UKIP pressures PM Cameron in local vote

By Andrew Osborn

ASHFORD, England (Reuters) - Britain's ruling Conservatives are set to lose hundreds of seats in local polls on Thursday that will go some way to measuring the threat the surging anti-European Union UK Independence Party (UKIP) poses to their hopes of re-election in 2015.

Even in towns like Ashford in southeast England, which has returned a Conservative MP to the national parliament at every election since 1945, surveys suggest UKIP could win up to one fifth of the votes.

History shows Britons often use mid-term council elections to punish their favoured party for perceived failings by temporarily forsaking it only to return when it really counts.

But polling data shows UKIP, which wants to radically tighten immigration rules into Britain, is luring Prime Minister David Cameron's traditional supporters away.

That trend risks splitting the centre-right vote in 2015, making Cameron's task of beating the main opposition Labour party even harder.

The Conservatives, the senior partner in a two-party national coalition, trail Labour by up to 10 percentage points in opinion polls, but they are banking on an economic rebound by 2015 to lift Britain from its torpor.

If a national election were held today, Labour would win.

"I've been a Conservative all my life but I'm going to vote for UKIP," said Bill Newton, 76, a retired businessman, out shopping in Ashford's futuristic tented mall. "I want the Conservatives to get the message that they need to change."

More than 2,000 council seats in largely English rural counties and in one Welsh area are up for grabs on Thursday. One national parliamentary seat is also being contested in northern England where UKIP hopes to come second to Labour.

Heavy Conservative losses could renew pressure on Cameron's leadership ahead of a national election in 2015, and the vote is being seen as one of the last chances to test the political climate before that ballot.

UKIP WANTS END TO "OPEN DOOR" IMMIGRATION

Campaigning on a promise to take Britain out of the EU and to end "open-door" immigration, UKIP's policies appeal to many traditional Conservatives who feel Cameron has taken their own party in too liberal a direction.

But though UKIP has surged in the polls, it has no MPs in the national parliament and Thursday's election will indicate if its swelling poll support translates into votes. Full results of the council ballots will not be known until Friday.

"One local poll put our support at 60 percent," Norman Taylor, the UKIP candidate for Ashford Central, told Reuters in an interview. "I don't believe we'll get that, but we should get around 20 percent. From now on we're going to be a dominant force in politics."

The main reason for UKIP's growing popularity is its immigration policy, he said.

"Say NO to mass immigration," proclaim colourful leaflets being handed out to voters on the streets of Ashford.

Taylor, 74, said Ashford and its periphery, which has a population of about 80,000 and is close to the tunnel that links Britain to France, had been "particularly hard hit" by immigration.

An area the former government designated a growth zone, he said it had seen an influx of British migrant workers moving from London for lower housing costs coupled with the arrival of foreign immigrants, particularly from Eastern Europe.

"Everything here is crumbling in every way," he said. "Public services can't cope. They let everyone in and only then did they start to think about the infrastructure."

Taylor said his views and those of his party were not racist but reflected the concerns of many local blue collar workers.

"I've got nothing against them (immigrants). The only problem is we can't handle the numbers."

The background of some of the party's candidates has stirred controversy, however. Several have been suspended after it emerged they had once belonged to far-right groups and a photograph of one candidate making what looks like a Nazi salute has been plastered on newspaper front pages.

Nigel Farage, the party's leader, has said UKIP was unable to vet all of its some 1,700 candidates properly, saying a few undesirables had got through.

On Ashford's main shopping street there are mixed feelings about UKIP, especially from the town's large Nepali diaspora.

A British army battalion of Gurkha soldiers is based nearby and many ex-soldiers have settled in Ashford.

One retired Gurkha who declined to be named said he felt uneasy. "I'm not convinced by UKIP," he said, saying he feared its policies could stoke hostility towards his own community.

(Editing by Mike Collett-White)

View the original article here

Anti-EU party pressures Britain's PM Cameron in local vote

By Andrew Osborn

ASHFORD, England (Reuters) - Britain's ruling Conservatives are set to lose hundreds of seats in local polls on Thursday that will go some way to measuring the threat the surging anti-European Union UK Independence Party (UKIP) poses to their hopes of re-election in 2015.

Even in towns like Ashford in southeast England, which has returned a Conservative MP to the national parliament at every election since 1945, surveys suggest UKIP could win up to one fifth of the votes.

History shows Britons often use mid-term council elections to punish their favored party for perceived failings by temporarily forsaking it only to return when it really counts.

But polling data shows UKIP, which wants to radically tighten immigration rules into Britain, is luring Prime Minister David Cameron's traditional supporters away.

That trend risks splitting the center-right vote in 2015, making Cameron's task of beating the main opposition Labour party even harder.

