I'm absolutely gobsmacked Ray. A man of your obvious intelligence and education trotting out such a specious and facile statement.
The UKIP are an odious bunch of racists, and supporting them is lending power and legitimacy to their vile views.
You cannot, I'm afraid, claim to only partly support them. When faced with bigots the stance one takes has to be binary - you're either with them or against them. Supporting them on ANY basis adds one more vote to their ENTIRE manifesto - there is no option at the ballot to specify which part of them you support.
I'm quite saddened by reading what you wrote. I think very highly of you and it's quite a sobering thing to have discovered.
Hi Mas
Sorry if this has upset you, but perhaps you would let me expand? I don't mind you disagreeing with me, and I don't even mind you thinking I am bigoted, but I do resent the word "facile"
This is not a casual decision. I have had a greater than average interest in politics for all of my life, including studying history, politics and economics at university. My major interests are economics and history, from either of which politics is but a short step.
I don't have a natural home in politics, because in economics I am a conservative, but am socially libertarian. As you might appreciate this causes some serious clashes, since the most traditionally socially liberal parties are the most economically illiterate, and the only mainstream party with any semblance of economic credibility (and thats waning fast) has a history of opposing just about every socially liberalising issue that arises.
So I am very used to finding myself making common cause on one issue with people with whom I disagree strongly on other issues.
Between 1990 and 2010 I saw develop a kind of post-Thatcherite soft left consensus which allowed all politics to move only a few degrees to the left or right of a midpoint which I believe is far too statist - ie it encouraged and enabled the state to expropriate or borrow far too much money, and to have too great an influence on individual freedoms and choices. I believe that this is naturally antagonistic to British political tradition, but a great deal of it bypassed traditional UK politics and came, via the back door, from Europe.
You will not be surprised to learn that I consider the EU political institutions to be morally and financially corrupt beyond the scope of anything that we worry about in the UK, and entirely lacking in any democratic accountability.
Whilst in the relatively high-tariff 1970s there was a strong case for joining the free-trade EEC, in the low tariff twenty-teens, there is no such economic argument, and I think that it will be marginally to our trading advantage to be outside of the EU. I understand enough about the limitations of economic forecasting to recognise that this could be wrong, but if it is, its probably only slightly to our economic disadvantage.
However, I can find nothing but a few marginalised back-benchers in any of the three major parties who seem to care about these problems. I had used to think about the "vote for x (minority party) will just let y (boogyman) in" But there is no substantive difference between any of the three main parties. They merely argue over what colour the deckchairs on the titanic should be.
Deeply disillusioned after the utter failure of the Rose Garden coalition to "change the way we did politics" I actually sat down and read the manifesto/policy document of every major political party in 2011. There was no document that I could entirely support, but the one with which I had most in common on most subjects is the UKIP manifesto.
Now, to the racism question.
Its openly admitted, even by those in charge at the time, that the UK lost control of its borders about 15 years ago. I am not comfortable with that, and I wish to see control of the borders restored.
I admit to feeling uncomfortable when I walk down the street of my provincial English city, and feel that English is a minority language in some areas.
I find it appalling that simply by talking about these things, there are many people who would label me as racist. Certainly no mainstream politician could make the 2nd statement without being ripped apart.
For me, the Europe question and the breaking of the soft-left consensus are the big issues, but I find UKIPs official position on immigration and race to be uncontroversial. You can read them[DLMURL="http://www.ukip.org/issues"] here[/DLMURL].
Has the party attracted some nutters? Of course it has. Do some of them talk utter tripe? Of course they do.
But all the main parties have had nutters over the years. Suggesting that one must have a "binary response" is the same as saying that voting labour is the same as endorsing marxist-leninism, simply becaise the party contains some people who believe in ML theory. Or that voting Tory means you think that homosexuality is a disease.
I don't want to see a UKIP government, nor do I expect to see one. But I do hope to see a referendum on EU membership, some movement towards a lower tax economy, and yes, a debate about immigration where I can voice my concerns without being labelled a bigot or a racist.
And to that end, I am a member of UKIP. Not a nutter. Not a racist. Just a member of UKIP.
