Over at Taki's Magazine, Tim Worstall has posted an interesting piece celebrating the success of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) in the recent EU Parliament elections.
They came in second, ahead of the ruling Labour Party, and way ahead of the British National Party (BNP).
Like the BNP, they have taken a strong stand on immigration: "We will freeze immigration for five years, speed up deportation of up to a million illegal immigrants by tripling the numbers engaged in deportations, and have 'no home no visa' work permits..."
Unlike the BNP, they are not a "whites only" club. Also unlike the BNP, they have sound conservative policies on the economy, on education, on welfare...in fact, on pretty much everything, so far as I can tell.
Not to mention that their signature issue is opposition to British absorption into the abomination that is the EU[SSR].
So what's not to like, here?
Comments (12)
The fact that they haven't drafted Daniel Hannan to speak for them.
Posted by Mike T | June 18, 2009 3:47 PM
They aren't hated like BNP is. They are respectable, so they will chicken out in the end to do anything.
Posted by Old Atlantic | June 18, 2009 3:58 PM
Mike T: If UKIP could snag Daniel Hannan, I think I'd get on the next boat to the land of my ancestors & claim refugee status so I could work for him & for them.
Old Atlantic: Well, yeah - that's the fear.
Posted by steve burton | June 18, 2009 4:31 PM
I did notice that in the run up to the election UKIP had a starting message they would stop immigration when you went to their website. That was positive. Its gone now. But they also want to drain votes from BNP.
The word immigration is not on their front page. There is, however, a border control video. On their policies page its second from the bottom. So they have already de-emphasized it from the election.
Posted by Old Atlantic | June 18, 2009 5:49 PM
Allow me to quote from Nick Griffin's acceptance speech:
"I do not want to talk about mass immigration. Everybody knows the British people have had enough of it. Everyone knows where we stand. Everyone who's listened to me on the television knows we want to shut the doors, remove the illegals, the bogus asylum seekers, and everybody else who contributors to our society, who pays into our society, whether they're born here or if they've come more recently, if they're here legally and they're contributing we have no problem with them at all. There's nothing more to say."
He then goes on to talk about how his first priority when he gets to Brussels will be to fight privatization.
I suppose when a mainstream party downplays its stance on immigration after an election, it's to be expected. But when the BNP starts doing this, well, what's the world coming to?
Posted by Blackadder | June 18, 2009 10:59 PM
As someone who is broadly sympathetic to UKIP the one thing I don't like is that their leader is abit of a hothead, replace him with Daniel Hannan and they'd be instantly more likable.
Posted by Jack | June 19, 2009 5:35 AM
Old Atlantic: Interesting. It may be that UKIP is, fundamentally, just as "wet" as the Tories. If so, I may be forced, against my will, to take another look at the BNP. I must say that Nick Griffin's Independent interview, linked today by Auster, wasn't half bad.
Of course, it's easy to shine by comparison when you're being interviewed by such a hopeless jackass!
Posted by steve burton | June 19, 2009 3:00 PM
Steve, glad to see you have an open mind for BNP despite it being forbidden to.
Posted by Old Atlantic | June 19, 2009 4:42 PM
There's at least one thing not to like about this that I can think of: It came from Takimag.
Nothing good ever comes out of that strange place; it is simply an eddy collecting the detritus of unbalanced thinkers who do not deserve the name "conservative." Like Thomas Fleming's Chronicles, its readership does not really know what to think or believe, but they look to the magazine to rouse their unarticulated passions. Consequently, it is nothing but a collection of extraneous journalists, preaching to a very weird choir.
Posted by Matt Beck (Man of the West) | June 19, 2009 7:40 PM
Hilarious: Half of you on here want Tory Eurosceptic window dressing Dan Hannan running UKIP when he is clearly there as Con misdirection so that Ken Clarke can continue the Tory stampede into the EU and the euro, and Call Me Dave and Goergie Porgy Osbourne can get their EU commissioner jobs after one term in Westminster.
The other half want "tougher " talk on immigration from the BNP and complain UKIP is as 'wet' as the Tories! What do you suggest, gas chambers, forced repatriations, ghettos ( pretty much there already!)?
No middle gound of course, just Tory lite or Nazi heavy! Thanks God back in the real world most people prefer the middle course!
Posted by paul wiffen | June 20, 2009 8:48 AM
Mr. Wiffen: thanks for your interesting comment.
I can't speak for anybody but myself, but what *I* would like is for UKIP to stay strong on its sensible stands against mass immigration and EU hegemony.
If they can woo away from the Tories smart & eloquent Eurosceptics like Daniel Hannan, so much the better.
I'm puzzled by your second paragraph. I don't see anybody here wanting "'tougher' talk on immigration from the BNP," or complaining that UKIP "*is* as 'wet' as the Tories" - just worried that it could move in that direction as it gains "respectability." So long as it doesn't, it has a friend in me.
Posted by steve burton | June 20, 2009 5:05 PM
Matt Beck:
Taki's is undoubtedly a very "strange place" - hosting, as it does, everybody from Patrick Buchanan to Rajib Khan, from Tom Piatak to Justin Raimondo, from Steve Sailer to Paul Gottfried, etc.
The only thing that seems to tie them together is that they all really, really hate "neo-cons." (Rajib Khan, perhaps, excepted - he's too busy being a data-naut to spare any time for primitive human feelings like hatred!)
But "nothing good ever comes out?" I totally disagree. The site is full of smart, lively, quirky stuff.
Posted by steve burton | June 20, 2009 5:29 PM