UKIP are more than a man in a pub drinking a pint. Behind Farage's Cheshire Cat grin are some dangerous policies.
You don’t have to have real political power in Britain to shift the terms of the debate. Just look at UKIP. Despite the fact that the party is expected to do well in this year’s European Elections, it is unlikely that this will translate into anything meaningful come next year’s General Election – although don’t bet against Nigel Farage overturning Laura Sandys’ majority in South Thanet.
And yet despite this, the Tories and to a lesser extent Labour appear to be running scared of the eurosceptic party – each week both seem to unveil new ‘tough’ announcements on UKIP pet issues such as immigration and welfare.
However while having a risible influence on the mainstream, UKIP’s distance from any real political power allows the party to retain its radicalism (not actually radical at all, but rather reactionary) which those closer to the summit of power are forced to abandon (remember when Lib Dem conference used to vote to hammer the rich and unilaterally disarm?)
Behind Nigel Farage’s charisma, however, the madness remains. Farage may come across like the mildly amiable chap from everybody’s local, but he leads a party which, from a policy perspective, is completely off the scale.
UKIP aren’t simply ‘anti-politics’, but they actually stand for things, such as:
Charging NHS patients to jump waiting lists
Back in July, UKIP’s ‘health spokesperson’ John Stanley penned an article in which he argued that people requiring urgent NHS treatment should be seen within two hours – a reasonable enough proposition. However he added that those requiring non-urgent treatment should be given the option of paying so as to jump the queue ahead of those who cannot afford to:
“We should accept that if a triaging clinician feels we don’t need treating within two hours required for standard cases then we be either willing to pay or willing to wait longer so cases most deserving are treated best. People should pay a higher charge if they haven’t registered with a GP as being directed back to primary care avoids unnecessary A&E visits.”
Stanley also endorsed GPs charging to see patients and said that, under UKIP, people who qualified for free prescriptions would be exempt from the flat fee – but only if they had not been drinking.
Banning all teaching of climate change
UKIP would ban the teaching of climate change in schools were it to win the 2015 General Election, according to the party’s education spokesperson. This, despite the fact that there is a 97 per cent consensus among climate scientists supporting global warming and the fact that human emissions are behind it.
Climate ‘sceptics’ don’t publish many scientific papers (I wonder why), and UKIP doesn’t want children to know about the vast majority of papers which overwhelmingly support the idea of man-made climate change.
Last week UKIP Education spokesman MEP Derek Clark told Index on Censorship:
“We will still ban Al Gore’s video for use in schools if I’ve got anything to do with it. I will not have much opposition within the party. It is, of course, not just this video which needs banning; all teaching of global warming being caused in any way by carbon dioxide emissions must also be banned. It just is not happening.”
The party has the laziest MEPs in Europe
UKIP’s attendance record in the European Parliament is worse than that of their counterparts from the three major parties. Happy to sign-in and collect their allowances (beer money), UKIP’s nine MEPs missed around a third of the votes in the European Parliament between 2009 and October 2013.
The complete abolition of inheritance tax
Just 2.6 per cent of those who die every year pay inheritance tax. The average taxpaying estate is worth £875,000, according to HMRC. Inheritance tax raises £2.9bn a year for the Treasury from some of the wealthiest people in the country, while estates worth less than £325,000 don’t pay a penny.
And yet UKIP wants to abolish it completely.
At a time of rising inequality, redistributive policies such as inheritance tax are a symbolic bulwark against US-levels of inequality. In this respect, UKIP policy panders to the 2.6 per cent of the population who have some of the biggest estates in Britain. Play the world’s smallest violin.
Has friends on the European far-right
UKIP is part of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy group in the European Parliament (EFD). The EFD is comprised of 10 parties and one independent MEP. These include the anti-immigrant Movement for France, the ultra-nationalist Slovak National Party and True Finns.
The leader of the Slovak National Party has said the best policy for dealing with the Roma is “a long whip in a small yard”. In December 2011, an opinion poll of True Finn voters revealed that 51 per cent agreed with the statement: “People of certain races are unsuited for life in a modern society”.
Apparently this is ok with UKIP, though. In fact, anyone objecting to such alliances is liable to face severe repercussions. In 2010, UKIP expelled MEP Nikki Sinclaire after she objected to working with “extreme views” of UKIP’s political allies.
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316 Responses to “5 things voters should know about UKIP”
neilcraig
You are the one who has provided no evidence. You tell me what evidence would be sufficient to make you publicly acknowledge that there has been no warming for at least the last 16 years and that you are thus a corrupt totalitarian liar, as indeed is every ecofascist politician who not willing to acknowledge you are lying?
The Laws of Thermodynamics are as I stated and as or more basic than those of gravity or 1 + 1 = 2. Your refusal to accept them shows how wholly corrupt you are.
neilcraig
So that is your response to being shown to be an idiotic liar in claiming sea buoys are on land.
I note nobody else in the ecofascist movement has dissociated themselves from you. That is at least prima facie evidence that they are all corrupt lying fascists like you.
I await your apology.
trollthriller
You have citation after citation and graph after graph from me. YOu, on the other hand, have nothing aside from a laugh-out-loud misunderstanding of thermodynamics – which you can’t substantiate with a citation, of course.
To falsify the hypothesis of AGW you need to demonstrate any of the following:
1. CO2 does not absorb infra-red radiation.
2. There is insufficient CO2 in the atmosphere to alter Earth’s temperature.
3. Atmospheric CO2 levels are not increasing.
4. The increase does not result from human activity.
5. There is a previously unknown phenomenon that closely counteracts the effects of increasing CO2.
Points 1 and 2 have been known for 150 years, 3 and 4 for just 50 years or so.
These falsifications follow naturally from the basic physics behind the concept of AGW and should not need pointing out to anyone with even a basic understanding of what is going on.
Any arguments based on supposed ‘pauses’, etc, merely demonstrate a lack of knowledge of basic climatology or statistics, and probably both.
—
In 1973 was globally the hottest year on record (GISS O&L).
In 1987 that record was broken
In 1988 that record was broken.
In 1990 we broke it yet again.
In 1995 we broke it yet again.
In 1997 we broke it yet again.
in 1998 we broke it yet again.
In 2002 we broke it yet again.
In 2005 we broke it yet again.
And finally in 2010 is now the hottest year on record.
If we’re in a cooling, it’s funny that we are continuously breaking records high temperatures every 7 to 8 years.
From the 19th century the hottest year on record is 1889 and that was broken in 1926.
—
On the surface:
– The hottest years were 2010 and 2005.
– The hottest decade was the last decade.
– This November was the warmest on record.
Global ice loss continues – and is accelerating.
The oceans warm, rise and acidify.
Species shift polewards and upwards.
trollthriller
I can sense your frustration. I have facts and data and citations and charts. You have bluster and bullsh1t and funded disinformation on yours. You’re the little pig in a straw house. Mine is built of brick. I apologise for having science on my side.
neilcraig
If you had “facts” you would produce them (like the fact about sea buoys being on land) & I would test them. Instead you have cartoons which seems fitting.