Thursday 24 March 2011

The problem with UKIP


Encouraged by their second place ahead of both Conservatives and Lib Dems in the recent Barnsley South parliamentary by-election,  UKIP will probably field candidates in the May 5th local elections.  The problem with UKIP in local elections is that there is no way Hedge End – or even Eastleigh – is going to withdraw from the EU on its own, so I don’t see the point in voting UKIP at local elections, even for those who want the UK out of Europe.

Unfortunately local elections these days are used by the parties as an expensive opinion poll on national issues, and that is a distortion of the democratic process.   Local elections should be used to elect the best candidate on local grounds, not to help the parties register support for their national policies.

These are the first annual elections since the formation of the coalition, and both parties will claim every council seat won as a vindication of their position and the opposition will count every seat the coalition loses as a vote against it.  Let's hope some decent, hard working, competent councillors get elected as a by-product!

4 comments:

  1. But Keith, surely Hugh McGuinness is a decent, hard working, competent and honest UKIP Parish Councillor for Bishy & Fair Oak?

    I bet he would make a good Borough Councillor too and must be preferred to another poodle.

    And he has got a moustache.

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  2. Hugh has a splendid moustache.

    It would be good if he could be elected as a parish councillor where he lives because he is decent, hard working, competent and honest, not because of his party label.

    And I have to admit that in Hedge End the only opposition to the Lib Dems on the Town Council comes from two independent candidates, myself and Jenny Schwausch and Michale O'Donoghue of UKIP. Neither Labour nor Conservatives could be bothered to put up a single Town Council candidate.

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  3. "Hugh has a splendid moustache"

    Yes, he always looks to me as if he has forgotten where he has parked his Spitfire.

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  4. Its more pointless voting UKIP in EU elections.

    MEPs have little power in the EU pariament. They cannot make law or change laws and can only beg the executive. The executive which makes the law is the EU Council (Business interests) and the 25 unelected commissioners.

    Voting UKIP in domestic elections is the only hope left.

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