What I did on my holidays (By QM Twoflower) #1

Now normally QM would have nothing to do with a Muslim country, I avoid islam as I would avoid bubonic plague. That said... QM is a history buff and Egypt is the largest archaeological site in the world and I really wanted to see with my own eyes just what was there.
So, QM and Lady QM set off for Egypt and a Nile cruise...
We arrived late at Luxor airport, nearly midnight Egyptian time and the first thing you notice when you get off the plane is the heat, at 24 degrees, it was much hotter in the middle of the night than it was in the height of summer last year. It's also a dry heat too, none of that muggy heat that means a mega sweat in the UK just before a thunder storm.

MS Royal Viking our ship for a week

The first thing we found was that we had been upgraded to a five star ship which because it was much bigger did not seem that much of an upgrade, however passenger numbers were low at 22 rather than the normal 60, so it worked out pretty fine for us.

Our first full day took us to the Valley of the kings and this was where we discovered the delights of Egyptians desperate to sell us stuff, fortunately they don't mind being completely blanked, although I did pick up a few good (to me) deals. I didn't mind paying a little over the odds, this is a third world country after all and they had suffered due to their so called revolution and a bunch of religious yahoos bollixing it up totally for the population by driving off the tourist trade.

Dry and hot

 The tombs themselves were impressive, the dry atmosphere having preserved most of the original artwork, though taking pictures inside was forbidden.
We then visited the temple of Hapshetsup or hot chicken soup as some seemed to call it. This had been carved out of the solid rock of the mountains and was seriously impressive.

Hapshetsup temple

We then visited the Valley of the Queens (and nobles) and headed back to the boat to view the Colossus of Memnon en route.

The certainly did them big.

Back at the boat we discovered that Egypt was famous for something other than Pharaohs, seems the Egyptians invented beer...

And bloody good it was too, bar prices were roughly that of the UK too and yes we drank loads. Egypt also produces some wine too, I can't recommend the white too much, though the rosé and the red were reasonably palatable.
One of the things you do notice about Egypt is the poverty, though the people seem happy enough and the ones we met not terribly religious at all, though the mosques were certainly giving it some five times a day. Turned out Luxor though was 50/50 muslim/Christian and the usual extremists were petty much all in Cairo making a mess of running the country. Everyone we met believed the ex president Hosni Mubarak to be a corrupt old man and were glad to be shot of him, but, they also though the muslim brotherhood were a disgusting bunch of cretins as since they took over power cuts were a regular thing and there were fuel shortages throughout the land too.
Seems they exchanged one crook for a whole new set of crooks and our guide expected another revolution within a year to drive them out.

Hypocrisy

Some 1200 extra officers were on the streets to apparently protect the command and control centres of the islamic barbarians today. Makes you wonder where they can get these from and yet have to wait 20 mins before coming to get the said islamic barbarians who behead an innocent man on the streets.
Mail.

More than 1,200 additional police officers took to the streets last night amid heightened fears of further violence targeted at the Muslim community by far-Right groups.
Officers were guarding 'key locations' in London, including religious venues and transport hubs, Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner Mark Rowley said.
Leave for officers has been cancelled following ugly scenes in Woolwich involving the English Defence League and a spate of attacks on mosques elsewhere in England on Wednesday night.
English Defence League supporters clashed with police near Woolwich Arsenal railway station just hours after the bloody attack on Lee Rigby. A group of around 250 men gathered at The Queen's Arms pub in Burrage Road, where they sang nationalist songs.
The mob then began throwing missiles at police officers, who responded with baton charges, witnesses said.
Elsewhere, a 43-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of attempted arson and possession of an offensive weapon after walking into a mosque with a knife and an explosive device in Braintree, Essex.
The secretary of the mosque, Sikander Saleemy, said it was 'some sort of revenge attack'. He added: 'We absolutely condemn what happened in Woolwich, but it had nothing to do with us.
'It was an appalling act of terror – but it wasn't Islamic in any way. I wish it wasn't described like that, because sadly people will now start to blame Muslims.'

