How much of a threat is UKIP

Reckoned with

They are a serious threat and I fear my grandchildren will experienced a country which will be far right

I think it's very worrying, although it's difficult to know what influence UKIP will have after leaving the EU, when their whole reason for existence will have gone.

The Labour Party has always been a broad church. Although its roots are in the trade unions, it's always had wide support from intellectual socialists with various beliefs. New Labour 'Blairites' have complicated the picture. Somehow or other the various branches need to start working together, but I'm not sure that's possible any more.

With talk of a new centre party, the danger is that the Conservatives will have a permanent majority, because the opposition would be split.

I doubt if there's much chance that UKIP will ever form a government. Firstly, they're always squabbling and secondly, I think the liberal (with a small 'l') voters would come out in force to defeat them. Nevertheless, they will influence the major parties, as they did with the call for a referendum, and could let in Conservatives by default if the opposition is split.

twitter.com/Channel4News/status/747761311358955521

Hitler youth have no place in Britain.

Hitler youth have no place in the world

F arage is far more dangerous and clever than people think. Seeing him interviewed at the Somme yesterday made my blood chill. He is incredibly manipulative.

He has just been on the BBC news and they seem to be treating him as the leader of the country. Why??

Channel 4 interviewer gave him a hard time just now; no wonder the govt want to get rid of Ch4....

On another thread, there are a number of references to Farage becoming an MP "in the north". I'm another northerner who says loudly, NO we don't want him. I live in a constituency with a good Labour MP. We've always been a Labour-Con marginal but at the last election, our MP said he was most worried about Ukip.
Unless the main parties shape up I fear that the poverty, lack of employment opportunities etc will mean there is a risk that Ukip or other right wing parties can make merry .

Exactly that is what is so worrying. iam

Last night on the news I saw Farage saying to the EU parliament, "I came here years ago saying I was going to get Britain out of the EU, and you all laughed. You aren't laughing now". No, they weren't, and the only person clapping was Marine Le Pen.
Then the Channel 4 reporter interviewed him, and he was very jolly, claiming what he said was 'banter'. I have never liked the man, but that was chilling.

Totally agree with "whitewave". We need to let the dust settle, have a general election under a PR basis and then a second EU referendum. I've felt disaffected for years and put that largely down to the electoral system.

Now that Farage has shown his true colours he will either be consigned to political trashcan and I hope this does not happen become a popular hero.

How do you propose the next general election of under a PR basis Merseymog? If you can manage to achieve that, I will be thrilled. There was a vote on PR a few years ago, it was not supported by the majority.

Your final sentence may have a word missing I suspect, either that or are you suggesting Farage should become a popular hero?

The vote wasn't on PR, it was for the AV system. It failed because those who wanted a proper STV system knew if they brought in AV nothing else would ever change.
Right now there is as good a chance as ever. In order to get a truly representative government, as a coalition, I am even willing to accept that UKIP will have to be part of it.

I'd disagree with you to some extent yggdrasil. I think much of the vote was an anti-Clegg vote - which perhaps should have been a warning to Cameron

Question

If PR had been introduced what would be the situation regarding the UKIP voter numbers in the last General Election , might they have more MP's in Westminster??

Over 4 million+ voted UKIP in the last election. How many labour voters will vote for them next time now that their leader has shown his true colours, quiet a few I would imagine.

It looks as though UKIP has caught the 'falling out' bug. Listen to Farage's opinion of UKIP's only MP, Douglas Carswell...

audioboom.com/boos/4771769-nigel-farage-on-douglas-carswell-we-find-someone-within-the-party-who-doesn-t-agree-with-what-the-party-stands-for

Meanwhile, Arron Banks, who wants to 'rebrand' UKIP probably without Farage, is supporting Andrea Leadsom for Conservative Party leadership.

What's going on?

This is a transcript of Farage talking about Carswell for people who don't want to click on the link...

“What would he know? We find someone in our party who doesn’t agree with anything the party stands for. It’s a very odd state of affairs. I don’t get involved with [expulsions]… That will be up to the party’s NEC to decide on Monday… It is a very odd state of affairs. Why would you join a party like UKIP with me as the leader, and with our policies and manifesto, and from almost day one of joining disagree with everything we do. I find it really, really odd.”

The rumour is that Carswell is going to be expelled from UKIP.

I think the PR system used for the Welsh Assembly election recently let in 7 (seven!) UKIP members.
I can't see how PR could help keep UKIP out of power.

Carswell sounded very wavery on QT I thought, perhaps he is hoping to jump ship. (Again)

I think Carswell is about to be pushed. Maybe he'll jump before then.

He's always been an oddball in Ukip. He believes absolutely in free trade and free movement of people, so has never shared Ukip's beliefs about capping immigration.

I think there's something more going on...

I don't think PR would keep Ukip out of power, but it would show up their lack of positive ideas and make them accountable for what they say and do. That's what happened with the BNP when they won council seats. People saw through the sham when they couldn't deliver what they promised.

At the moment they get quite a few votes in my area, despite a near-zero level of immigration of any kind. They do very little visible campaigning although there is, of course, the possibility that they are phoning people. They just sit back and let the national media win votes for them. It is very concerning.