Who do UKIP think they are deluding
Nigel Farage, the newly-elected leader of UKIP, has made the laughable claim that they speak for the true "silent majority". Perhaps Mr Farage has a short memory. He came a distant third in the relatively recent by-election held in Bromley & Chislehurst back in June, achieving just slightly over 8% of the vote, despite having significant financial support and a dedicated campaign team. If they can't convince a constituency of people who elected one of the most right-wing Tory MPs in recent history (with a 51% majority in 2005) who supported the death penalty, claimed to represent the "millions of people in this country who are white, Anglo-Saxon and bigoted", and detested Europe (practically the entire UKIP manifesto), then their claims of representing the majority of people in this country ring hollow indeed. They are just another protectionist reactionary party which wants to turn back the clock on human rights, civil liberties, and free trade, three things which Europe has been a world leader in for fifty years.
2 comments:
But if they get their act together they might split the Tories. Now that would be a result!
Europe is failling fairly dismally on free trade outside the privilledged EU members... its one of the many problems with the EU the LibDems should be actively trying to get something done about (instead of ducking the EU issue totally).
As far as I can tell, UKIP seem to be economically liberal, I wouldn't be surprised if they advocated unilateral free trade (it seems to be a common thread amongst the anti-EU people I come across).
They also have a rather progressive flat tax policy (which I wish the LibDems could see their way to adopting, but I think that's unlikely given the politics... which is a debate for another time ;) )
They seem to be doing the Thatcherite thing of liberal in one hand, conservative and authoritarian on the other hand...
I do wonder what they think they're doing though. They don't stand for a 'silent majority' they think they do, they stand for a small vocal minority and possibly a silent minority...
They seem to be on the verge of tearing themselves apart, we'll see...
As for the grandiose claims, the LibDems/Liberals/SDP have made them too... its part of being a small party I think...
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