Oh and expel all immigrants who moved to the UK since 2004.

Aside from privatizing education, I wouldn't call any of those policies libertarian.

Me neither

Would like to see what the UKIP says about itself instead of what others say about it, but its website is down. :-(

They probably weren't expecting this morning's traffic, here is there manifesto Tolstoy:
http://www.ukip.org/media/pdf/UKIPmanifesto1304a.pdf

The arrogant and incompetent European elite leaves no choice but for this kind of party to become wildly popular.

SYnapse, as usual, is talking a load of Bull. His 'expel all immigrants' nonsense refers to a UKIP policy of leaving the European Union. Naturally non British EU citizens in the UK will be required to get a VISA, apply for British citizenship (which will have a strict points based system) or leave. EU citizens living in Britain for 7 years or more will be allowed to bypass the points system.

Their policies are generally poorly defined as they are a small party on the national stage and lack any MPs at Westminster, but aside from leaving the EU and restricting immigration they are rather fond of the flat tax and the like.

They make a rather fun protest vote and are a well meaning bunch of decent people who will never win real power.

Octavious, I took those policies directly from their manifesto (see the link above)

The problem with voters in general is they don't bother to read the manifesto and then get all angsty when the Human Rights Act is abolished (again, please read their manifesto)

"Ensure all EU citizens who came to Britain
after 1 January 2004 are treated in the same
way as citizens from other countries"

This is by far the best part of their manifesto however:
"Repeal the 1998 Human Rights Act and
withdraw from the European Convention on
Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms"

"Ban schools from using global warming
propaganda such as Al Gore’s film ‘An Inconvenient
Truth’"

"Give Parliament powers such as treaty
ratification and consent for declaring war"

@ SYnapse

I take it from your manifesto post that you agree with my description of their immigration policy and acknowledge that your own statement that UKIP will "expel all immigrants who moved to the UK since 2004" was in fact complete bull?

As for your other highlights, I don't see what you find shocking. They have no intention of abolishing human rights, but intend to take away the current laws which the public hugely dislike and replace it with a new set of British human rights (which in practise will largely resemble what we already have). I also see nothing wrong in wanting to ban distinctly biased quasi-scientific documentaries, and increasing the powers of parliament over the PM sounds a great idea.

But, in all seriousness, why read this manifesto? It only applies if they get power in Westminster, which will not happen any time soon. Also, their 2010 manifesto will not apply not the next election anyway and taking it as gospel would be foolish. In local elections (such as this one) none of it is relevant.

Hey, I'm a libertarian, let's start banning books and give greater powers to declaring war!

Seriously, if you don't find this party repulsive, you don't understand the underlying message behind their policies.

They're not banning books, they want to ban teachers from playing biased documentaries in science lessons and giving them undue legitimacy.

What do you think their underlying message is, SYnapse?

Well good thing my family moved to the UK in 1997, I'd like to keep my foreign citizenship thank you very much. And I don't really fancy leaving as my entire life is here.
I really don't think it matters. With the voting system we have in the UK, No party other than the Conservatives or Labour really stand a chance in the foreseeable future to get a hold of any real power. So I'm really not fussed about what they say.

Octavious, I simply do not have the energy to debate this with you.

They are not banning bias, they are banning the teaching of global warming.

No they're not. I dare say some of them would want to, but that's not what that manifesto quote says.

UKIP are a perfectly legitimate party with perfectly legitimate views and a membership of hard working people who want to do their best for the country. Pretending they are some nest of racists and lunatics, as you seem to be trying to do with your lies about their immigration policy, does a disservice to politicians and democracy as a whole.

There appears to be some confusion between the BNP and UKIP in this thread.

Speaking of which, with 32 of 34 councils declared the BNP have won 0 council seats :)

More depressingly, the Idle Toad Party have also lost their seat :(.

Who will speak up for workshy toads now?!?

Conservatives have 17/ 32 so far, but have lost 10.

Is this a victory or a failure do you think?

Conservatives, 17 of 32, Labour 2 of 32?

It's hard to tell, really. Local councils are a poor measure of national opinion, especially in the odd UK system in which it was mostly just rural English councils that voted in this wave. It is traditional centre right heartlands, so you would expect centre right parties to dominate (which they did) and it's mid term so you would expect the governing parties to suffer a bit (which they did).

I think UKIP have been flattered slightly. I expect them to kick arse in the Euro elections, but not to make any headway for the national elections.

The Tories, all things considered, haven't suffered a great deal. I think they will be quietly satisfied with how it went.

Labour will be worried that, despite everything, there isn't a huge flock towards them. They should be hugely more popular than they are in the mid term of a Tory gorvernment if they plan to win.

The Lib Dems will be crying into their milk.

The Idle Toads will riot on the ponds of London

"There appears to be some confusion between the BNP and UKIP in this thread."
"Pretending they are some nest of racists and lunatics, as you seem to be trying to do with your lies"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-22349676

Make no mistake. UKIP are the BNP for intellectuals.

The fact that parliament has no say in who to declare war on can be a very good thing. It increases the negotiating power of a government that, in a democratic country, has democratic legitimacy of its own. Such a government can always be sent home by means of a vote of no-confidence. It's simply a matter of when and not if parliamentary control is exercised.

To ban schools from demonstrating Al Gore's movie is a bad idea as well. The question whether the earth is heating up by human actions is a scientific and not a political one, and at the moment the jury is still out, although defaults to saying that we do see climate change and it is in fact anthropogenic.

Replacing internationally observed human rights by nationally observed ones is not necessarily a bad idea, although the problem is this: when Hitler took charge of Germany, he gradually took away the rights of the German people in general, and specific groups within the population. The whole country was slowly militarized and indoctrinated and that was what finally caused the attack on England. The way a government treats its own people is often a first measure of how it will treat others and having a system of international human rights may help to guarantee that we're not sliding down such a plane again.

But all that aside, I still believe that popular support for such parties is the fault of incompetent European administration, that consistently refuses to acknowledge Britain's special place in Europe (ie physically seperated from + Britain's historical role as one of the allies during WWII)

Well said redhouse

25 posts before Godwin.

Completely agree with the last paragraph though. British people don't like the European and don't seem to feel much a connection with the 'European Community', either culturally or politically.

PS About Gore's movie: maybe it is also a political one, but in that case I'd rather instruct teachers to say that the movie may have political motivations and can only serve as a "wake up call" or "illustration" about global warning, but has limited scientific meaning.

What appears completely "wacky" to me is the EU parliament and its even wackier commission. In that sense more power to Ukip's and similar parties' elbows in general and to Mr Farage in particular.

Some of UKIP's personal policies are to allow local councils to repeal the fox-hunting ban and to allow smoking back in pubs.