I’ve been trying to stay up to date with UK politics with the impending election looming and usually I wouldn’t even wander down the dark alleyways of right wing politics, but seeing as some of my misguided acquaintances have been subjecting me to various UKIP flavored ‘likes’ on my FaceBook feed I thought I’d better find out what all the fuss was about.
As much as there is totally reprehensible about Nigel Farage and UKIP, I feel the real danger to any political gain these stealth Tories might make, comes from their own supporters. All it takes is a quick scroll through the comments on any, and I mean any, post from UKIP on Facebook and it rapidly degenerates into talk of muslims, mosques and ‘that cruel halal muck’. Any hope of not seeming like a bunch a reactionary extremists dissolves faster than Mr. Hands’ bowels.
Take the delightful Dawn Coleman’s reply to a post originally about the armed forces:
Our Dawn certainly has some issues there, but ‘festive lights’? It’s hardly the end of the world is it?
Pat Hill implores us, lest we forget our ‘Brave Boys’ and their dietary needs:
Yup, within 2 pages of comments you tend to see the same hackneyed islamophobic rhetoric. I’m under no illusions that some parts of the UK do have large Muslim communities and some folks are threatened by this; but it’s a question of perspective – yes, the grooming gangs in Rotherham were shocking and they are being punished, but it doesn’t mean that all Muslim men are paedophiles constantly on the look out for white children to rape.
Easy for me to say with my cosy weed smoking middle class atheist lifestyle, but seriously, take a breath and look at the bigger picture; Sharia law will not be taking over the UK, but if you really give a fuck, educate yourself about human rights abuse in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Those degenerates have been chopping heads off when ISIS was only an ancient egyptian goddess, but we tend to turn a blind eye because they are essentially the Western friendly face of Islam, moreover, now aspirational because plenty of folks just love a trip to Dubai – living large in the middle east in a manufactured hell built on slavery. I digress…
I’m all for freedom of speech, but sadly social media gives a voice to many who really should remain mute, especially those who can’t spell check or grasp the concept of online privacy settings.
UKIP supporters seem think they are being branded as racists, it’s like the over used line ‘not all muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are muslim’ isn’t it guys? Sometimes on social media things escalate quickly:
Tired of getting called a racist or bigot for flying the St. George’s Flag?
You probably want to blame the far right organisations like the laughable EDL, who co-opted it as symbol of their retarded views, before blaming ‘the PC loony left’ for picking on you poor KIPPER patriots. The association with the far-right was there before Nigel Farage gurned his way though another fag and pint photo op.
I’m sure the vast majority some supporters are just ‘proud patriots’, but many of these idiots don’t understand that the UK in UKIP stands for United Kingdom, not exclusively England.
I even decided to have a proper gander at the UKIP manifesto, after all it’s only fair to be reasonable informed of the facts before railing against them.
Take immigration, the big hot-button issue – the man in the street from UKIP tends to get very confused over policy, with the bulk of the focus around stopping free movement from Europe and lots of talk about ‘The Australian Points System’ and to be fair controlled migration does make sense, but where UKIP loses the plot is it’s refusal to allow multiculturalism with fear mongering bollocks like this:
‘We reject multiculturalism, the doctrine whereby different ethnic and religious groups are encouraged to maintain all aspects of their cultures, instead of integrating into our majority culture, even if some of their values and customs conflict with British ones. We believe multiculturalism has led to an alarming fragmentation of British society.’
A little light relief from Phoenix Nights:
The main reason for UKIPs original existence was to remove the UK from the European Union, but to be honest your average supporter isn’t interested in the Europe issue, even the manifesto gets a bit weird with talk of war and trade in the same sentence:
‘Once unbound from the EU, Britain would once again take her place in the family of nations as an independent, sovereign state, free to negotiate her own trade deals and determine her own foreign policy objectives. We believe nations which trade with one another are less likely to go to war with each other and, it is on this basis, that we would seek to create a more global Britain, fully able to pursue her own interests.’
Some of the policies are just plain odd:
‘Vehicles over 25 years old will be exempt from Vehicle Excise Duty to help protect the motor industry and our classic and historical vehicles’
Well, it’s a bit of an election winner isn’t it? The classic car vote is huge among the rank and file islamophobes out there…
‘UKIP will not allow new housing to strip our nation of prime agricultural land. This must be kept for its primary purpose, creating a secure food supply for Britain and for export.’
Yet while trying to preserve ‘our green and pleasant land’ those crazy KIPPERS are very much pro-fracking:
‘UKIP supports the development of shale gas, provided safeguards are in place to protect local communities and the environment.No energy extraction technology is perfectly safe, but shale gas operations in the USA for instance, where tens of thousands of shale wells have been drilled and fracked over five decades, have proved remarkably unproblematic.’
I guess UKIP hasn’t looked that closely at the multitude of independent reports detailing groundwater contamination in the USA as a result of fracking
I find it interesting how some of UKIPs policies are almost like Britain First click-bait. Populist common sense ideas and buzzwords such as ‘The Great British Seaside’, ‘Save The Pub’:
‘Oppose minimum pricing of alcohol and reverse plain paper packaging legislation for tobacco products.’
Really? From the so called ‘Common Sense Party’ I surprised to see them openly flaunting these arse-backwards measures which would increase problem drinking and it’s associated issues and pushing tobacco back towards the mainstream. Obviously they are against decriminalisation of illegal drugs and keen to keep the war on drugs going whilst pandering to big tobacco and alcohol.
Take the various measures involving the armed forces; good old UKIP looking after Our Boys…
‘We will guarantee the offer of a job in the police service, prison service or border force for anyone who has served in the Armed Forces for a minimum of 12 years. This policy will also help meet our pledge to fund an additional 6,000 full time positions across these three organisations. We will secure our borders, get more police on the streets, have safer prisons and honour the Military Covenant.’
I look forward to coppers with pre-existing PTSD roaming the streets engaging with the aggressively alcohol impaired. I understand there is a need to look after returning troops but guaranteed jobs? Interestingly the manifesto acknowledges the detrimental effect the involvement of the West has had in Iraq, and has stated that:
‘We have to be clear: we should stand firmly alongside our allies around the world, but cannot continue committing troops into conflict at the drop of a hat – often under-resourced – and with a veterans policy that lets down those returning from the horrors of war.’
So UKIP are going to increase the Armed Forces, but not commit them into conflict as often? So what exactly are these troops going to be doing while waiting for their guaranteed job after 12 years?
Occasionally you find a real diamond in the muck, Duncan Matthews step forward:
Vote wisely my friends – don’t be a cunt.
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