UKIP took/take a lot of heat because they're new and interesting and make themselves easy targets too often. I don't think it's anything personal. Most political "journalism" isn't about politics but about headlines and website hits.
I agree.
In simply terms I think we'd lose more than people hope and gain less than they expect. I don't think it would be at all easy to establish the kind of free trade agreement with the EU given the political and economic fallout of our leaving. I don't think the raw numbers of how much we pay to Europe minus how much we receive from them would be a simple bonus if we left - there would certainly be winners and losers within the UK. I don't think it would automatically have a major impact on our immigration numbers and any major crackdown on immigration from Europe could well do us further economic and political damage. Most of the "European laws" people complain about are written in to UK law and are often little different from what we had before so I wouldn't expect much practical change there - people would just be moaning about the UK High Court rather than the ECHR.
This debate is being had, not because of it benefiting people, but because how it will affect business and our economy. That is what this boils down to. Let's take very big businesses, and we're talking about giant multi-nationals or giant megabanks, they of course will be very much in favour of EU-style regulation because, whilst it puts some costs on
them, it puts out of business smaller medium-sized competitors. It also makes the cost of entry for new participants in the market virtually impossible. So mega-business goes foot-in-shoe with Brussels. But if you then go and look in London, and look at people operating in foreign exchange, insurance, metals, commodities, equities, and fund management they are terrified of this anti-success and anti-capitalist agenda that we are hearing from Brussels, and, indeed, the hedgefund industry, 80% of which in the European Time Zone is based in St. James' Square in London, 1 in 4 headgefund
managers has left London in the last two years because they are so worried of Brussels' directives.
In terms of people, we won't see such a big change leaving the EU. Granted, we will have the extra £20bn/year bill for EU membership to spend on things like public services, granted we will finally have a cap on immigration, but actually, there will be no immediate effect.
I'm not seeking to make an argument against UKIP in favour of any of the other parties. I don't really like any of them. I've personally never voted for a political party, I vote for individual candidates to represent the constituency. Many of them happen to be in political parties, though my preference would be for a good independent. The system is grossly weighed against them though.
This is a big moment in British politics and it's very important that people vote. In fact, a lot of people say that UKIP voters are ex-Tory voters, but that is absolute nonsense. UKIP comprises of about 1/3 Tory 1/3 Lib Dem, 20% Labour and 10% of people haven't been involved in politics ever, like you. I am voting UKIP because they are about is getting this country back to the way it should be and, indeed, what many people gave their lives to making it, namely, and independent, self-governing, and democratic country.
He is indeed a better performer but that doesn't make him a better leader or governor. He is a classic example of the professional political class that has become so much about winning public approval that they forget what they're meant to do when they get in to office.
Well they aren't a football team. They can't pay to import foreign players. And building a team and building a team with people with significant national media profiles takes time. Anybody is watches politics closely will have seen Stuart Wheeler (treasure) by now, and people like Diane James who stood for UKIP in Eastleigh who has appeared on many things, so there are more UKIP faces appearing on a range of programmes. And sometimes people say: "you're a one-man party", and I say that it's better than being a no-man party really,isn't it? And at least people know who Nigel is and what he stands for (which is more than you can say for some of the 'others'). And, yes, ultimately people want to see a team of people that are fit and capable of being in government, maybe perhaps a coalition government after 2015. Political parties have to evolve and it does take a little bit of time, but I think UKIP is heading in the right direction.