Ok, point 1) The EDL do not target mosques, never have, never will despite a lot of claims to the contrary, the only people convicted of targeting a mosque at an EDL demo were actually members of the UAF.
Point 2) Beheading and slitting the throat of a victim is an islamic method, despite the denial from the mosque secretary, people are blaming muslims because IT WAS MUSLIMS THAT DID IT!
Point 3) The Mail is a bit coy (downright lying) about what happened in Woolwich with the EDL, the police attempted to physically move on a peaceful demo with their batons and were then attacked because of this, not the other way round despite the weird witness claim.
You'd almost think the police and government were more scared of the EDL and ordinary people wanting to show their revulsion at the crime than they are of those who behead soldiers on our streets.
Julia's article below this one is worth reading about the government and the powers that be using the act to try and control us even more rather than actually deal with the real issue of the barbarians amongst us, who despite the claims of the government, police and the Daily Mail are not the EDL.

Disparity

How come reports tell us that the police took 20 minutes to react to the atrocity in Greenwich?
How come when someone smashed some cabinets at a mosque in Gillingham, the police said  the damage happened at 20.00 and an arrest was made at 20.04?
Guess it shows where the priorities lie.
The one good point is that the cowards were not killed but were brought down by a policewoman and won't be getting their 72 virgins white grapes.
The bad news is that we can't string them up pour encourager les autres.
Boris Johnson also seems to think we shouldn't blame the mindless fascistic ideology wrapped up in religious trappings that is islam for the atrocity. It's noticeable that he doesn't tell us who or what to blame.
I also learned that one of the cowardly barbarians who perpetrated the act is a converted Christian, you'd think people would have far more self respect.
There is no place for Islam in a civilised society, now or ever.

Enrichment

There are those who insist that our society has been enriched by mass uncontrolled immigration. A good few of us disagree, we're often called racist/fascist/bigots by those who insist that we're wrong. The problem that those of us who disagree have with the issue is the 'mass uncontrolled' part of the issue, not immigration as such. We tend to believe in integration rather than multiculturalism, we aren't opposed to immigrant groups remembering their roots, but we don't want them bringing their entire society with them and creating ghetto's where they speak their own language exclusively and demand that we have to adapt to them rather than the far more natural adapting to the majority. However those who are in power tend to see things differently because sadly they don't get to live with the actual problems...
MSN News.

A man has been killed and two others were taken to hospital with gunshot wounds following a "serious incident" understood to involve a serving soldier.
Several witnesses described seeing a "beheading" while another described seeing a man wearing a Help for Heroes T-shirt being attacked with a machete-style knife and dumped in a south-east London street.
One witness, identified as James, said he and his partner saw two black men attack a young man aged around 20 in a Help for Heroes T-shirt with kitchen knives like he was "a piece of meat". "They were hacking at this poor guy, literally," he told LBC radio. "They were hacking at him, chopping him, cutting him." Fighting back tears, he added: "These two guys were crazed. They were just animals. They dragged him from the pavement and dumped his body in the middle of the road and left his body there."
He said after the "horrendous" attack, the two men, in their 20s, just stood around, waving knives and a gun, even asking people nearby to take pictures of them "as if they wanted to be on TV or something". "They were oblivious to anything, they were more worried about having their photo taken, running up and down the road," he said. "They had no intention of running off or leaving or anything. In my opinion, they were waiting for the police to arrive to be shot by the police. That's the only thing I can think. It's horrendous what they were doing to that guy." Some "brave" women tried to shield the man on the ground from them, he added.He also said it was 20 minutes before armed police arrived at the scene. "When the armed police came flying around the corner, the man with the beanie hat, the tall guy, he charged at the police vehicle,"

I believe we could so easily do without this kind of enrichment.
Details at this stage are of course sketchy, though the pattern does appear to fit the profile of certain groups who are inordinately fond of guns and knives and even had their own police task force known as Trident, which appears to have been disbanded though the money to deal with such problems still seems to be pouring in despite no real effect as far as I can tell other than enriching those who are doing good and of course various community leaders who appear to lead nothing.
It really does come to something when 123 people are stabbed to death in London a year alone mainly by black youths and/or foreign criminals. 54 Muslim grooming gangs are about to be raided by police around the country for raping white children. Hundreds of white people have been killed by non whites yet the media only want to talk about Stephen Lawrence.
Amazingly enough though if you point this out, guess who is causing a problem?
BBC’s Nick Robinson reporting that the “People carrying out the attack were of Muslim appearance and cries of God is Great or Allahu Akbar were heard”.
Are you feeling enriched yet?

Offended? Well yes, I suppose 'you' would be...

Well I'm back from Egypt having had a great time, I'll write about my experiences at some other time though, possibly the weekend when I have a bit more time.
One of the first things to hit me upon my return to England was the work of property management firm Places for People who apparently finf my countries flag so offensive that despite it being on a blokes door for over 10 years decided that it would have to go, despite the guy having won awards for the upkeep of his house.
The Sun.

