Originally Posted by
TheHeathens
You will note that I didn't vote for them because without Farage, they are nothing. They didn't get a seat in my council (Trafford) and I think that they're style over substance, notwithstanding the allegations made against a number of their members.
However......I'm still not a massive fan of the EU and believe they get much more from us than we get from them. I've never cared much for the immigration argument as it's never been an issue for me but from an economic standpoint, we have the EU overruling our national Government which doesn't sit well with me.
In Brussels they look at London, the financial capital of the world, with jealousy and want to destroy it by imposing a financial transactions tax and layer after layer of regulation. Brussels itself has just become an expensive, bureaucratic behemoth and Germany exerts far too much influence over the rest of Europe (sound familiar?)
The Euro should never have happened or if it did, it should have consisted of the UK, Germany, France, Denmark, Sweden and Benelux with a Euro 2 for the Southern European States - this would have allowed them to remain competitive. As it stands, the economies are too different and it's consigned the likes of Greece, Cyprus, Spain & Portugal to decades of austerity. The best thing that ever happened to this country was John Major getting us a legal opt out of the Euro at Maastricht.
If UKIPs 15 minutes of fame makes the mainstream parties sit up and realise that they need to re-evaluate things then I don't see that as a bad thing - you've even said so yourself. Voter apathy is at an all time high and we don't know what each party really stands for - what is its 'Why?'
I'm not even advocating leaving the EU (although I wouldn't be upset if they did) but something needs to change. Thankfully, Cameron and Hollande have called for exactly that today so it looks like we could see an improved deal in the not too distant future.
So no wind up... I can't see myself ever voting for UKIP but if it makes the Tories take positive action then that's a good thing. UKIP will bomb at the general election and will be lucky to get more than one MP voted into parliament. The FPTP system has it's faults but it generally delivers a moderate government.