UKIP: 3 Reasons why we shouldn't be worried & 3 Reasons why we should be

British Politics has a new marmite, as the BBC remove their biggest icon of political incorrectness (our friend M. Clarkson) another beacon of anti-establishment is running through our society, if you dislike Mr Farage and the United Kingdom Independence Party as they are seldom known you may wish to scroll down a little where they get a good bashing but for now let us take a look at why Mr Farage and his lot are worth having around:

Not Extremists

When it comes down to it, UKIP aren't extremists.  UKIP are further to the right than the political mainstream but 20 years ago they may as well have been the Tory party indeed UKIP is more influenced by the Thatcher years than the modern conservatives. Let us remind ourselves how popular that Government was, Thatcher tops pretty much every even opinion poll conducted on British PM's, and Mr Farage's party represent many of the core values of that government, particularly now that the left of the Tory party are in charge.

You will hear many comments from many sources that UKIP are 'racist' political party but this really doesn't hold any water.  It seems a given that racists will vote for UKIP because of their role to the right of our spectrum but the party in itself can make quite a convincing case for its position of racial equality.  UKIP will throw any public racists out of its party through a clear and open internal procedure which Mr Farage claims works very well at ferreting them out.  Secondly UKIP claims that its central goal (i.e. Leave the EU) is to remove an organisation which is indirectly racist in its own way.  UKIP claim that the freedom of movement principle is in itself a racist policy as it opens the door to millions of Europeans and that in itself discourages potential migrants from other traditional immigration powerhouses to the UK, nations in the commonwealth.  All in all UKIP are a little beyond the mainstream and they will attract the extermist vote but to claim that the UKIP vote are a bigoted ractist bunch of uneducated people is to do this party no harm at all and only angers them and makes them more likely to vote UKIP.

Look at the French

The rise of UKIP has come about with considerable disenchantment with a percieved 'political class', most UKIP voters will be doing so to try and show that they have had enough of Milliband, Clegg and Cameron who are considered out of touch, middle class and not 'real' enough for most people.  This is also the feeling across the channel, albeit backed up by the terrible economic outlook.  It is the case though that while the British are turning to Nigel and his 'Peoples army' the French appear to be turning to the Front National.  The latest hot thing on the French politic palate truly is a worrying prospect, a strident believer in French individuality Madame Le Pen is determined to bring the death penalty, the slow removal of the welfare state and remove the right of dual citizenship to French nationals. This is before we consider the Greeks whose new government are dredging up 70 years of history in a desperate attempt to renege on their international responsiblities.  All in all, 16% of the UK electorate voting for UKIP doesn't seem all that extreme now does it?

Patriotic

Britain is infamously unpatrotice about itself.  There is a variety of reasons why British nationalism is considered a little bit embarrasing, the last time we allowed patriotic fervour to catch on without the German army parked on the channel we got a bit megalomanical and took over a quarter of the world and imperialism isn't as cool as it was 200 years ago.  Whether it is hangover of this or the general blase attitude of the British mentality but we tend not to be too proud.  Nigel and UKIP are proud, they love Britain and want to seize the disenchanted into a united front of nationalism to return the most important legal house of the UK to London.  Whilst the return of nationalism may not be an overtly good thing, it looks like pride is back on the menu in British Politics and that wouldn't be unwelcome to most of the British people unless Scarler is misreading the game a little.

Now for the much more fun to right bit, this is what is why we should be worried, and I am going to take all 3 of these points straight from their website:

UKIP will amend the smoking ban to give pubs and clubs the choice to open smoking rooms properly ventilated and separated from non-smoking areas.   

The smoking ban has been one of the great successes of modern times, this is a clear attempt to get the smoker vote and will be appalling for public health 'treating smoking as a second class habit' has worked to get smoking made less accepted and it has helped our nation greatly.  I say we stick with it.

Inheritance tax will be abolished

Right now Inheritance tax only affects the richest and this would be a serious surge to the right.
  

Ending the EU freedom of movement of People

Now this one is a little obvious but this EU principle is actually very convieniant for the British people over the years, there are plenty of British people living across Europe (particularly in Spain) and even though the free movement premise isn't perfect for those people it is certainly an incredibly easy option for life and it could be very nasty for our expats living out on the continent.

Scarlet isn't sure what to make of UKIP and her voters, but it appears to me that they don't really seem worse than the average political party in the UK.