A PATRIOTIC ex-soldier who painted a St George’s flag on his front door has been ordered to cover it up by his housing association landlords who claim it could be considered "offensive" and may bring "distress" to neighbours.
Steven Rolfe, 52, painted the red and white colours of the English flag on his rented home in Preston, Lancs, 10 years ago and added hanging baskets to celebrate his love of England and mark his former career in the forces.
But despite being runner up in a council "best kept house" competition, he has now received a letter from an official at property management firm Places for People saying neighbours could be "alarmed" by the symbol.
The letter also warned the design could place him in a category of "nuisance neighbours" and said it could see him being evicted if he failed to cover it up.
In a letter to Mr Rolfe, Neighbourhood Officer Leanne Hardy gave him 14 days to repaint the door saying: "It has been brought to my attention that you have painted your front door in a way that could be considered offensive."
When he asked for permission to keep the flag, Ms Hardy sent another letter refusing his request and giving him seven days to paint over it in one colour.
She also warned him that failure could see him being in breach of his tenancy agreement.
In her letter Ms Hardy said the flag design fell foul of rules tackling unruly tenants who caused "a nuisance, annoyance, disturbance or harassment" of others.
Ms Hardy also said his conduct breached tenancy conditions concerning those tenants who were "injurious to the interests of neighbours" and those who "cause distress, alarm or interfere with the peace and comfort of any other person."
Mr Rolfe, who served in Northern Ireland, said: “I couldn’t believe it when I got the letter.

Why am I not surprised that Ms hardy is a Ms...
As it is, you have to wonder at what Places for People are playing at, sure the guy didn't have permission to paint the door, but considering that he did do it in 2003, you have to suspect that if there were a real problem, it would have surfaced by now.
Places for People have since apologised for calling the flag offensive, though one suspects that Ms Hardy doesn't agree with with their 'official' position, they are however still trying to evict the guy for having painted it 10 years ago without 'official' permission. This is the fallback position of any organisation where the actions of one of their officials however barmy need to be backed up no matter what the fallout from the decision.
It's interesting that only the company seems to have a problem with what Mr Rolfe has done, no one else from the local community or Labour Party seems to have an issue with the door. But, that's what happens when someone gets offended by proxy...

Parish Notice

The blog will be on hiatus for the next two weeks as Lady QM and I are off on our holidays. She wishes to see Egypt and as a slave to her desires I am taking her there and will take lots of pictures of pyramids, sphinx's temples and lots of other pre-islamic stuff before the loons there decide to blow it up as it is pre-islamic stuff and they have done in other countries.
Blogging should resume on 21st of May.

That word 'could' again.

Could and should are the most insidious words in the lexicon of those who would ban things or remove essential freedoms from us in the name of security, health and often enough crime prevention.
And so it is with the police crying out over plans to make them destroy DNA samples after six months...
Mail. (Usual caveats)

Police and scientists have warned that dangerous criminals could escape justice because of a ‘baffling’ Government decision to destroy six million DNA samples.
It means detectives will no longer be able to use a pioneering investigative tool – familial DNA testing – that narrows down suspects using forensic material from relatives.
Martin Bottomley, who leads a specialist police team which uses the technique, argues some cases will now be ‘impossible’ to solve.
And top forensic investigator Patricia Wiltshire, whose evidence was crucial in convicting Ian Huntley of the Soham murders, said: ‘It is a crazy, retrograde move. In forensic protocols and police procedures, Britain is respected worldwide, but this could damage our reputation.’
The process of erasing all existing samples began in December and is due to be completed this month.
In addition, under the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 – legislation championed by Nick Clegg in response to a European human-rights ruling – all new samples must now be destroyed within six months.