The Conservatives, the senior partner in a two-party national coalition, trail Labour by up to 10 percentage points in opinion polls, but they are banking on an economic rebound by 2015 to lift Britain from its torpor.

If a national election were held today, Labour would win.

"I've been a Conservative all my life but I'm going to vote for UKIP," said Bill Newton, 76, a retired businessman, out shopping in Ashford's futuristic tented mall. "I want the Conservatives to get the message that they need to change."

More than 2,000 council seats in largely English rural counties and in one Welsh area are up for grabs on Thursday. One national parliamentary seat is also being contested in northern England where UKIP hopes to come second to Labour.

Heavy Conservative losses could renew pressure on Cameron's leadership ahead of a national election in 2015, and the vote is being seen as one of the last chances to test the political climate before that ballot.

UKIP WANTS END TO "OPEN DOOR" IMMIGRATION

Campaigning on a promise to take Britain out of the EU and to end "open-door" immigration, UKIP's policies appeal to many traditional Conservatives who feel Cameron has taken their own party in too liberal a direction.

But though UKIP has surged in the polls, it has no MPs in the national parliament and Thursday's election will indicate if its swelling poll support translates into votes. Full results of the council ballots will not be known until Friday.

"One local poll put our support at 60 percent," Norman Taylor, the UKIP candidate for Ashford Central, told Reuters in an interview. "I don't believe we'll get that, but we should get around 20 percent. From now on we're going to be a dominant force in politics."

The main reason for UKIP's growing popularity is its immigration policy, he said.

"Say NO to mass immigration," proclaim colorful leaflets being handed out to voters on the streets of Ashford.

Taylor, 74, said Ashford and its periphery, which has a population of about 80,000 and is close to the tunnel that links Britain to France, had been "particularly hard hit" by immigration.

An area the former government designated a growth zone, he said it had seen an influx of British migrant workers moving from London for lower housing costs coupled with the arrival of foreign immigrants, particularly from Eastern Europe.

"Everything here is crumbling in every way," he said. "Public services can't cope. They let everyone in and only then did they start to think about the infrastructure."

Taylor said his views and those of his party were not racist but reflected the concerns of many local blue collar workers.

"I've got nothing against them (immigrants). The only problem is we can't handle the numbers."

The background of some of the party's candidates has stirred controversy, however. Several have been suspended after it emerged they had once belonged to far-right groups and a photograph of one candidate making what looks like a Nazi salute has been plastered on newspaper front pages.

Nigel Farage, the party's leader, has said UKIP was unable to vet all of its some 1,700 candidates properly, saying a few undesirables had got through.

On Ashford's main shopping street there are mixed feelings about UKIP, especially from the town's large Nepali diaspora.

A British army battalion of Gurkha soldiers is based nearby and many ex-soldiers have settled in Ashford.

One retired Gurkha who declined to be named said he felt uneasy. "I'm not convinced by UKIP," he said, saying he feared its policies could stoke hostility towards his own community.

(Editing by Mike Collett-White)

View the original article here

UKIP pressures Cameron in local vote

By Andrew Osborn

ASHFORD, England (Reuters) - Britain's ruling Conservatives are set to lose hundreds of seats in local polls on Thursday that will go some way to measuring the threat the surging anti-European Union UK Independence Party (UKIP) poses to their hopes of re-election in 2015.

Even in towns like Ashford in southeast England, which has returned a Conservative MP to the national parliament at every election since 1945, surveys suggest UKIP could win up to one fifth of the votes.

History shows Britons often use mid-term council elections to punish their favoured party for perceived failings by temporarily forsaking it only to return when it really counts.

But polling data shows UKIP, which wants to radically tighten immigration rules into Britain, is luring Prime Minister David Cameron's traditional supporters away.

That trend risks splitting the centre-right vote in 2015, making Cameron's task of beating the main opposition Labour party even harder.

The Conservatives, the senior partner in a two-party national coalition, trail Labour by up to 10 percentage points in opinion polls, but they are banking on an economic rebound by 2015 to lift Britain from its torpor.

If a national election were held today, Labour would win.

"I've been a Conservative all my life but I'm going to vote for UKIP," said Bill Newton, 76, a retired businessman, out shopping in Ashford's futuristic tented mall. "I want the Conservatives to get the message that they need to change."

More than 2,000 council seats in largely English rural counties and in one Welsh area are up for grabs on Thursday. One national parliamentary seat is also being contested in northern England where UKIP hopes to come second to Labour.

Heavy Conservative losses could renew pressure on Cameron's leadership ahead of a national election in 2015, and the vote is being seen as one of the last chances to test the political climate before that ballot.

UKIP WANTS END TO "OPEN DOOR" IMMIGRATION

Campaigning on a promise to take Britain out of the EU and to end "open-door" immigration, UKIP's policies appeal to many traditional Conservatives who feel Cameron has taken their own party in too liberal a direction.

