Political marriage made in heaven

THE FRIDAY THING: IT is a seriously long time since we heard from Warren Bates (and yes, many will be thankful for that).

Warren has always been on the eccentric side of politics, and his support for UKIP was deliciously predictable.

He has certainly found his political home and holds back no punches when he says of his new-found friends: “I have never seen a party attacked like UKIP. It is unbelievably transparent but I love it.”

Bates says his opponents are frightened to death of UKIP: “People, including the media, are so frightened they will throw everything they can at us because they see our party as a threat.”

I am sure a considerable number of the electorate who are not afraid of UKIP will vote for their more rational and fancied candidates when the general election comes round.

Whether Warren will be elected remains to be seen, but maybe he and Nigel Farage will be a political marriage in heaven.

There always have been eccentrics among our political elite and Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, certainly fits that description.

Boris has recently compared himself with Gandalf, the fictional wizard from “Lord of the Rings”.

Time for the men in white coats I fancy.

As for we Oldhamers, we can content ourselves with the knowledge that the recent British Infidel march in the town centre will have made no friends and they should know by now they aren’t welcome here. Maybe they should go and work with Gandalf.



FINAL WORD: Nick Clegg has surfaced with the latest Lib-Dem idea which, in essence, is to stop sending criminals to jail.

Mr Clegg says “prison is not the answer” and insists greater use of tagging and community service is the better option.

Maybe what Mr Clegg forgets is that during community service and tagging, crooks and villains of every hue are allowed out and about on the streets, attacking and stealing.

The truth is, the reason for the rise in the prison population is the growing number of convicted sex offenders. Does Mr Clegg believe they should be anywhere other than behind bars?