Yes. And no. The fact is that UKIP's policies amount to getting out of the EU
Yes.
wasn't it nice back in the old days when ******* and ***** knew their place
Hmmm, I hear this accusation a lot but I rarely see it.
Now be clear - I'm sure the UKIP platform attracts racists. Their policy about Europe and immigration is clearly going to be a lapdance for racists, and UKIP is a much more acceptable party for racists to vote for (as compared to say the BNP). So I'm sure many UKIP voters are racists, and many members are too.
But it seems like a stretch to me to say that racism what their policies amount to.
and - especially at a local level - jumping on any bandwagon that rolls along. They've done this round our way with some very unlikely campaigns, but get away with it because they're always the outsider, smearing all politicians in the crudest of terms and saying whatever will be popular in the short term.
Yep. But there's nothing actually wrong with any of that. Indeed the whole point of having a central government made up of politicians from different regions is so that local concerns from all over play a part in how the central government does it's thing. Jumping on popular local bandwagons is part of what politicians are
supposed to do.
This isn't just hearsay. I'm involved in a significant campaign at the moment, which is taking up a lot of my time. We were recently contacted by the local UKIP candidate, asking about supporting us. That was particularly surprising, as what we're campaigning for is in direct opposition to their policy in this area, so we queried that policy and asked what practical support he could give. His response was that the other parties had let us down, and UKIP have a smattering of local councillors. That's all he said.
I don't doubt it. A bit of "politics as usual" there, going against your own beliefs to curry a little popular support. Which does run against the "card carrying true believers" idea to be sure. But he certainly wouldn't be the first politician to support something he was against to curry a little political gain - and in cases like that it's hard to judge whether it's a good trade without knowing what the issue in question was.
They're positioning themselves quite cleverly, cynically picking up populist causes to build support but always falling back on the plausibly-deniable racism of their core message if anyone tries to call them on it. And the media play along with it because they love a garrulous eccentric who gives good quote, especially when the alternative is another bland spokesdrone from any other party.
I think there's a tendency for people to claim that UKIP are just lightweight flim-flam merchants who use slimy tricks to cloak a racist message and trick otherwise nice people into voting for them. I think that people like that narrative because it lets them dismiss UKIP and what they're saying rather than engaging with it.
And I don't deny that there are probably a lot of elements of truth to that - though one could probably say similarly damming things of the main parties. But in addition to that, the truth is that UKIP have tapped into a genuine concern that a great many people have. They see British culture being diluted and foreign cultures being imported wholesale, and it concerns them.
Now you might think that's a stupid thing to be concerned about. But you don't convince people of that by pretending that those concerns don't exist or don't actually matter to people, or that they've been tricked into thinking that way.
And you certainly won't
scold people into changing their minds by telling them they're a bunch of racists.
A great many people actually have a real, honest and sincere concern about this. Mainstream politics needs to treat it as such, or those people
will go elsewhere.
. I expect some furious backpeddling and attempts to differentiate soon.
