Follow up to 'Why not UKIP?'

Devil's Kitchen talks about UKIP and how they're having a touch of the handbags at the moment. Having written about UKIP last Monday and why I wouldn't vote for them I found it an interesting read. But what most got my attention was a good argument in favour of voting for UKIP, if only in the European elections.

Whatever the state of the party, I would also urge you to vote for UKIP at the Euro-elections: although The Huntsman disagrees, urging a Tory vote, he is absolutely wrong. If we wish the next Conservative government even to start negotiating a withdrawal, we need to show them that there is the wish and the will in this country to start such negotiations.

And, realistically, the only way to do that is to vote for withdrawal; and, because General Elections are decided on a great many issues other than the EU, the only real chance that we have to vote solely on this issue is at the Euro-elections. We need to send a message to our Lords and Masters in Westminster that there is popular support for withdrawal, and that they must stop swithering, take their balls in their hands and start the process of withdrawal: the only way to do that is to vote for the only credible party advocating such a move—UKIP.

He's got a good point. The EU is deeply unpopular with the British people and no party seems particularly keen on listening or offering an alternative to steady and increasing integration. Personally I don't think a federal Europe is necessarily a bad thing if it was libertarian, truly democratic and happened naturally because it was what all European people want - might even have come about on its own in a century or two. But this undemocratic politburo style executive that runs Europe is basically bad news and is worth keeping a very long way away from (I recommend Australia as a comfortable distance). Now, it looks almost certain that barring a spectacularly catastrophic fuck-up on the part of Cameron or one of the other Tory high-ups the Conservatives will win the next election. But the Tories have had any number of opportunities to put a bit of space between them and IngSoc NuLabGov on the issue of Europe and have fucked up just about every time. In fact when they were in power they managed to enmesh the UK more deeply. They are probably the largest Eurosceptic party by numbers in Westminster, and some of their Eurosceptic MPs and MEPs may have a lot going for them. The problem seems to me to be the party leadership, which is a term to be used fairly loosely as far as the EU goes. As the Devil says, if a Tory government is going to be persuaded to change anything substantial as far as Europe goes they need be sent a strong message before the next general election, preferably one that leaves a lot of hard to shift underwear stains. A big vote for UKIP in the nest European elections seems like just the thing.