UKIP - the United Kingdom Independence Party - are not likely to receive an endorsement from progressives. National conservatism, social conservatism, and economic conservatism are hardly a mix likely to attract those looking for a radical alternative.
It doesn't help that the party's Euroscepticism clings close to an anti-internationalist position, deeply contrary to the ideas that run through the liberalism and socialism of the Left. While UKIP talks of national values, national services and national sovereignty, the Left have historically looked out at the world with broad visions: to unite people in grand communities across cultural borders and to find consensus for the protection, whoever or wherever people might be, of individual civil liberties.
So UKIP's aggressive campaign - rocking its way through scandal after scandal, from racism (Stockham, 2015), to sexism (Newman, 2015) and homophobia (McCormick, 2014) - presents pretty much the antithesis of the ideals of those across the political Left and Centre. According to its founder, however, it was not always supposed to be like that.
UKIP was founded in opposition to the 1993 Maastricht Treaty that created the European Union. Alan Sked, the founder, was in origin, a member of the old Liberal Party who opposed what he saw as a Union that was undemocratic and flawed. He later left the party he founded feeling it had become Frankenstein's Monster, and a harbour to racists (Jeffries, 2014).
He and other originators of the party left after an influx of new supporters to the party who had broken away from the Conservative right-wing, and from other right-wing groups, including the National Front. Since that point its main figures have been Conservative Party breakaways and rich businessmen.
UKIP became the vehicle for pressuring the Conservatives from the Far Right on the one hand, and on the other opposing the existence of the European Union and Britain's membership. Yet it has consistently had members sitting in the EU Parliament and claiming expenses - and not without controversy (Jeffries, 2014). Nigel Farage, the party's very visible leader, himself was criticised over his boasts of claiming millions in expense from the EU to fund UKIP (Helm, 2009), and other MEPs were variously criticised for poor attendance and jailed for fraud (Randall & Brady, 2013).
"The party I founded has become a Frankenstein's monster. When I was leader, we wouldn't send MEPs to Europe because we didn't want to legitimise it. My policy was that if we were forced to take the salaries, we would give them to the National Health Service – they wouldn't be taken by the party or individuals. Now UKIP say they're against welfare cheats coming from eastern Europe, but in fact they're the welfare cheats." (Jeffries, 2014)
The party has not given a great account of itself. Mired in scandals involving bigotry, racism and homophobia, focussed on Europe and Immigration beyond the point of obsession, holding 'public' meetings that are closed to the public and the press, and having political campaigns run by former National Front organisers (O'Loughlin, 2015).
The party is fueled by scapegoating (Milne, 2014). They even scapegoat their own supporters, making excuses for them when they can, or cutting them loose when they get caught with their intolerance out in the open (Mason, 2013). It seems even HIV sufferers are considered legitimate targets (Mason, 2015{1}).
And yet the party has seen its support expand. At the European elections in 2014 it claimed around 10% of Britain's voters, and polling has seen them stay steadily at that level. That has demanded a fleshing out of the party's policies. An earlier manifesto was threadbare, pushing low taxes for the rich, and a clearly conservative pro-business attitude - complete with opposition to the EU, immigrants and their rights (Randall & Brady, 2013).
In the quest to be taken more seriously, UKIP has revamped its policies for 2015. That process seems to have involved just skimming off the most popular policies of their rivals - in a way that has made it all that much harder to get to the core of what the party believes in. Yet there is a clue in the way this mimicry has focussed particularly upon the Conservatives - including a commitment to see through the Conservative Party's 'long term fiscal repetition' and the implementation of austerity (BBC, 2015).
The party's complicated position on healthcare gives an idea of the forces at work within the party. Farage admitted to having supported a system of privatised insurance (BBC, 2014), but that a different position was decided on within the party (Cook, 2014). Yet Farage has been challenged for his deriding criticisms of the NHS, and recommendations that people should go private if they can afford it (Lamport, 2015).
In reality, it is likely that UKIP realised that it could not get a privatised healthcare system past a public very fond of the NHS, and so just popular public opinion - with the de rigueur conditions that foreigners should be excluded (Mason, 2015{2}).
As for the party's predilection for clamping down on immigration and leaving the European Union?
Fiscally, immigrants are net contributors to the public treasury (O'Leary, 2014). And the real solutions when it comes to low pay aren't in locking people out, but in having proper minimum and living wages and enforcing them against those who would try to undercut workers' rights (Taylor-Dave, 2014). From a cultural perspective, nationalism and sectarianism do little to diffuse tensions. A happy, open and confident multi-cultural society is the better facilitator of the kind of 'integration' that UKIP claim to want (LBC, 2015).
As for the European Union, for a net contribution of about £6.5bn - £15bn (0.5% of public spending) contributed to Brussels, with £8.5bn being spent back in Britain through various grants for local government, farmers and scientific research amongst other things - the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) reckons a return for the British economy of £60-80bn, and access to a $24tn market with a say in the rules and regulations that govern it (Robinson, 2015{1}). All of that, before we even consider all of the good that EU regulations have actually done (Wallace, 2015; Robinson, 2015{2}), make clear that the problems of the European system - like the need for more democratic oversight of economic policy - are better reformed than abandoned.