Ah yes, familial DNA testing, just another tool in the armoury of the police which requires ever more of our DNA to be on record 'just in case' meaning that the police once they have it for any reason will want to keep it.
There are the usual nothing to hide nothing to fear arguments going on in the comments, though the consensus seems to be that somehow or other this is a mistake, though many admit even with such records, mistakes are made.
Part of the problem seems to be that the police have swung into the position that DNA sampling is their first and foremost tool in criminal investigations rather than the old fashioned method of asking questions and investigating. Mistakes can and have been made and the police know this, but still want as much of the population as they can on the databases they have.
There's an old maxim that goes somewhat on the lines of 'It's better that 10 guilty men go free than one innocent man be wrongly convicted' something that the police and CPS as well as the powers that be seem incapable of understanding as they demand that the law is flouted in order to keep their precious databases. Sure you can argue that if everyone had their DNA on record certain crimes would be easy to solve, though I can think of a few examples where false accusations can be made of someone who happened to be there and did not commit the act they are accused of (Julia has a whole file full of false rape claims) Yet there are some of us who believe that our DNA is our own and that the state should not have it on record save only if we are previously convicted criminals, after all do you trust the bastards in power? Sooner or later someone would come up with another reason for such records if only to experiment on certain genomes who happen to be inconvenient.
Could and should does not mean will, no matter how hard the powers that be try to tell us it does.

The man who (should of) would be king.

I have a lot of time for David Davis, he's they guy who lost to Cameron for the Tory leadership and whom I suspect many Tories now believe had they chosen him they might not be in the position they are in now. He's also the guy who resigned his seat on a point of principal to highlight the erosion of civil liberties in the UK. So when he has something to say, it's usually worth listening too, even if you don't agree.
Telegraph.

Tories must start listening to ordinary voters, not their old school chums So how should we deal with Thursday’s reverse? Well we should neither underestimate it nor misunderstand it. Firstly, it matters.
In local elections organisation on the ground is very important. Yet Ukip’s surge was done with virtually no locally organised local campaigning at all. In my part of Yorkshire we put in five to 10 times the volume of campaigning that Ukip did, yet we lost 15 per cent, they gained 30 per cent from a standing start.
So come the next Euro elections, when local organisation does not matter anything like so much, it is entirely possible that Ukip will top the poll. That would mean serious political momentum, more financial backers, more attention, more coverage, and the consequences for the Conservative Party in the subsequent general election would be dire.
That is the size of the problem. The nature of the problem has also changed over time. It used to be that the Tory fears about Ukip were unfounded, because the party’s vote was mixed Tory and Labour. Now it is about three Tories to one Labour.
Ukip has deliberately become more than a single-issue party. Since 2004 it has transformed itself into a Primary Colours Conservative Party.
Its policies on law and order, immigration, taxation, foreign affairs, and, of course, Europe mimic a simplified 1980s Tory manifesto.
So the electoral answers are Conservative ones, but the test of our response is less about how Right-wing we are than how relevant we are to ordinary people. So no matter how uncomfortable it makes our metropolitan elite, we have to deal properly with fears over immigration.
We have to do more to help conventional families through the hard times, including serious tax breaks for married couples. We should start cutting taxes to regenerate the economy, indeed we should have started years ago when it had more chance of working before the election.
And of course we should give the people a say over Europe, ideally before the Euro elections. Otherwise Nigel Farage will characterise those elections as “the referendum the Tories wouldn’t let you have”.
But most of all we have to start convincing the people that we care about the things that matter to them.

In a lot of respects he's right, though I do believe this is a case of shutting the barn door after the horse has bolted. Cameron and the rest of the political classes whom he represents far more than the people of the country or indeed the Tory party have done massive damage to the country in pursuit of their own aims which seldom matched those of the ordinary voter. Indeed they treat ordinary voters as fools and finally are waking up to the fact that the compliment is now being returned in spades.
They took a party which enjoyed success after success during the mid 1980's to the mid 1990's and turned it into another soundbite led New Labour clone, then wondered why they were losing traditional support. Hell Cameron couldn't even win an election against one of the most unpopular Labour governments in living memory.
People look at the main political parties and have realised that they are all the same and pretty much all led by an unscrupulous set of utter bastards who are determined to line their own pockets and those who bankroll them at our expense. Why else are they foisting us off with bird mincers and useless solar energy? Yet they don't realise that all the public want is reasonable energy prices as they struggle to pay bills and aren't so stupid as to realise just who the non exec directors of the bird mincing companies are.
Nor have the public forgiven them for robbing us blind via expenses and we suspect that there's a cabal of paedophiles somewhere up there who are throwing aged celebrities to the wolves to avoid being outed themselves.
Ukip are no panacea, but they have one major advantage over the rest of the political dross that makes up the political classes in the UK. It's quite simple, they aren't the Lib/Lab/Con, they aren't tainted goods no matter what scandals the MSM come up with via the political party press advisor's.
Perhaps Ukip's time has come, but I don't think the Tory party can just change policies to get voters to vote for them. Tainted goods will remain tainted until you remove the source of the corruption. Frankly that's most of our current sitting MP's.

