Quote:
Originally Posted by LostOstrich
I know a handful of people who voted UKIP, and none of them could reasonably be described as racists. They're mostly just simplistic/apathetic voters who despise the mainstream parties and are particularly pissed off at having been lied to about the prospect of an EU referendum on more than one occasion.
I suspect there's more anti-EU than anti-immigrants sentiment in the UKIP vote; that's certainly the case with the ones I've spoken to. The fact that Milliband is so hopelessly inept in just about every way is also driving a lot of anti-current government votes away from the natural alternative of a Labour vote.
This is basically exactly why I voted UKIP. I'm actually perfectly in favour of (controlled) immigration. I'm not in favour of the EU, with its excessive influence on our laws, huge costs and its general transformation from what we signed up for into an inflated political entity. If I could believe the Tories on giving us a referendum, and not spinning bull**** like they did on the AV vote (namely pedalling inflated figures of costs, most of which was optional and/or already spent regardless of the result), they might have got my vote, but I can't believe them, much like I can't believe any of the mainstream parties on more or less anything. We'd just see a ton of "omg think of the trading agreements, the economy will collapse" which I think is hugely overstated, Switzerland seems to be doing just fine being in a trading agreement but not in the EU, that'd do quite nicely. We're already seeing similar scaremongering on the Scottish independence issue and I can't see it being any different on an EU vote.
My vote wouldn't change to one of the big 3 in a general election either - I voted independent last time and will likely either go UKIP or another independent if one is standing, possibly the Greens if they ever get a credible energy strategy. Certainly wouldn't revert to our blue coloured sock puppet we have here as Millbank would like.