I hope they trounce the status quo.
WHAT IS ‘UKIP’, AND HOW WILL THEY DO ON MAY 22ND?
The UK Independence Party (UKIP) represents many things to many people. Like the American Tea Party, the organisation tends to be comprised of those who are fed up with the ‘establishment’, and those who feel that government is too burdensome. At large, UKIP is a conservative party with libertarian leanings. Locally, it can mean a variety of things to say you ‘vote UKIP’.
Started in 1993, UKIP is both older than most people realise, and more diverse. It was initially a primarily Eurosceptic party – that is to say it was primarily concerned with Britain’s national sovereignty, its control over its own monetary mechanisms, and eventually and naturally, with immigration figures in the United Kingdom.
Far more being ‘xenophobic’ or ‘racist’, UKIP’s objections to mass immigration into Britain were both a latter objection in its history as a political party, and a reaction to the early 2000s’ Blair government policy of ‘open borders’ immigration from Europe. It would be fair to say that nationalism and libertarianism run through UKIP in equal measure, as philosophically impossible as that may seem.
But the party, which has experienced a serious polling surge in recent years, in Britain’s ‘protest party’ of choice – a title usually held by the left-wing Liberal Democrat party, which now languishes at fourth place in local and national polls.
While UKIP enjoyed some local popularity in the late 90s and early 2000s, the party was often unfairly lumped in with the British National Party, a protectionist group whose policies lean more left than right, and latterly the English Defence League, which is nationalist-driven street protest movement.
The party really shot to fame after 2006, when Nigel Farage took the position as leader. Farage led UKIP into second place in the 2009 European Elections before standing down to fight the General Election in 2010. While he lost, Farage’s charisma and media savvy earned him a place as a regular UK political commentator, which in turn helped UKIP into polling in third place in many UK surveys from around late 2012 onwards.
Commenter Ellsworth2, says it all for me in regards to the ”philosophical impossibility” blurb:
“nationalism and libertarianism… philosophical impossibility”. It is a traditional British conservative belief that the purpose of the state is to create conditions in which the people can live freely, safe from invaders and criminals. The purpose of the modern British state appears to be the exact inverse. Your ” philosophical impossibility” is a rational expression of resentment and opposition to EU totalitarianism and the destruction of the British nation state.
