My Reasons for Supporting UKIP

I am sometimes asked “Why UKIP? Aren’t they just a one trick pony bleating about those evil Europeans?”

In order to answer this, I thought I would do a small analysis of some of UKIP’s policies. When I voted UKIP in the Euro Elections earlier this year, admittedly as a protest vote aimed at the Tory’s lacklustre stance on Europe, I decided to investigate their domestic policies as well. The website, while not as slick as some, is simple enough and I soon found some literature on UKIP policy.

What immediately struck me was that I agreed with 80% of what they stood for – I had never experienced anything close to that when looking at the Tories. I have an eclectic mix of conservatism, liberalism and socialism in my political make up.

I am not very ‘touchy feely’ about things, but I believe in social justice, a welfare state, some financial regulation and overwatch so boom and bust capitalism does not plunge us into periodic woes etc. I even support the ideas of trade unionism (though not in their present Labour-purse form). I think that state education should be the best available in a country, although I do not support dumbing down everything so it looks as if everyone is achieving great things at school. University should be free, but it’s not a right – it needs to be earned.

I don’t mind big government and a small loss in civil liberty for a large gain in personal security. I don’t even mind paying lots of tax, as long as the services I get provide value for money. I favour extremely close ties to the United States and NATO and favour the doctrine of humanitarian military intervention as long as there is a cohesive and intelligent after-action plan for rebuilding and aid. Military action, once ordered, should be supported at all costs – half-arsed policy and a lack of direction is worse than not acting at all in my opinion. I even support funnelling money to the developing world as aid, although I do think it should come ‘strings attached’ regarding human rights and good government. Fair trade is a moral necessity.

I think that the UN is a joke and should be downgraded to a centralized charity coordinator, and see NATO as by far the most important international organization that the UK belongs to, followed in a distant second by our place in the Commonwealth. I favour a fully elected upper house of parliament (now that Labour has neutered this ancient and noble institution) and a written constitution. I also think that we have grown beyond a ‘first-past-the-post’ electoral system and that it is time for proportional representation. I support the death penalty for certain crimes (serial/mass murder, repeat rape, paedophilia, treason) and sensible self-defence and home invasion laws – criminals forfeit some of their rights when they commit crime, and the victim should always be more protected that the criminal.

I am sceptical about human caused/accelerated global warming and am not persuaded by the science of its advocates. I resent the religious overtones of ‘believers and heretics’ that is bandied about when it comes to the environment. I support recycling for practical purposes (running out of landfill) and alternate energy to get us out from under dependence on OPEC. Other than that I could not care less. I think it’s ludicrous that we get all worked up about MP expenses in the UK yet ignore the fact that most of the EU is unaudited and that MEP expenses make duck ponds in moats look reasonable – if you want to see shameful waste of your tax money, look at Brussels before you look at Westminster.

I support immigration as essential to a vibrant economy, of both skilled and semi-skilled workers. I do think that there should be a minimum language requirement though. I also am fully committed to the end of the multi-cultural myth about coexistent societies. People can and should hold on to elements of their own culture, but if you live in the UK you should make every effort to become British as well. Within two generations that should be your primary identity, not a 3rd generation British born man who sees himself as Afro-Caribbean or Muslim first and British, if at all, a distant second. That means no teaching in state schools in Urdu for example.

Assimilation and integration should be encouraged, separatism discouraged. Any calls for Sharia law should be heard in the terminal of an airport from people being deported back to the countries they came from, countries that have Sharia law already and are in such a mess that the people in question wanted to come here to begin with. British born Muslims fighting allied forces in Afghanistan should be imprisoned for life if not executed. I admit freely to a dose of xenophobia and Islamaphobia in my make up, but do not consider myself racist.

With that nutshell portrait of my beliefs, let me tell you 12 reasons why I will be voting UKIP. I do not expect anyone to agree with everything that I wrote above, and hasten to point out that UKIP does not stand for everything that I have mentioned – they are far more centrist and main stream in some aspects, far more libertarian and free market in others. They do, however, come close enough to earn my vote, and a hell of a lot closer than any of the ‘Big 3’.

1) UKIP wishes to restructure the nature of the UK’s relationship with the EU. It does not currently advocate cutting all ties – it merely wishes a return to the relationship sold to the British people by Heath back in the 70s – one of free trade and movement.
2) UKIP would cease paying the £27 billion a year in EU subs. We are one of the highest contributors to the EU yet receive almost no subsidies in return. Spain is one of the top 5 contributors yet is also one of the biggest receivers – how does that work? Without an enormous rural sector needed subsidies (Spain, France), a post-Soviet basket case of an industrial sector and economy needing rebuilding (Eastern Europe, Balkans), or somewhere like the former East Germany to drain our resources, the UK will always be a net loser when it comes to what we pay and what we get back. Saying that we will benefit from the emerging economies of our fellow member-states is not a good argument – there is no guarantee that said economies will succeed, and if they do there is no obligation for them to re-invest in us. This is where the 19th century doctrine of free trade failed and we are setting ourselves up to do it all again.
3) UKIP would streamline the tax system, including abolishing inheritance tax and tax on the minimum wage – both very fair ideas in my mind. I admit to being a bit fuzzy on the exact methods they would use to fund these cuts – but it’s no less obscure than Lab/LibDem/Con tax policy.
4) UKIP would freeze permanent immigration for a period of 5 years – which would give government a period of time in which to sort out the mess left by Labour, including the ghastly aftermath of the now confirmed decision by Labour to encourage mass immigration, intending to alter the social structure and socially engineer a multi-cultural country, and to rub the conservative portions of society’ “noses in it”.
5) UKIP would repeal the Human Rights Act. Hopefully this would be replaced by a UK specific bill very quickly, but in the short term it would allow us to deport failed Asylum seekers, political dissidents and illegal immigrants far far easier than we can at the moment. This would also help security concerns in the fight against terrorism.
6) UKIP would continue to allow skilled immigration in the long term as well as support genuine asylum cases.
7) UKIP promises referenda on major policy decisions. I would imagine this would not include security issues such as going to war, but I would think that it would and could include referenda that polls show are important to this country… 84% concerned about immigration, 54% in favour of the death penalty etc.
8) UKIP favours alternate energy research and not just knee jerk panic reactions to the evils of CO2. Hopefully this will include the next generation of nuclear power stations – the “greenest” realistic option.
9) UKIP will act to safeguard what little remains of our agriculture and fisheries sector, both of which have been hammered by EU regulation, and in the case of fisheries, being in the EU with its common fisheries policies has seen native stocks of fish massively depleted. Allow us to conserve and manage our own natural resources, and keep thousands in work.
10) UKIP favours tougher and longer custodial sentences for criminals. I would assume this means building more prisons to house them and ending the culture of “holiday camp” that some (not all I know) prisons foster.
11) UKIP supports the re-introduction of grammar schools throughout the country. Axed by Labour in a misguided class war act, their closure removed the best tool for social mobility through education in this country.
12) UKIP favour expanding the military and improving pay and conditions for serving and wounded members of the forces.

These 12 things will not sort out the country. They do however portray a political mindset in the party that means that they could be heading in the right direction. I know the chances of UKIP returning many, if any, MPs in May is slender to non-existent, but they really do represent our last hope for a repatriation of the powers that will leave this country when the Lisbon Treaty is ratified, which it will be as soon as the valiant Czech president succumbs to the current pressure he is under to sign it into law. By Christmas we will be a provincial part of a European Empire, that might even be ruled by Tony Blair of all people!

So, there is an explanation of why I will be voting for them on policy and preference as well as on the basis of their Euroscepticism. I hope that all makes sense and goes some way to persuading you.