Fiscally, immigrants are net contributors to the public treasury (O'Leary, 2014). And the real solutions when it comes to low pay aren't in locking people out, but in having proper minimum and living wages and enforcing them against those who would try to undercut workers' rights (Taylor-Dave, 2014). From a cultural perspective, nationalism and sectarianism do little to diffuse tensions. A happy, open and confident multi-cultural society is the better facilitator of the kind of 'integration' that UKIP claim to want (LBC, 2015).
As for the European Union, for a net contribution of about £6.5bn - £15bn (0.5% of public spending) contributed to Brussels, with £8.5bn being spent back in Britain through various grants for local government, farmers and scientific research amongst other things - the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) reckons a return for the British economy of £60-80bn, and access to a $24tn market with a say in the rules and regulations that govern it (Robinson, 2015{1}). All of that, before we even consider all of the good that EU regulations have actually done (Wallace, 2015; Robinson, 2015{2}), make clear that the problems of the European system - like the need for more democratic oversight of economic policy - are better reformed than abandoned.
When it comes down to, for all the attention poured over Farage's 'People's Army' - the right-wing insurgent - and UKIP's rollercoaster grand tour of gaffes, shouting, bigotry, racism, homophobia, apologises, retractions and excuses, the party is not likely to pick up many seats. Considering how much the party has come to rely on the public image of Nigel Farage, the party is likely very worried about his pledge to resign the party leadership if he fails to win the South Thanet seat (Mason, 2015{3}).
In the end the party will more than likely simply split support between themselves and the Tories, picking up a few seats where their opponents are weak - perhaps fitting. Then they will hope to be in a position to do a post-election deal with the Tories (BBC, 2015).
Prospects: 14%, 4 seats (gain 2).*
Coalition Partners: Conservatives (271 seats).
Verdict: Absolutely not progressive, not radical, and not an alternative. UKIP are Far Right conservatives, covering it up with populism - offering up whatever happen to be most popular policies that can be pinched from the other parties. Committed to Conservative economic policies and to cutting the UK off from Europe.
And the rest of the Right
Beyond UKIP, the visibility of right-wing politics has otherwise subsided - perhaps having been caught up in that party's nationalist wave.
References
'Policy guide: Where the parties stand'; on the BBC.
'Manifesto watch: Where parties stand on key issues'; on the BBC; 25 February 2015.
Ruby Stockham's 'Is UKIP a racist party? These 15 comments would suggest so'; on Left Foot Forward; 23 February 2015.
Cathy Newman's 'Harriet Harman's right: Ukip is sexist. Shame the other parties are too'; in The Telegraph; 22 January 2015.
Joseph Patrick McCormick's 'Eight of the most homophobic things UKIP candidates and supporters have said'; in Pink News; 22 May 2014.
Stuart Jeffries' 'Ukip founder Alan Sked: 'The party has become a Frankenstein's monster''; in The Guardian; 26 May 2014.
Toby Helm's 'Ukip leader Nigel Farage boasts of his £2m in expenses'; in The Guardian; 24 May 2009.
David Randall & Brian Brady's 'Special Report: What voters should know about Ukip'; in The Independent; 3 March 2013.
Marina O'Loughlin's ''Something nasty is stirring': inside Nigel Farage's battle for South Thanet'; in The Guardian; 28 March 2015.
Seumas Milne's 'Scapegoating migrants for Britain's crisis will damage us all'; in The Guardian; 1 January 2014.
Rowena Mason's 'Ukip's Godfrey Bloom has whip removed after 'sluts' remark'; in The Guardian; 20 September 2013.
Rowena Mason's 'Nigel Farage's HIV claim criticised by leaders' debate rivals'; in The Guardian; 3 April 2015{1}.
'UKIP will back Conservative deficit plans, says Farage' on the BBC; 27 February 2015.
'Nigel Farage: UKIP supports NHS not private insurance'; on the BBC; 14 November 2014.
Chris Cook's 'Where does UKIP stand on health?'; on the BBC; 17 October 2014.
John Lamport's 'Is Nigel Farage talking bollocks about the NHS?'; on OpenDemocracy; 23 March 2015.
Joseph O'Leary's 'What have immigrants contributed to the economy? Making sense of the headlines'; on Full Fact; 6 November 2014.
Kieran Turner-Dave's 'The Top Ten Ukip Arguments (And Why They Are False)'; in The Huffington Post UK; 23 January 2014.
Iain Dale's 'Women Leaders' Debate'; on LBC, from YouTube; 9 April 2015.
Frances Robinson's 'An EU explainer for the easily bored: the cost to the UK'; in the New Statesman; 18 March 2015.
Williams Wallace's 'William Wallace writes…Challenging Ukip’s assumptions'; on LibDemVoice; 2 April 2015.
Frances Robinson's 'An EU explainer for the easily bored: what has Europe ever done for me?'; in the New Statesman; 3 March 2015.
Rowena Mason's 'Ukip would ban immigrants without health insurance from entering country'; in The Guardian; 23 February 2015{2}.
'UKIP's Nigel Farage offers post-election deal with Tories'; on the BBC; 15 March 2015.
Rowena Mason's 'Farage: ‘curtains for me’ as Ukip leader if bid to win South Thanet seat fails'; in The Guardian; 16 March 2015{3}.
*based on Guardian Poll Projection, 11 April 2015.
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