UKIP - "UK Independence Party"

No more so than I am of the rest of the parties...

 

I loathe them deeply, and fear their xenophobic policies. I think those are much more worrying than their homophobic attitudes.

 

It doesn't seem too popular yet, compared to the number of far-right nut-vases we have in the house and senate, especially these Tea Party sorts.

Certainly something to keep an eye on, though, before they get out of hand, like the Republicans have here.

I'm not in/from the UK, but what's the climate like regarding them? Do they seem to be gaining much momentum? If so, why do you think this is?

 

Well since the Conservatives have fallen out of favour with some of the more right leaning tory voters, they've been gaining support.

Lot's of the anti-immigration, anti-Europe and such crowd are looking to them as a middle ground between what they see as an "increasingly centered" (LOL) tory part and the BNP who you basically can't vote for without if you're anything but lower class without being ridiculed.

Problem is that because they were formed around this idea of an independent UK, free from the EU and the crap that comes with it, a lot of sensible people are in favour of them, and ignore the more unpleasant policies they bring with it.

 

Nah I don't care about them and I'm ethnically a Pakistani lol.

 

They're popular because of the whole "take us out of the EU" thing they've got going. I get the feeling if Labour had just held a referendum while they were in office then UKIP would be dead in the water. Instead they just told the electorate what their opinion was and left it at that, Lib Dems are in the same boat. Tories have committed to the idea of a referendum but the other two parties are seemingly hell bent on blocking it. They're not remotely interested in the will of the people while doing a god awful job of demonstrating why being in the EU is a good idea and UKIP are capitalising on that.

Nigel Farage is also very good at deflecting questions about his party's more odious policies (I've never once heard him explain why UKIP has an anti gay marriage view) and staying on the "EU = Evil" track. He's built an image for himself of being the politically aware man in the pub when really he's just the bastard child of Griffin & Blair; dressed in tweed; handed a pint of bitter and pointed in the direction of the nearest crowd. He's also very good at not making the kinds of slip ups that his colleagues are so fond of.

I think if you got him into a straight debate instead of just shouting "XENOPHOBE!" and "RACIST!" at him over and over again then he'd crumble pretty easily. Kinda like Palin; Bachmann; Perry and co.

EDIT: While they are popular they've never come that close to getting an MP; barely anyone votes in the European elections anyway for it to matter that they have 9 MEPs; they've 3 in the Lords (out of 724) and 227 councilors (out of 21,259).

And I've just read their reasoning for opposing equal marriage. It's the usual "faith groups will be forced" bullplop.

EDIT2: This will sound arrogant but I'll throw it out anyway. I think their popularity is an illustration of just how willfully uninformed a lot of people are about political parties and issues these days. If you look through UKIP's policies it reads like it was written by Glenn Beck and yet people are voting for them anyway. I wonder how many would vote for them if they actually did some reading up on the things they're complaining about. I mean we've got one UKIP politico here who says the UN climate treaty was an attempt to "impose a communist world government".

WTF?

 

UKIP seems like the Tea Party in the US. It gains popularity when the government isn't doing so well, but loses it once people see how wacky their ideology is. Tea Party republicans are actually wanting to split from the party and become the FAR far right, which would make Democrats stronger.

I wouldn't worry about them, unless one of their nominees gains an office of power.

 

They could well get a 15% share of the vote and not a single MP come 2015 thanks to First Past The Post being a broken electoral system. Pretty hilarious.

They'll do well in the European election though, and could beat the Tories if there's a low turnout. It's not too practical to have a parliament full of MEPs who'd rather said parliament didn't actually exist...

 

I once heard they said that '29 million romanians and bulgarians would be trying to get into britain'. The combined population of those countries is 27 million.

 

What does the UK Independence Party want independence from? : 3

 

Their brains.

 

Really, voting UKIP should be a hate crime.

 

Following the economic recession in europe, many ultra conservative partys are showing up. Like the Golden Dawn party in greece, truly worrying, in America, the far right is in control, your lucky it's not that bad yet.

 

Amusing it is, but I won't be laughing if they were to get in. I'd be running for my (hopefully metaphorical) life. Thankfully, they won't. But they're still dangerous.

 

I know it won't happen. Just saying it would be bad if it did.

As for the referendum, perhaps. I'd be too worried the idiots would choose to leave, and then the UK would be even less accountable for its stupidity than it currently is. Though it would be nice to stop people whining about how bad the EU is.

The thing is, aside from anything else, I strongly suspect the UK will lose all relevance in the world if it leaves. I don't really care about that, but the type of person to want 'independance' probably does. It would be pretty satisfying to watch.