Never read such a load of tripe in my life as I've read from the anti-UKIP brigade on here. Can do nothing better than hurl accusations of racism and xenophobia and sexism and go on about how ‘ashamed’ they are. Have you just woken up or something? Have you not been watching what has been happening in Greece, Ireland, Portugal ... even Spain and Italy. Have you not been aware of the growing tide of discontent at the meek submission to EU dictats and the forcing of an open door immigration policy on a small island, already one of the most densely populated areas of Europe, whose infrastructure is already stretched to breaking point, and which cannot police its own borders?
We are a third the geographical size of France with the same population. We are fifth the size of Germany, smaller than Italy, half the size of Spain which has less than 2/3rd our population. We are smaller than 10 of the USA's 50 states and our island would fit inside Alaska, Texas, California, Montana, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Wyoming and Oregon - take your pick. The US is 40 times bigger than us in terms of geographical size but has only 5 times the population.
We aren't a vast country like Canada or Australia or the USA (all of whom have strict immigration controls, and who quite rightly have the right to police their own borders.) We are tiny, and we simply cannot continue to have open door immigration from every part of the EU, just because Brussels tells us we must. It's got nothing to do with racism, but so many of you seem unwilling or unable to see that.
Instead of wringing your hands, moaning and groaning about sad days and feeling 'ashamed' about those of us who have finally said 'enough', look instead at the real issues that have brought about this surge in UKIP support in the first place. Look at how the concerns of ordinary people have been ignored for years. Look at the broken promises from Cameron, the ineptitude of Miliband, the arrogance of Clegg - simpering Europhiles the lot of them.
I've been watching Farage for years, and instead of taking him seriously they tried to dismiss him and his supporters as loons, and bigots, not a serious threat. Well a whole swathe of the British public have now decided they'd rather have Farage than the duplicitous, cowtowing, self-serving political muppets we've had to put up with for years. If you can't bring yourself to listen to Farage, then listen instead to the Conservative MEP Dan Hannan. You'll find plenty of his speeches on youtube. Hannan is an immigrant himself, so can hardly be accused of being a racist. Listen to what he has to say about the EU? Talks more sense than any politician I've ever heard in my life and yet sadly goes completely under the radar, and is all but ignored by his own party leadership.
What you all seem to be forgetting is that this was a European election and I (and many thousands like me) voted UKIP because I despise every molecule of the corrupt, anti-democratic, federalist, bureaucratic, monolithic gravy train that is the EU. UKIP are the only party who are willing and able to put a spanner in the works of the federalist machine that trundles on down the road of political and fiscal union. They've been doing it from inside the European parliament for years and the more UKIP MEPs we can send to Brussels the better as far as I'm concerned.
I stress again this was a European election and if you don't want to see the UKIP vote carrying through to a General Election then you would be better served in urging the parties you support to look seriously at the issues that caused so many of us to vote UKIP in the first place, instead of dismissing us as loons, racists and bigots. At the moment UKIP don't have a single MP in Westminster and if the political establishment and non-UKIP supporters don't wake up, stop hurling the insults and actually start listening, then there will be.
A good start would be a firm commitment to a referendum on continued EU membership. Not vague promises that are then reneged on, but a firm date. There is absolutely nothing to stop this happening other than the reluctance on the part of the main party leadership. Both Labour and the Conservatives have a significant number of eurosceptic MPS but their views are being suppressed or worse still ignored by their respective leadership. Forget the LibDems entirely - their sycophantic attitude to the EU makes them beyond reach for any one who is pissed off with the EU, hence the defection of so many LibDem voters (of whom I was previously one) to UKIP.
What are the main parties so afraid of? Give the people a referendum and let us decide if we want to carry on down the road to a federalist Europe. That's what democracy is.
And that's what is what you've just seen in action. Democracy. One person one vote. And some of us chose to vote UKIP. You accuse us of being bigots and racists and so on, but somehow fail to miss the irony of you finding it completely acceptable to hurl insults and make sweeping generalisations about us - some of the things I've read on here are utterly disgusting. Everything from 'thick cunts' from one eloquent poster to 'vile' and so on.
Insult away, because it's not going to change anything or stop anyone from supporting UKIP. In fact you are more likely to harden resolve if you continue. I am not thick, racist, sexist or any of those things and neither are many other people who voted UKIP on Thursday, but you seem unable and unwilling to see that and just continue wringing your hands and hurling the insults. All you are doing is alienating your fellow citizens who are no more racist or xenophobic than you are, but who have simply had enough of the political elite in Westminster and in Brussels.
If you want to stop UKIP in its tracks then start looking at the issues that caused people to support them in the first place and urge your party be it Green, Conservative, Labour .. whoever, to start addressing those issues, otherwise I'm afraid UKIP support will keep on growing and you can wring your hands, insult, moan, be ashamed, scream 'racist' all you like and it won't make the blindest bit of difference.