What do you think about UKIP?

[Alf Landon]

I recently conducted a poll here on who people would like to see winning the next general election in the United Kingdom (viewtopic.php?f=20&t=279864) and I was surprised at how strongly UKIP came out. Maybe because I expected the NSG community to be abit more lefty than that on average. Anyway, after that strong showing I thought it might be an idea to conduct this poll on how exactly the community here feels about UKIP. For the benefit of those who do not follow British politics, the UK Independence Party was founded back in the 1990s and whose very raison d'etre is to secure a referendum for the country to vote on whether it wants to remain in the European Union. However, they have policies beyond that - their anti-EU philosophy ties in with their stance on more limited immigration, and as you'd expect with a party like this they rail against what they deride as the Westminster elites. Up until this latest Conservative government their support was rather limited, and they largely drew their support from disaffected Conservatives. Indeed, their leadership was pretty much composed of the kind of people who thought the Conservatives were just too moderate, indeed some who thought Margaret Thatcher just did not go far enough. However, over the past year or two, their support has exploded, and they are now trying to broaden their appeal, particularly to more working-class voters.

As far as I'm concerned, I have a very negative opinion of UKIP. Not only do I not share their views on the EU and immigration, I also deride their basic political philosophy. However much they're now trying to come across as a more broad-church party, their leadership - centered around the charismatic Nigel Farage - are on record as loving what Thatcher did in power, and would have like to have seen her reforms go further. It irritates me that they are now trying to do a 180 and trying to play down their views in an effort to widen their support. What the country doesn't need is another party beholden to the legacy of Thatcher. And to boot, they're filled with climate change deniers, and the spectre of global warming is something I feel very passionately about.

But that's my view. What's yours? The topic is open to non-Brits as well. Not like I could stop you anyway.

[Estado Paulista]

Britain's Tea Party and political cancer.

[The USOT]

I am quite opposed to the UK anti science party. We need less homeopathy in the NHS and a greater response to climate change, not greater funding to useless medicine and climate deniers.

[United Dependencies]

They're pretty shit, but at least they're not the BNP.

[Alf Landon]

They're pretty shit, but at least they're not the BNP.

That is true. Whatever else, at least UKIP have a place in respectable civil discourse, unlike the BNP.

[Dooom35796821595]

They're pretty shit, but at least they're not the BNP.

I preffer the BNP, not for their policy but for the fact they are a joke, bankrupt both morally and financially and the leader is a little slimeball who can't hold up under a question panel. I'd be glad if UKIP was that incompetent.

[United Dependencies]

I suppose I didn't consider that...

[Benuty]

UKIP is an insult to Kippers.

[Divair]

Europskeptical, very socially conservative, economically libertarian, xenophobic, homophobic, climate change deniers, and puppets of the military industrial complex.


I'll go with "very, very negative opinion".

[Benuty]

I am quite opposed to the UK anti science party. We need less homeopathy in the NHS and a greater response to climate change, not greater funding to useless medicine and climate deniers.

The only way to fight "treating wasting with waste" is to use actual medicine .

[The USOT]

Europskeptical, very socially conservative, economically libertarian, xenophobic, homophobic, climate change deniers, and puppets of the military industrial complex.


I'll go with "very, very negative opinion".

You forgot "advocates of homeopathy being funded by the NHS.

[Divair]

Europskeptical, very socially conservative, economically libertarian, xenophobic, homophobic, climate change deniers, and puppets of the military industrial complex.


I'll go with "very, very negative opinion".

You forgot "advocates of homeopathy being funded by the NHS.

And basically dismantling the NHS piece by piece. They're horrid.

[Benuty]

Europskeptical, very socially conservative, economically libertarian, xenophobic, homophobic, climate change deniers, and puppets of the military industrial complex.


I'll go with "very, very negative opinion".

You forgot "advocates of homeopathy being funded by the NHS.

Ironically using an institution they despise.

[The Scientific States]

They're loony.

[Dooom35796821595]

They are so bad that if, by some insanity they ever made it into government we would need to implement emergency measures to remove them and begin contemplating alternatives to democracy.

That right, that bad.

[Angleter]

I like them as an influence on British politics and the Tory Party. UKIP and the Tory Right have over the last five years brought Europe and immigration to the forefront of politics, when under New Labour the political class largely tried to sweep them under the carpet. Moreover, the rise of UKIP has (or at least should have) sent a message to the Tory Party that it needs to position itself as more populist and as a Eurosceptic party if it's to win a majority - UKIP is making inroads with those voters (working-class disaffected Labour sorts in the North, and Southern LibDems) who, though they share traditionally Tory concerns and quite clearly have few qualms about voting for an essentially right-wing party, see the Tories as a toxic brand, as an Establishment, patrician party of the rich. My hope, ultimately, is that in a post-Cameron era (Cameron, paradoxically, tends to poll better than his party, but symbolises everything about the Tory Party that is anathema to the UKIP voter), whenever that is, UKIP will be absorbed into a more populist Tory Party.

