A reader writes:
As a UK-based subscriber, I am always interested when a post comes up about my home country. I was somewhat bemused and disappointed with your comments about the UK Independence Party (UKIP). It seems you are holding the European far right to different standards than those you apply to the American far right. If UKIP were a political party in the US, they would be, at the very most, a centre-left party. In the view of many in your country, Nigel Farage and his party are radical communist-socialists. UKIP advocates continuing the state-run healthcare monopoly and proposes only minor changes to an absurdly generous welfare rules and the enormous size of the state.
I’m disappointed you say Farage is an “opponent of all immigration.”
He is not. His party wishes to allocate work visas to those wanting to come to the UK. After five years of continual work, an immigrant would be able to settle here permanently and become a UK citizen with all the benefits and responsibilities that entails. Where would such an immigration policy put UKIP on the political spectrum in the US? Full citizenship after five years? Again, he’s a radical lefty.
I’m not sure your American readers quite understand what the free movement of labour from Eastern Europe has meant for the UK and other wealthy European nations. Imagine if the entire population of Mexico was given totally free access to the US labour market. No restrictions: an absolute legal right to work and live anywhere in the US.
There are undeniable economic benefits for the host country from all the cheap labour arriving, but there is also social unrest and disquiet about the societal changes that are happening. The problem – again, I’m not sure your US readers understand this – is that the UK cannot stop or even slow down the numbers of immigrants arriving to live and work here. We cannot vote on the matter. We cannot pressure our politicians on the issue because the decisions are taken supra-nationally.
UKIP is creating a debate that would otherwise not be happening. They are ridiculed and insulted incessantly by the mainstream media, especially the Murdoch press. I’m disappointed you so quickly jumped to the same conclusions as those media organisations you usually question.
Another sends the above speech from November 2010:
I thought you might find vintage Farage interesting. You are British and probably know much more about him than I do. I’m a lefty, but I found his YouTube clips inspiring back in 2010-2012 because he was one of the only ones talking sense about the EU, particularly the way the EU bypasses democracy and imposes dangerous austerity on Southern Europe. To be clear, Farage is not a politician I support, but the fact that a xenophobic, pro-fracking, climate skeptic could get my ear for a time says something for sure.
The Dish 