Just for the avoidance of doubt I am not a UKIP party member and will not be voting at all on May 2nd. However I cannot say that I am put off UKIP by Tory Grandee Kenneth Clarke labelling its leaders as clowns and anyone voting for it as a racist. In fact such a pathetic attack merely makes me think even less of Call Me Dave’s Tories and of the fat old fool that is Ken Clarke.
Clarke states that UKIP is largely a protest by folks against the established parties. He may be correct. The established parties have produced a political class which has engaged in systematic expenses fiddling and extraction of ever more cash from the public purse. And on issues such as the EU they are almost united in ignoring the wishes of most voters. They are an out of touch elite. And with his cushy non-executive directorships as a sideline and having supported every doomed Euro project from the ERM to Britain’s membership of the Euro, the fat complacent Clarke is a typical member of that class.
Rightly many of us view the lot of them with contempt. If the political class get a bloody nose from UKIP in largely irrelevant local elections on May 2nd they deserve it.
As it happens I disagree with UKIP on immigration. Listening to Nigel Farage’s speech at UKInvestor Show I winced as he touched on the issue and also on that of gay marriage which I support. My partner (female and British Asian) has real problems with UKIP on these sort of matters and I can understand why.
But the EU is an important matter for me as is the way that the mainstream parties are all committed to pissing away billions on tackling the non-issue of global warming and are failing to tackle the appalling finances of Bankrupt Britain. And I do hold the entire political class in contempt for their corruption. And so I would not mind UKIP doing well on May 2nd. Being told that I am a racist for feeling that way just makes me despise Clarke and his ilk all the more. What the fat old fool is effectively saying is “to prove that you are not a racist you must support the established clique of corrupt politicians who ignore your views on a range of matters.” What a horrible man Clarke is.
As to UKIP being led by clowns? Well maybe. But look who makes the charge. Farage strikes me as rather more credible than a lifetime career politician who has feathered his own nest with big business directorships on the side and who has on almost every great issue since he took part in stabbing Margaret Thatcher in the back got it 100% wrong.
Across Europe, from Greece to Ireland electorates are revolting against established political classes who are corrupt and out of touch. The fat old men who have run Greece or France or Spain have far more in common with each other and with Ken Clarke than any of them have with their own electorates.
In some places this revulsion leads to support for truly loathsome and unpleasant anti-establishment parties (Golden Dawn in Greece, the Front Nationale in France or Sinn Fein in Eire). In others it is UKIP style parties who are surging. There are clearly a few nutters in UKIP who hold rather vile views but a few nutters does not represent the whole party. As an outlet for justifiable anger I’d rather the outlet was UKIP than some of the darker forces at play elsewhere in the Evil Empire.
Instead of insulting the vast numbers of folk who has had enough of the mainstream parties people like Ken Clarke might consider why they have had enough. UKIP is not the problem. It is men like Ken Clarke who are the problem.