The recent election results now have everyone looking around for reasons why no one should vote for UKIP ever again, why their success is transitory, and why they will be unable to make any progress at next year's General Election. The very fact of the efforts in this direction shows just how scared the other parties are.
UKIP did not win the Newark by-election but then, realistically, they never could. What they did was to get 26% of the vote and reduce the Conservative majority by some 10,000; that's no small beer. The Labour vote declined and the Liberals were all but wiped out, having their worst by-election result since WW2. Of course, by-elections are not General Elections, but the message is clear; the people have had enough of the same old party political and largely meaningless rhetoric.
The truly frightening thing is that the political hierarchy simply has not understood the message. Across Europe, the people have expressed dissatisfaction and yet the politicians have largely continued to ignore them and carried on down the same old path, towards an 'ever closer union'. The leading candidate for the top job in the EU is a man whose best days are well behind him and is a committed federalist, Jean Claude Juncker; no one seems to be listening.
David Cameron continues to spout the twaddle about renegotiation and his supporters talk about the certainty of success; others, including the US President, tell us that leaving the EU would be at least problematic but might well spell disaster. Gloom and Doom is the message should we dare to leave this beleaguered organisation.
Numbers are thrown around. Lost jobs in their millions, lost trade in the billions; none of it substantiated and none of it real. The truth is that the EU is a vast and unnecessary bureaucracy and leaving it would be a huge relief for our country. Yes, there would be some issues to resolve but mostly it would be a far bigger problem for the rest of Europe than for the UK. We remain one of the biggest economies in the world and a major financial centre; leaving the EU would do little to change either of these while relieving us of a vast array of intrusive and controlling legislation.
Who needs straight cucumbers, open borders or economic and foreign policies determined by countries with which we have nothing in common ? It's simple - we don't. Let's get out while we still can, notwithstanding the interference of a socialist US President who has no interest but that of his own country in mind.