But though UKIP has surged in the polls, it has no MPs in the national parliament and Thursday's election will indicate if its swelling poll support translates into votes. Full results of the council ballots will not be known until Friday.

"One local poll put our support at 60 percent," Norman Taylor, the UKIP candidate for Ashford Central, told Reuters in an interview. "I don't believe we'll get that, but we should get around 20 percent. From now on we're going to be a dominant force in politics."

The main reason for UKIP's growing popularity is its immigration policy, he said.

"Say NO to mass immigration," proclaim colourful leaflets being handed out to voters on the streets of Ashford.

Taylor, 74, said Ashford and its periphery, which has a population of about 80,000 and is close to the tunnel that links Britain to France, had been "particularly hard hit" by immigration.

An area the former government designated a growth zone, he said it had seen an influx of British migrant workers moving from London for lower housing costs coupled with the arrival of foreign immigrants, particularly from Eastern Europe.

"Everything here is crumbling in every way," he said. "Public services can't cope. They let everyone in and only then did they start to think about the infrastructure."

Taylor said his views and those of his party were not racist but reflected the concerns of many local blue collar workers.

"I've got nothing against them (immigrants). The only problem is we can't handle the numbers."

The background of some of the party's candidates has stirred controversy, however. Several have been suspended after it emerged they had once belonged to far-right groups and a photograph of one candidate making what looks like a Nazi salute has been plastered on newspaper front pages.

Nigel Farage, the party's leader, has said UKIP was unable to vet all of its some 1,700 candidates properly, saying a few undesirables had got through.

On Ashford's main shopping street there are mixed feelings about UKIP, especially from the town's large Nepali diaspora.

A British army battalion of Gurkha soldiers is based nearby and many ex-soldiers have settled in Ashford.

One retired Gurkha who declined to be named said he felt uneasy. "I'm not convinced by UKIP," he said, saying he feared its policies could stoke hostility towards his own community.

(Editing by Mike Collett-White)

View the original article here

North Korea pressures South by halting entry to industrial zone

By Christine Kim and Ju-min Park

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea stepped up pressure on Seoul by delaying access to a joint industrial park in a move that could trap hundreds of South Korean workers on the northern side of the world's most militarized border.

It was not immediately clear if the move was aimed at closing the Kaesong Industrial zone, which generates $2 billion a year in trade for the impoverished North and $80 million in cash wages that go straight to its government. North Korean delays to accessing the zone are very rare.

The delay came after Pyongyang said it would restart a nuclear reactor that it uses to produce plutonium for its nuclear weapons program and as Washington deployed military resources in South Korea amid growing tensions with the North.

As of 8:54 p.m. ET, 861 South Korean workers were in the zone that is home to 123 South Korean firms just inside North Korea. They employ more than 50,000 North Koreans to make low grade household goods.

The complex was established as a form of joint-Korean cooperation in the early 2000s.

"We are waiting for access from the North Korean authorities," a Unification Ministry official said. The ministry said 179 workers were also awaiting entry at the border.

For over a month North Korea has been threatening the United States with a nuclear attack and to bomb its Pacific bases as well as saying it will wage war on South Korea.

The moves are in response to what Pyongyang says are "hostile" military drills between the United States and South Korea and new sanctions imposed on the isolated country for its third nuclear test, staged in February.

The South Korean won was trading at a six and a half-month low in early domestic trade due to the escalation in tensions.

MAJOR TEST

North Korea's young leader Kim Jong-un, aged 30, has ratcheted up tensions since he took office in December 2011 by also staging two long-range rocket launches in defiance of U.N. sanctions.

His actions pose a major challenge to new South Korean President Park Geun-hye who took office just a week after the North's February 12 nuclear test.

South Korea insists it has a contingency plan for dealing with any hostage situation in Kaesong, but officials refused to disclose what it would do in the event North Korea chose to prevent its citizens from returning home.

Most observers believe North Korea will stick to threats and that much of its hostile rhetoric is designed for internal consumption to solidify the young Kim's rule.

Earlier this week Kim appointed key allies to top posts and cemented the power of his uncle Jang Song-thaek and aunt Kim Kyeong-hee by naming one of their close associates as prime minister.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the crisis over North Korea had gone too far and he appealed for dialogue.

"Nuclear threats are not a game. Aggressive rhetoric and military posturing only result in counter-actions, and fuel fear and instability," Ban, a South Korean, told a news conference during a visit to Andorra.

The Pentagon, meanwhile, said another U.S. guided-missile destroyer had taken up position in the western Pacific to assist with missile defense.

The Unification Ministry said 446 workers were due to cross back to South Korea on Wednesday but said they had not yet been given permission to do so.

(Reporting by Christine Kim and Ju-min Park; Editing by David Chance and Dean Yates)

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