Libertarian UK Independence Party (UKIP) surges in local elections

[FreakyLocz14]

UKIP looks to have elected about 150 councilors, and to have won 26% of the popular vote, which is the best showing for a minor party in the UK since World War II!

Most of UKIP's success came at the expense of the Tories and the Lib Dems, as they seem to be attracting disaffected former supporters of the parties currently in power.

UKIP's biggest platform point was opposing the regulatory burden that is placed upon Britain by the EU.

I can see an analogy with the Republican Party's problems here in the US. The GOP swore that they didn't need to appeal to libertarian-leaning voters to win, and they were proven wrong big time! Most younger conservatives and conservatives of color have a libertarian-bend.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/pol...s-to-best-ever-showing-winning-150-seats.html

 

[TRIFORCE89]

Good, I say. The greater the choice of viable parties, the better.

 

[Ivysaur]

Well, I still want to know how they'll do at general elections. These were just local council elections, and in a really favourable set of conditions: mid-term, with the Government suffering from the heat, the Conservatives losing thousands of votes and the Liberal-Democrats (nothing to do with American terminology btw) being almost wiped out to single-digit numbers.

Not only that, but these areas were specially conservative to begin with- while the last general election was CON 36 - Labour 29 - LIB 23 - 3 UKIP, here, the previous results were CON 44 - LAB 13 - LIB 24 - UKIP 5. It's similar to holding local elections in Texas and being surprised because the Tea Party does well.

Yesterday's results were CON 25 - LAB 29 - LIB 14 - UKIP 23. So the Conservative vote split almost equally between them and UKIP and the Liberal vote returned to Labour. The split in the right allowed Labour to win the popular vote- and, in the general elections, with a First-Past-The-Post system, means that the Tories will have it very hard to hold off seats they won by a slim majority last time, since Labour is recovering all the votes they lost to the Libs last time and now it's the Tories that are splitting their voting share between two candidates, the "traditional" and the "Tea Party" one. Except with no primary or anything similar, both run at once- which is a blessing for the opposition. Labour looks really strong to win the General Election in 2 years.

And yeah, UKIP is as close to the Tea Party as the UK is going to get. "IP" means "Independence Party", as they originally were a single-issue party whose goal was secession from the European Union -the UK is already outside the economical union and looks more likely to leave than to join a possible political federation, but they wanted to downright leave, and now if possible. They don't care as much how big the Government is as long as all the ministers speak English and drink tea.

But yeah, they have a added a lot of typical ultra-conservative stuff: opt out of the European Convention on Human Rights (which they call a "criminal charter"), cut Government spending, put a cap in immigration levels, ban any and all immigrants from ever getting welfare benefirts (native Brits only!- doesn't count if you get naturalized as a Briton, either), stop promoting multiculturalism, ban gay marriage (civil unions only), bring back death penalty and permanent life imprisonment without the chance of ever being allowed back out, create "boot camps" for young offenders, increase defence spending by 40% and build four more nuclear submarines, turn the National Healthcare System into an optional voucher system, remove jobseekers' allowances, support coal-fired power and oppose wind farms, stop funding UN's climate change panel and, last but not least, ban schools from showing Al Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth.

I wouldn't ever consider even looking at one of their ballots, much less putting it into a box.

 

[TRIFORCE89]

And yeah, UKIP is as close to the Tea Party as the UK is going to get. "IP" means "Independence Party", as they originally were a single-issue party whose goal was secession from the European Union -the UK is already outside the economical union and looks more likely to leave than to join a possible political federation, but they wanted to downright leave, and now if possible. They don't care as much how big the Government is as long as all the ministers speak English and drink tea.

But yeah, they have a added a lot of typical ultra-conservative stuff: opt out of the European Convention on Human Rights (which they call a "criminal charter"), cut Government spending, put a cap in immigration levels, ban any and all immigrants from ever getting welfare benefirts (native Brits only!- doesn't count if you get naturalized as a Briton, either), stop promoting multiculturalism, ban gay marriage (civil unions only), bring back death penalty and permanent life imprisonment without the chance of ever being allowed back out, create "boot camps" for young offenders, increase defence spending by 40% and build four more nuclear submarines, turn the National Healthcare System into an optional voucher system, remove jobseekers' allowances, support coal-fired power and oppose wind farms, stop funding UN's climate change panel and, last but not least, ban schools from showing Al Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth.

I wouldn't ever consider even looking at one of their ballots, much less putting it into a box.

Isn't it funny how these kind of so-called populist, anti-politics/establishments parties are the most political?

 

[Dakotah]

It is, and they are. They are the embodiment of an oxymoron. It's enough to make you scratch your head in confusion. Probably explains why so many people, both male and female, start to lose their hair.

Here's an example of UKIP politics:

The new energy spokesman for the UK Independence Party (UKIP) in Scotland, has come under heavy criticism for saying that "selfish" gay people are "deeply hostile" to straight people, and that they are trying to "destroy our society".

Michael Haseler, who was recently appointed the energy spokesman for UKIP's Scottish wing, went on to say that politicians in favour of equal marriage were attempting to "redefine marriage in their own perverse concept of society".

Source: http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2013/05/0...ing-selfish-gays-want-to-destroy-our-society/

 

[Mana1]

In my eyes, UKIP are just another BNP-esque party. The only difference is they have used current, viable agendas to gain momentum and avoided addressing their more controversial ideas.

Sadly, the British public - especially those who are on low income and suffering financially at the moment - are fixating on 'now' rather than the future. Many people fail to recognise that the changes the Conservatives have put in place are actually beneficial, and would rather have the government spends more money (or pass the blame to immigrants and minorities).

 

[Amore]

Despite the fact that the UKIP candidate in my area was the only one I didn't dislike already, I abstained from voting due to the fact that they are a dangerous bunch of right-wing lunatics and the closest thing we have to the Boston Tea Party (just don't get me started on the event the latter are named for).

I seriously worry what will happen if they ever get into government. It's bad enough that if the Conservatives stay in power an in/out referendum on the EU has been promised (although Cameron could always not grant it and then apologise like Nick Clegg on Uni fees - the reason why I didn't vote Liberal Democrat). And although I'm not sure about SwiftSign's claim that the Conservatives' changes are beneficial (but that's because I don't really know which way we were heading pre-coalition, and there's no such thing as an un-biased opinion in politics), anything UKIP did would be bad for the country.

 

[Eruption]

Who knew there'd be a thread involving British Politics on PC? Great.

Personally, I think this can only be a good thing. UKIP will struggle to get enough parliamentary influence to enforce any of their policies yet they will cause the decentralisation of the major parties. It should just shift the Conservatives and Labour Party back to their traditional positions rather than adopting such similar policies.

 

[Amore]

And you would argue that by having the two main parties further to the right/left things would be better?

I personally would much rather we have something in the centre. It means they don't have to spend quite as much time disassembling each other's work. Sadly, regardless of what Labour does, the Conservatives are going to swing further right and basically become UKIP in order to get rid of them.

 

[Eruption]

It's down to personal opinion really, but ideally I'd like the two main parties to see policy as more important than getting votes from all areas of society.

Admittedly it can hinder governments when they come into power having to 'fix' the previous government's work.

 

[Rogue planet]

There's no jobs because of all those bloody immigrants you know!

I personally would enjoy to see one of these clueless parties gain some power. Things need to be shaken up a bit, and people need to realise how good we actually have it right now. The only reason Cameron has seen such success is because both Clegg and Miliband are pitifully useless, can we have a real centre-left party please?