If UKIP are so terrible, why did they win so much?

[balloondoggy]

I didn't vote UKIP - I voted for my local Christians. However, if I were to purely read the comments on Mumsnet and the comments on Facebook re UKIP, I would have thought they would come last; yet they didn't. Why? Are there so many of us on here that are so different from (clearly) the majority?

But the other issues are only irrelevant if all UKIP representatives are going to resign at that point.

That really should tell us all what his intentions are and what his absolute main focus is.

That's not enough for a mainstream political party to operate on!

Is it right now, with the way people feel, they dont care about anything else, they dont see the point in anything else, until immigration is brought under control.

I do wonder where some of you live, what you have to do in your lives I really do

No i'm not Nige :)

I only wish I had that sort of charisma.

That's not enough for a mainstream political party to operate on!

It's a protest party...of course it is.

No doubt policies will be drawn up for the GE but as I said the main focus and aims are obvious and I would think that the euro sceptic voters appreciate that.

Do you honestly believe that a UKIP party could survive if we weren't inside the EU?

UKIP could offer voters a genuine alternative and promise the world to the voters in the next GE but we all know the chances of UKIP winning a GE are slim to nil.

But that big cherry of leaving the EU is achievable with the tactics employed by UKIP as it is.

I wonder what Nige's MN NN would be if he was here?

I only wish I had that sort of charisma.

You do alright ....

It's a protest party...of course it is.

.....just a shame that you are quite mad

.....just a shame that you are quite mad

As a March hare...as a March Hare :)

Is it right now, with the way people feel, they dont care about anything else, they dont see the point in anything else, until immigration is brought under control.

For the moment Razzle i'm thinking of the mechanics of running a campaign. What you say has clearly worked this time, in the Euros. But in a domestic general election? Nah. There will need to be policy and a party line that is enforced.

It's easy to make promises when you are not in power. Farage can promise what the hell he likes.

I'm so disappointed in this country.

It's the promises that you do make and break when you ARE in power that voters don't like.

Won't Farage have to stand down as an MEP if he wants to run for the general election?

Never make the mistake of thinking that what you read on MN is how most of the country thinks.

I sometimes make myself laugh by imagining what would happen if I relayed the consensus view in some of threads down in our small village pub.

I sometimes make myself laugh by imagining what would happen if I relayed the consensus view in some of threads down in our small village pub

Why don't you go one better and actually try it ?

I didn't vote in the European elections. There was literally NO-ONE I was prepared to vote for.

Am I bothered now ukip have gained so many seats? No. The main parties are warmongers/liars/cheats. Much of a muchness in my opinion.

Travellingtoad here is the <a class="break-all" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130319043127/www.ukip.org/media/pdf/UKIPwelfare.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">ukip welfare policy so that you can be fully informed. Apparently current until this January when Farage suddenly decided it was all drivel.

Of course it's easy to make policy. Abolish student loans. Easy for the Libdems to make the policy easy for them to opt out. I hate that party now. Can't believe a single person in the country voted for them.

I hate that party now. Can't believe a single person in the country voted for them.

They managed to make it seem a plausibly good idea momentarily. Now UKIP have managed the same. It will end the same way too.

Government has failed the ordinary working class voters. They could have avoided this if they had treated them better with a fairer system of wages, prices in shops, housing costs, fuel costs. This vote has nothing to do with immigration or Europe or racism, it's simply a reaction against the fact that our governments pander to the wealthy and the educated and everyone else has to just roll up their sleeves and get on with it. Food banks, house prices, poor education and training, gangs, drugs, poor services for the poor have never been addressed. They put lip service to it but it's never properly dealt with. The only working people able to succeed out of our market economy are those who don't live here permanently, they can undercut the natives because they don't have the overheads. And instead of looking to the government to blame them for the failure of their services they blame these people.

Divide and conquer, the oldest trick in the book, Farage plays it well.

Thanks for the link to the welfare policy. It seems really sensible. Increase child benefit, keep the current disability benefit, and council house rents being a percentage of the tenants income and to include council tax. I skimmed most of ot but it seems pretty good.

"The Childcare element of Working Tax Credits, Early Years Funding, Sure Start expenditure and the tax relief on Employer Nursery Vouchers should be replaced with flat-rate, non-means tested nursery vouchers to cover around half the cost of a full-time nursery place for all children aged two to four.....

• Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit for private tenants should be phased out and replaced with ‘Workfare’ jobs, which will be administered by local councils, to ensure that those who would otherwise not be able to find work can still cover their rent and Council Tax, as well as contributing something of value to the local community...

UKIP would only allow entitlement to welfare benefits after a minimum waiting period of ten years and on obtaining British citizenship for those who originally entered the country with a valid work permit or for reasons of marriage to a British citizen. Anyone who had entered the country under any other circumstances would not qualify..."

You call all that sensible? Private tenants will not be able to get housing benefit or council tax at all? Do you realise the misery this would cause. And there is more of this kind of rubbish.

Wonder why it was deleted from the ukip website then and was so bloody difficult to find.

And of course you'll like all of the workfare on public projects then?

Unrealhousewife

Do you honestly think ukip are the first party to"divide and conquer"?

My god it's been going on for years! Way way way before ukip!

Also it's only DLA and attendance allowance that they were leaving, other disability benefits were to be lower as was carer's allowance - which is a ludicrously low amount already.

It would mean asylum seekers would be left to starve. People who have been tortured in their own country, would be left to starve in this country.