The people know...

No, not about Ukip, that's been pretty much done to death everywhere.
Education and exam results. The ever upwards trend of results (till last year) was bound to have an effect. If only from employers who didn't trust the paper they were written on and tended like many higher education establishments to make candidates sit a seperate exam or offer remedial tuition to actually enable their candidates to do what it said on the tin.
BBC.

Many teachers, heads and parents lack confidence in GCSE grades, research into perceptions of secondary school exams in England suggests.
A detailed survey of 4,686 people for exams regulator Ofqual suggests fewer than two-thirds felt that at least 75% of GCSE students were graded correctly.
Overall faith in GCSE exams appears to have been significantly affected by last year's English GCSE grading row.
Ofqual said it wanted to see confidence in GCSEs return.

The only way you'll see confidence in GCSE's return is if you make them of value, rather than giving the impression that like toilet rolls they are serrated at both ends and serve a similar purpose. Exams should be hard to sort out the wheat from the chaff, there should be no grading all the way back to Z from the ridiculous A*
A, B, and C are passes, everything else is an F, as in F for fail. You can resit the exam, but you can't claim a pass unless you actually do pass. If schools want to do easier exams for the less academically talented, then so be it, but the various exam boards really need to be promoting themselves as the only pass worth having rather than the one even a dunce can pass providing he brought a pencil to the exam.
For too many years the only people fooled by ever increasing pass rates were politicians and the moronic left teaching unions. Everyone else knew or suspected that kids were being betrayed by a system that wasn't fit for purpose. Why else were employers complaining that kids with good exam results were coming to them for jobs, barely literate? Why else were universities having to offer students remedial top up courses to enable the students to actually do a degree course. The kids weren't any thicker than you or I, but had been let down by a system that seemingly was designed to make them feel good, rather than actually be any good.
So, I'm afraid Ofqual is barking up the wrong tree when it says it wants to see confidence in GCSE's returned, politicians and the teaching unions have already stabbed the poor thing in the back far to many times for it ever to recover.

A cast iron hint...

My goodness, Ukip do appear to have the Tories somewhat rattled, what with the smear attempts in the MSM and now Dave 'cast iron' Cameron declaring a hint that he 'might' change the law to guarantee an EU referendum.
Mail.

With anti-EU party UKIP set to make a significant breakthrough today, David Cameron has reinforced his commitment to hold a referendum on Britain’s future in Europe.
The Prime Minister said yesterday he was prepared to consider legislation that would guarantee an in/out referendum if he wins the general election in 2015.
More than 100 Conservative MPs have urged Mr Cameron to back legislation on a referendum in this Parliament – even if Labour and the Liberal Democrats conspire to vote it down.
Mr Cameron also sought to reassure core Tory voters by acknowledging frustration with the slow pace of change on immigration policy, and promised measures in the next few weeks to limit immigrants’ access to welfare and the NHS.
Tory and Labour strategists expect UKIP to perform strongly in today’s council polls, taking seats from both parties, and to come second in a Commons by-election in the South Shields seat vacated by David Miliband. One poll yesterday suggested UKIP could take as much as 22 per cent of the vote in local elections and significantly limit the progress made by Labour.

Thing is though, Ukip are taking just as many votes from those considered traditional Labour voters than they are Tories. Why? Well apart from the fact that the various parties went about acting as if they owned the votes people were casting and treating them with contempt. The main reason is that Ukip are starting to be acknowledged as the only party prepared to do something about the status quo situation where the various parties are run by the political classes for the political classes. Ukip have said they'll deal with immigration, Ukip have said they'll deal with the EU, Ukip have more or less said they'll put the people who live here first and foremost.
Not one of the other parties have said this. Individual members might have, but the parties, no.
Also a lot of people suspect that any referenda on the EU will be a complete stitch up by the political classes. A vote for Ukip means no referendum, just a phased withdrawal from the EU.
Cheaper for one thing, less messy for another.
As it is, I'm not bothered who you vote for, all I'll say on the matter is that a vote for the big three as it were is a vote to continue the system that has wrecked this country inside and out.
I'll never vote for them again.

