.
...........

There will always be scapegoats in society - at the moment it is immigrants and EU legislation. The main political parties have failed to address the fears of the general population who see what is going on in their neighbourhood or is what is reported in the popular press.
Raise a query and they are labelled as Racist.
It's only recently that Lib/Lab/Con have started to address the issues.

UKIP has given them a platform to express their concerns. Remember Gordon Brown and his Bigot comment? It is also a 'new' untried party - I'd suggest that any number of voters are disillusioned with Lab and Con. At the last GE they gave the Libs a chance...but that hasn't worked out either. In the unlikely event that UKIP held the balance of power, they wouldn't do any better.

Yes Reckless is likely to be voted in. However, the total number of votes for other parties will probably out number his.

Well here is current UKIP education policy from the horses mouth.

http://www.ukip.org/paul_nuttall_a_better_education_system_for_a_better_britain

Nothing in it that I can see which would help in Rochester. So why vote for them ? Maybe the implied threat to remove all immigrant children from the education system? If so, how?

Why vote them in?

Because they are an alternative to Lib, Lab or Con. The result would be a kick up the backside to the established parties as per the normal bi-election results.

Its highly unlikely that their supporters would look at other policies. Apart from the hardened few, it will be a protest vote.

From your link
"Open door immigration has caused the number of children being taught in classes, to breach the 30 limit. This has doubled in five years, and there will soon be 2 children fighting for every 1 place at the more popular primary schools."

So invest in more schools and teachers!!

Actually - some (not all) of it sounds quite good. If it was workable. The section about Primary education wouldn't help the system in Medway.

They wouldn't be able to push any of their policies through unless they had overall majority in a House of Commons

'It is heartening to note that these islands and, more importantly, their way of life, are so popular that they are now the No.1 EU destination for migrants from outside the EU'.

* Part of a comment in today's Times letter section. UKIP will be seething!