Anyway, the bad side to UKIP. For one, there's a decent chance they'll hand the next election to Labour and bollock up the Eurosceptic cause for half a decade at least. Then there's the more ridiculous parts of their manifesto - not train painting or anything like that, but rather the flat tax and the five year immigration freeze - but then I hope they'll get rid of that more extreme stuff by 2015. The other thing is the sheer nuttiness of many of their supporters. I'm not necessarily talking about the wacky Councillors who crop up every now and then - they're to be expected in a fast-growing upstart party that will both naturally attract those sorts and will struggle to vet its candidates (especially local ones) as well as the established parties. And there are perfectly intelligent, reasonable UKIP politicians. However, if you take one look at the comments on (relevant, and some irrelevant) Telegraph articles - bloody hell. There's an utterly delusional siege mentality that every criticism, every joke, even every opinion poll is part of a vicious Eurofederalist traitor LIBLABCON plot against the British English people and UKIP, which are the same thing. They're not a representative sample of UKIP supporters, I'm sure, but still - they have their own version of reality and it seems normal UKIP people (and UKIP itself) have little interest in pulling them out of it. That concerns me.

[Divair]

You forgot "advocates of homeopathy being funded by the NHS.

Ironically using an institution they despise.

Much like the GOP, they're "free market" until state intervention helps them.

[Benuty]

I like them as an influence on British politics and the Tory Party. UKIP and the Tory Right have over the last five years brought Europe and immigration to the forefront of politics, when under New Labour the political class largely tried to sweep them under the carpet. Moreover, the rise of UKIP has (or at least should have) sent a message to the Tory Party that it needs to position itself as more populist and as a Eurosceptic party if it's to win a majority - UKIP is making inroads with those voters (working-class disaffected Labour sorts in the North, and Southern LibDems) who, though they share traditionally Tory concerns and quite clearly have few qualms about voting for an essentially right-wing party, see the Tories as a toxic brand, as an Establishment, patrician party of the rich. My hope, ultimately, is that in a post-Cameron era (Cameron, paradoxically, tends to poll better than his party, but symbolises everything about the Tory Party that is anathema to the UKIP voter), whenever that is, UKIP will be absorbed into a more populist Tory Party.

Anyway, the bad side to UKIP. For one, there's a decent chance they'll hand the next election to Labour and bollock up the Eurosceptic cause for half a decade at least. Then there's the more ridiculous parts of their manifesto - not train painting or anything like that, but rather the flat tax and the five year immigration freeze - but then I hope they'll get rid of that more extreme stuff by 2015. The other thing is the sheer nuttiness of many of their supporters. I'm not necessarily talking about the wacky Councillors who crop up every now and then - they're to be expected in a fast-growing upstart party that will both naturally attract those sorts and will struggle to vet its candidates (especially local ones) as well as the established parties. And there are perfectly intelligent, reasonable UKIP politicians. However, if you take one look at the comments on (relevant, and some irrelevant) Telegraph articles - bloody hell. There's an utterly delusional siege mentality that every criticism, every joke, even every opinion poll is part of a vicious Eurofederalist traitor LIBLABCON plot against the British English people and UKIP, which are the same thing. They're not a representative sample of UKIP supporters, I'm sure, but still - they have their own version of reality and it seems normal UKIP people (and UKIP itself) have little interest in pulling them out of it. That concerns me.

There are far more civil ways to do so than troll the government.

[Liriena]

Britain's Tea Party and political cancer.

Pretty much. They are the sort of reactionary party that always appears in times of sociocultural tensions and economic strife. They'll wreak some havoc and win a few seats in the Parliament, but once the dust settles they'll become universally loathed political corpses and scoff-inducing footnotes in history books.

[Parti Ouvrier]

Britain's Tea Party and political cancer.

Agreed.

[Geilinor]

You forgot "advocates of homeopathy being funded by the NHS.

Ironically using an institution they despise.

> Makes NHS fund homeopathy
> Abolishes it

[Geilinor]

My hope, ultimately, is that in a post-Cameron era (Cameron, paradoxically, tends to poll better than his party, but symbolises everything about the Tory Party that is anathema to the UKIP voter), whenever that is, UKIP will be absorbed into a more populist Tory Party.

Populism is hardly a political philosophy and is often bad policy.

[Parti Ouvrier]

ukip are polling at 26%! * (FN is polling high too)The fact that Switzerland passed an anti-immigration referenda recently doesn't help matters.

* http://www.pollwatch2014.eu/

[Herador]

From my position across the pond, they look at least as bad as our Tea Party, maybe a bit worse.

[Blazedtown]

That their British.