Just common sense really

There's been a poll (yes another one) in which the public were asked about press regulation (how come no one ever asks me?) the answer was pretty unsurprising, well unsurprising to me and probably you.
Mail. (The Ukip smear press)

A clear majority of the public wants politicians kept out of a new system of Press regulation, a poll suggests.
It showed that only 16 per cent believe that MPs and peers should have the power to change the terms of a Royal Charter enshrining a new watchdog that will have the power to issue £1million fines and require prominent corrections.
Sixty-seven per cent – a huge margin – said the new system should be set up in a way that does not give politicians the final say, the basis of an industry proposal put forward to rival a cross-party plan.
The Royal Charter agreed by politicians in a late-night deal in Ed Miliband’s office would allow changes to be made in future only if two-thirds of both Houses of Parliament agree.
The public also believes that there should be a public consultation on proposals to establish a new system, something the Government has refused.
Only 12 per cent agree that the public should be denied a say, while 76 per cent believe ‘the Royal Charter should be subject to consultation’.
Voters also agreed by a large margin – 64 per cent to 36 per cent – that they were proud that the UK is currently regarded around the world as a model of Press freedom.

It's not that the public don't want to see some form of regulation, probably based on self regulation. It's that once again the public are announcing to the world that they simply do not trust politicians to have any say in regulation, based mostly on the suspicion that sooner or later politicians would try to hide behind some form of press regulation by adding amendments to any regulatory body laws.
After all, MP's have form on trying to use the law and legislation to hide their misdeeds, it's doubtful we'd hear anything about their arrant gross thievery if they did have a say on whether or not the charter could or should be changed.
So, the people are saying that politicians are simply not to be trusted with regulating the press. Hard to argue really, it kind of fits my view too. Though unlike most people I wouldn't want to see any press regulation. We actually have laws which could (and should) have been used in those cases which came up in certain pressure groups demands to regulate the press. Phone hacking is a crime, prosecutions could and should have been made without a lobbying circus demanding regulation for something which was a crime anyway.
Still, at least the majority agree with me about the need to keep politicians away from any levers of power...

Says the man who brought us Secret Courts...

Ken Clark is an evil man, oh he may not think he is evil, but his past deeds definitely makes him someone to whom the word evil could justly be applied.
It was Clark who brought about the secret courts scheme  where the ancient writ of habeas corpus was to be undermined by the justice and security bill.
It was Clarke who played his part in transferring power from our elected representatives to the unelected bureaucrats in Brussels.
It was Clarke told the Parliamentary authorities that his main home was in his Rushcliffe constituency, enabling him to claim a second homes allowance on his London home and leaving the taxpayer to foot the bill for the council tax due on that property. However, he told Rushcliffe Borough Council in Nottinghamshire that he spent so little time at his constituency address that his wife Gillian should qualify for a 25% council-tax (single person's) discount, saving the former chancellor around £650 per year.
There are other accusations of a far darker nature out there too, google them to find out.
Mail.

Voters who back the UK Independence Party are racists and its politicians are clowns, Ken Clarke claimed yesterday.
The veteran Tory Cabinet minister led attacks by all three main parties as he said UKIP is merely a protest party and those attracted to it are ‘waifs and strays’ who are simply ‘against’ foreigners and immigrants.Mr Clarke’s astonishing onslaught came as polls showed that Nigel Farage’s Eurosceptic party has overtaken the Liberal Democrats and is set for its best local election results ever on Thursday, when 35 county councils and unitary authorities in England and one in Wales go to the polls.

Says the man who once invited Oswald Mosely to speak to Jewish students, causing his then boss to resign in protest.
It's been interesting the sheer negative campaigning from all the big three parties in respect of one small party who chances are will not win the general election, nor probably control of any local council. Actually, recent polling shows Ukip ahead of the Lib Dems, so perhaps big three isn't quite the right term any more.
What is interesting though is that Ukip aren't just picking up votes from disaffected Tories, but also from Labour and Lib Dem ones too. Not that the parties concerned own those votes, though to hear them scream you'd almost think they did.
No matter, Ukip are on a bit of a roll and the steps necessary to squish them have been rolled out though amusingly to no avail. People know when politicians are lying, they can see their lips moving and the political dwarves of the UK have made a career of ignoring the people and lying to their faces so why they think we'll believe them now about Ukip is anyone's guess.
I'll be watching the election results with interest, they don't affect me, the next time I get to vote will be the European elections where I suspect Ukip might just rout certain parties and really set the cat amongst the pigeons.
Still, whatever Clarke says, I'll take with a pinch of salt, as I wrote, the man is evil and has a track record to prove it.