Any UKIP supporters on here? What exactly are you voting for?

[chicaguapa]

I confess I don't know what the UKIP policies are, but wondered if the people voting for them could explain to me what they are please. Thanks.

My mum will be voting UKIP (she is in her late 60's). Nothing I can say to her will sway her. Her reasons are all those spouted by the typical Daily mail reader. You may see a pattern,

1. Immigration taking traditional working class jobs and pushing down wages.
2. Immigrants using our NHS.
3. Immigrants forcing their culture onto us at the expense of english culture.
4. Not being allowed to follow traditional english ways of living without fear of offending immigrants.
5. Immigrants buying up the housing stock and becoming BTL landlords and charging high prices for squalid properties 6)Immigrants are corrupt and fiddling benefits or just claiming benefits despite not contributing to the pot.
6. 'thousands' of immigrants sending Child benefit back to their countries and they probably don't even have kids (her exact words)
7. EU taking all our money and forcing stupid rules on us.

None of the above are my views, nothing I can say, or figures I give her will alter her perception. Every news article about a large family of Somalians in a posh London house reinforces her beliefs.

She was always a traditional labour supporter, she doesnt recognise that party any more and feels the 3 major party's are liars and cheats and corrupt. She doesnt care about any of the policies that affect working women or the disabled because she is neither of those.

Ukip have spoken to her in a way no other party has, because she is uninformed, disinterested in actually finding the truth and believes everything the DM says. She is their prime target

Where I live UKIP have done very well - and there are barely any immigrants here.

I think people feel that both main parties are high-handed and London-centric. Neither side seems to offer any charismatic leadership option which, rightly or wrongly, people favour.

I know some people who are voting UKIP as a protest vote against all the other otions (who do indeed suck), but this really worries me. If enough people do it, they may actually gain some power. My DH is an immigrant, they have awful hateful policies against the disabled (even more so than the Tories! .

I wish with all my heart that there was actually a viable alternative to the Tories and Labour. A few of us hoped that the Lib Dems would step up in the last election, but look how that went.

It's scary that people are so desperate for change that they are turning to a party with very worrying policies indeed.

I'm not a UKIP supporter and was horrified when my best friend said she was voting for them in Lincolnshire because 'there are too many foreigners'....

I only know a few. They are all older people and their beef is with the EU. They basically want to be like Switzerland.

We've been labour,lib dem for a longtime.Parents Tories.

All of us were looking at Ukip.

Dp and I for a variety of reasons.

First- there is nobody else to vote for.Lib Dems lied to us and will never get our vote again(although Vince Cable as leader would lead to us at least maybe considering them).Labour's economic policy and weak leadership are a deep concern.Tories hammer the middle and families,are very anti Sahp and just look after their voters.

We are also fed up with Eton/ Oxbridge privileged politicians.Sooooo utterly sick of them.

The patronising attitude towards Farage by the Tories.

Anything that would annoy the Tories is a plus.

The Europe issue.

We are looking for a party that helps the middle.

Ukip would get rid of Uni fees.

We felt (dp and I) Ukip was a best fit.

My parents are livid with the Tories for hammering families,their anti Sahp stance,the CB unfairness,the way they look after their own,their lack of thought put into all policies,lack of growth,libraries etc.

Out of all of us I was the only one that chickened out of voting Ukip. I didn't like the Ukip flyer.All it said was that they'd help high street business,I want a bit more flesh on their policies.So voted Green.

Other 3 all voted Ukip.

I think the main appeal is that they are not Conservative, Labour or LD. A lot of people feel their interests are not being served by those parties. LD was a reasonable alternative until their total lies about student loans.

Blueskies' post sums up my assumptions about why people are voting UKIP. There are just no other options left. But really.... UKIP? They are BNP-lite!

I'm 37 and I have voted UKIP because the other mainstream parties don,t listen to the people. I am not racist and it isn't racist to worry about the increasing population of this tiny country, my child can't get into the local school, there are no jobs, no houses and the nhs is swamped. These are REAL problems, and I personally worry for my childrens future in this country. But as soon as you mention immigration someone shouts you down as a dirty filthy bigot or racist!!! I'm sick of it to be honest and now all of a sudden UKIP are being portrayed as racists because the other parties are scared that they are getting votes and instead of asking themselves why? they just use the good old racism card to shut down any debate.

Impala I totally agree.

I also have to say when Farage is interviewed he is the only one ever to actually answer a question.Utterly sick of the Condems non answering.

Families and young people are getting hammered,if we are to compete with the grey vote and get policies that help us we all have to vote.

Sorry but Ukip offer the best future for my children at the moment.

If further down the line when flesh is put on their policies I see things of deep concern they won't get my vote.At the moment I'm seeing a lot I do like( alongside smears )so I'm proceeding slow but cautious.

I am reminded of a definition of racist by the US economist Thomas Sowell (who himself happens to be black) as "a conservative who is winning an argument with a liberal".

Not being allowed to follow traditional english ways of living without fear of offending immigrants.

I hadn't realised that morris dancing and dry stone walling were under such threat. This is good to know.

I didn't and wouldn't vote UKIP. I'm female, with a female DSD and female DD. I owe it to them NOT to vote for a party that will make things measurably WORSE to be a woman in the workplace.

(and I don't understand why any female would TBH)

A woman who voted UKIP called in to The Wright Stuff and opened the conversation with 'I'm not a racialist Mathew but...." That says plenty I think.

I can see exactly how UKIP have mopped up the protest vote and I do think the Tories cocked up by insulting them in the way they did. However their policies (if anybody who voted for them actually cared about them) are barking. Quadrupling defence spending? Restoring universal CB? Lovely but who will pay? If you subject their policies to the slightest scrutiny you see huge black holes. Not even Labour are saying they would spend that much money!

I'm sorry but it's just, well, silly. The fact that they did as well as they seem to have done is due to the dismal state of the other parties. It's all utterly depressing.

any vote that's not for the conservatives is a good vote, unless it's a vote for ukip, in which case that's just stupid.

Everyone knows what they really stand for. the rest is spin to make them sound reasonable.

But people want to believe it because the other options are a bit shit.

I voted labour fwiw

LtEve how will they make things worse in the workplace?

Have to say the Condems have made things worse for women who want a career break in order to be a Sahp. I want my dd to have a choice.

Was the universal CB was a huge Ukip tick for all of us.

The utter unfair,bonkers policy the Tories bought in saves buggar all.