Hypocrisy is alive and well on Planet British Politics!

The heading to this blog does state that it sometimes strays into the area of politics.  With only a couple of weeks, or so, until the next UK General Election, it would seem appropriate to add one just now.

In other places, I have made no secret of my current support for the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), and its leader, Mr Nigel Farage.  I am aware that one ought not to judge a book by its cover, but even the fact that Mr Farage almost invariably is seen in public wearing a tie, warms me to the man!  However, any political Party is only a s good as its policies, so I have taken the trouble to look at what UKIP claim to be their policies, and not simply what the MSM (main-stream media) - and especially the left-wing-biased, partly EU-funded, BBC - claim are UKIP's policies.

Indeed, I am unaware of a greater campaign against a single Party, by all in opposition to it, than what is currently going on with regard to UKIP.  Let's take one or two of the slurs that are cast at UKIP, and see if there is any truth in them.

"It's a one-issue Party.  Get out of Europe!"  That used to be said about the SNP.  However, while their stated aim - through their current leader - is still to break up the United Kingdom, no-one would claim that that was all that they have to offer!  Similarly with UKIP.  Of course they want to take us out of the unaccountable, dishonest, corrupt EU - and every poll seems to suggest that the majority of the British public agree with them on that.  However, a quick look at their own website (http://www.ukip.org) will quickly dispel that false rumour.  Go to "Learn about UKIP" and, on the drop-down menu, click on "Policies for People".  There you will find a list of well-planned, sensible, policies covering everything from Agriculture and Fishing, through Democracy and the Constitution, to The National Health Service.  I counted a total of seventeen different areas, each one well "fleshed out".  So much for a "one-issue Party"!

Another slur that is constantly made by those who oppose the rise in the popularity of UKIP is that it is a "rascist" Party!  Of course, the term 'rascist' is misleading.  To the best of my knowledge, there is only one human race - I am a part of it, and so is an Australian Aborigine!   UKIP cannot even be accused, justly, of being nationalist.  It has supporters, and candidates, in both Scotland and Wales:
two separate nations - as both the SNP and Plaid Cymru are fond of telling us.  What UKIP is is, as the name suggests, a United Kingdom Party.  It stands for the whole of the United Kingdom of Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) and Northern Ireland.  However, if one wishes to look at the 'ethnic' make-up of UKIP, then one discovers that, in percentage figures, it has one of the highest number of 'non-Caucasian' candidates standing at the forthcoming election!  

Closely allied to the 'racist' slur, is the misinformation supplied by opponents with regard to UKIP's policy on immigration.   Please read the section on "Controlling and Managing our Borders" in the list of Policies to which I have already directed you.  You will quickly realise that, if you believe that UKIP will repatriate hard-working, settled, immigrants who are paying their own way, and who have integrated with their local community, then you have been lied to, deceived, and conned by the MSM.

One final comment.  It is a well-known adage that "Imitation is the highest form of flattery".  Look at some of the Policy announcements made, in recent weeks, by the traditional Parties.  Then check back in newspaper accounts of statements made by UKIP.  You will discover, perhaps to your surprise, that many of those policies and ideas, have been 'stolen' from UKIP!  The most recent one concerns the televised "Leaders' Debate".  During that debate, Nigel Farage raised the issue of "health tourism", and pointed out that foreign nationals with HIV were coming to the UK for treatment on the NHS, at no cost to themselves, having never paid a penny into the system, and at a cost of some £25,000 per year for antiretroviral drugs.  Interestingly, in a statement made today, we discover that “From April 2015, the Secretary of State for Health is for the first time exercising the power under the National Health Service Act 2006 to calculate charges for overseas visitors on a commercial basis, which may include a reasonable profit element.”   It is surely pertinent to ask why, if this power has been available since 2006, it is only now being exercised - weeks before a General Election, and days after the Leader of UKIP raised the issue!

I could go on - and will probably publish another post on the issue.  My only request is that, if you are entitled to vote in the UK General Election to be held on May 7th, 2015, you look at what the Parties themselves say about themselves, and not what the opposition says about them; remembering that the traditional Parties have a track record of making multiple promises before an election - and promptly forgetting them afterwards!  UKIP are the 'new kid on the block'.  They may not, in the event, do any better than any of the others.  I believe that it is still worth giving them the opportunity to show the nation what they can do.  After all, we can vote them out again in five years time!