Ignoring all the statistical manipulation on the first couple of pages, another topic for another day. And the manifesto really starts under "Common Sense Policies" on page 4. How common sense these are you can decide for yourselves.
Thee first piece of common sense, which really isn't, can be picked apart straight away. UKIP here are saying that they wish for more police on the streets, and for more decision making to made at a local level. All very well, a lovely bit of populism there! However the manifesto destroys itself here, still on page 4. Increased number of police and increase in local decision making means more people working for the council, which means high council taxes, very common sense! Unless you're in UKIP in which case you're going to fund this by CUTTING council taxes. Only on page 4 and theres already a funding black hole. Furthermore at this point the fear mongering anti-immigration rhetoric is present as "Immigration must be controlled to relieve pressure on our health, education, housing and welfare services". Totally ignoring the fact that the NHS would crumble without immigrant workers, this has been shown by many studies which have been published recently. So thats page 4, a local funding black hole and a collapse in the quality of our local services. UKIP common sense.
Page 5 isnt really that interesting, basically just saying how great their councillors are, funnily enough though no comments on any of their councillors racist/homophobic/sexist remarks such as the gay marriage causing floods bloke (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-25793358). They may have good attendance records, but some of them not much common sense.
"UKIP top 6 priorities"
Page 8 (6 and 7 was a poster). This is a summary of them, the actual ones can be found on their party website.
Number 1:
They want more local referendums, this will obviously cost money which the council won't have. Populist idea which won't work under the conditions councils would find themselves in under UKIP
Number 2:
Basically blaming immigrants for the lack of housing. Scapegoating immigrants when the actual cause is Thatcherite policies which have not seen a mass house building programme since Thatcher took power. These are the same policies UKIP would follow, neo-liberalism at its worse.
Number 3:
Again immigration fear mongering. Stealing our money and taking our homes! change the record. UKIP want local people to have the final say over who lives in their community. Well people from Newcastle aren't local to towns in the south, so are they not allowed to move south? UKIP common sense.
Number 4:
Vague stuff about improving town centres, giving "incentives" to attract business. Maybe that means cutting their tax, again causing problem for funding.
Number 5:
Foreign aid is bad. Personally i'm proud that as a nation we help fight poverty around the world. The reason we have no money here isn't because its going in foreign aid, its because people like Gary Barlow don't pay all their tax. And then companies like Google pay an even smaller percentage! Thats where all our money is! not some starving children in a poverty stricken country.
Number 6:
"free up the police from excessive form-filling and tackle nuisance neighbours and anti-social behaviour". So next time the neighbours are being noisy i can get a SWAT squad in! result! More clear populism, i'd rather they were fighting major crime though.
"What your UKIP councillor will work for"
Another page,another load of nonsense
Democracy: basically a repeat of the referendum stuff, im not going to repeat what i've already said just because UKIP have.
Economy and Enterprise: Reduce tax for business, because they pay too much....
Environment, Planning and Housing: apparently local councils can stop immigration! Nonsense. And on top of that they've thrown in some traveller bashing, can't see why but they have.
Education: More grammar schools! lovely bit of Thatcherism. These just drain resources from standard state schools.
Public Health and Social Care: Again immigrants are to be blamed for problems.
Transport and Roads: So with low funding to council, UKIP are arguing for constant maintenance of roads. Oh and no toll charges either, so there really will be no funding for this.
Bin Collection: Although weekly bin collections are good, the renewal of this wont work because there won't be the funding, again.
Culture and Heritage: "Preserve our public libraries"... funding....
Safer Communities: "Keep real police officers on the beat and stop the scrapping of front-line police jobs. Adopt a zero tolerance approach to anti-social behaviour and crack down on nuisance neighbours". again with what funding? For the last bit i'm just imagining teenagers who listen to metallica too loudly in a gulag, though gulags require funding.
Energise the voluntary sector: LETS GET EVERYONE TO DO THINGS FOR FREE! UKIP commonsense.
How UKIP will save us money (Because theres no funding)
last page,10. This is just a list of nonsense, here are the best bits.
- Build partnerships to reduce costs- basically lets privatise things.
- Abolish non-essential and politically-correct jobs and red tape- Like what?
- End wasteful EU and UK subsidies to ‘renewable energy scams’,such as wind turbines and solar farms. Renewable energy scam. Do i have to explain?
- Sell unused state-owned property and assets- more privatisation
To conclude, this manifesto just doesn't work. Its a mix of neo-liberal ideas, the ones which have been proven not to work, and just populism. This approach won't work. This manifesto is easy enough to find on their party UKIP so you can look at yourself if you think i'm just making this up as a capitalist hating socialist. If anyone says they're voting UKIP, who aren't just hard-core tories, then explain some of these points. If you're angry at the establishment vote for the "Trade Union and Socialist Coalition" in the local elections. If you're angry at the establishment and the EU vote for "no2eu" on May 22nd European elections
http://www.tusc.org.uk/
http://www.no2eu.com/
