To not understand why working class people might support UKIP?

[Scarletohello]

They are so far to the right of the Tories but it seems like UKIP are gaining more support from working class people than the middle class. Just because Nigel Farrage smokes fags and likes a pint does not mean that he has anything to offer the working class. Is it just because they are brainwashed by The Sun and The Daily Mail? I find it really worrying as I think they are a very divisive and dangerous influence in British society. Blaming immigrants for our problems is not the solution and is not only scapegoating sections of society but not offering any real solutions to the problems we face.

Crackpots and little Englanders

That's UKIP

I love it when one member decides to express their true feelings - usually racist or xenophobic conceptions of the foreign or how women should know their place or how the bible is all literally true - and Farage is forced to boot them out.

FFS there is nothing 'neo-fascist' about UKIP. Some aspects are a little unsavoury but they are hardly Neo-Nazis.

Yes there is.

Lots of Working class people support Tory too.

And BNP.

There is no 'mass' immigration

More of us fuck off to Spain and eat roast dinners while complaining in loud English about the 'locals' than there are Polish builders

A very patonising OP imo. Basically suggesting that 'working class people' are too stupid to understand the implications of voting for UKIP.

A very Victorian mind-set no? Something you might expect a Tory to say.

A Devil's Advocate might opine that unrestricted immigration from Eastern Europe has driven down the wages of the working classes.

A Devil's Advocate might opine that unrestricted immigration from Eastern Europe has driven down the wages of the working classes.

or opine that if decent wages were paid and the benefits system adjusted to allow people to take seasonal work without having to jump through numerous hoops to get benefits back when the work dries up, the eastern europeans wouldn't be in so much demand, certainly when it comes to harvesting produce.

From personal experience in a rural, low wage area with many new eastern European immigrants, UKIP are popular with those who see their livelihood destroyed by the incomers. Those who say it doesn't happen haven't lved through it.
In a local large village there are is a large dairy owned by a national chain, they make many well known brands. They were the major employer in the area. A few years ago they started to employ eastern Europeans, at the same time they changed everyones contacts with the end result that the place is now entirely staffed by immigrants on minimum wage, no shift payments, no pensions, no local people working there as they can't afford to live on the slave wages.

The same thing has happened to local firms. One meat packing plant only advertises in Poland, despite the high local unemployment, as that way they can get cheaper labour.

As builders family members are fed up of the oft repeated line "there's an eastern European who will work for less...."

So people vote UKIP because they are the only party who seem to address this. Labour have betrayed the working class and the tory's don't care so who is left? FWIW I don't think people really want Farage for PM, at least, I hope not.

The WC have been disproportianately impacted by the knock-on effects of mass immigration over the past 4/5 decades.

UKIP are making quite a thing out of immigration, so I can see why the WC might be supporting UKIP as I can see that it might superficially seem a good idea to a demographic group who feel ignored and unrepresented (doesn't mean I agree).

Takingbackmonday - PS - Owen Jones is an utter moron.

Really? What is it that gives you that impression? I find his analysis well-researched, thorough and logical.

Do you just mean you don't agree with him?

No mass immigration?? What on earth do you mean Laurie?

There is no 'mass' immigration

In the 2011 census there were more than a million Latvians/Lithuanians/Poles etc living in England and Wales

In the 2011 census there were more than a million Latvians/Lithuanians/Poles etc living in England and Wales
Oooo that's so scary, especially when you consider that there are approximately 56.5 million people in England and Wales.

From the ONS:

The estimated flow of international migrants to England and Wales in the year to 30 June 2012 was 468,900 and estimated outflow for the same period was 313,500. This means that net migration at 155,500 in the year to mid-2012 is lower than that seen in recent years.

Mass immigration is historical fact link here

We would have struggled to get from the mono-cultural, mostly white, UK of the 1940s to the current multicultural without it, wouldn't we?