Why
does Britain need the UK Independence Party?
Because our main political parties are all committed to keeping Britain
in the European Union by operating a political ‘cartel’, against
the wishes of most of the people. As a result, 40% of people no longer
vote in General Elections and just 25% gave Labour its majority to govern.
The UK Independence Party believes this country should be governed by
our own elected parliament, not by the EU, and our policy is to withdraw
Britain from the EU treaties and negotiate a simple free trade agreement.
How
do you hope to achieve your objectives?
By showing that Britain’s membership of a single European State
is not inevitable and certainly not in this country’s best interests.
And by standing in elections, UKIP candidates give people the opportunity
(denied them by all other parties) to show they support this view. In
2004, we won 12 seats in the European Parliament. Membership is growing
rapidly as other parties are in decline.
What
do UKIP MEPs do in the EU Parliament?
They work to raise public awareness of the EU agenda. They expose what
an undemocratic sham the whole thing is - from the way MEPs have to vote
‘en bloc’ for a hundred motions they have no time to read,
to the scandal of their ‘mileage- based’ expenses rackets.
They vote against unwanted regulation & EU expansion
But
won’t leaving the EU harm our trade with Europe?
Why should it? EU countries don’t want to stop selling us their
cars, wine and food. Their jobs depend on it! Neither Switzerland, Norway
nor Iceland belongs to the EU, yet all do proportionately more trade with
it than we do - so much for the so-called ‘advantages’ of
EU membership! In any case, world trade liberalisation measures (GATT
Treaties), which the EU often does its best to frustrate, mean that tariff
barriers are almost a thing of the past and far less than we pay to be
members of the EU.
But
can we afford to leave the EU?
Britain already pays £32 million A DAY into the EU budget, and it
will be a lot more as the EU expands into Eastern Europe and the Balkans.
Although we can beg back some of our money, this comes as strings-attached
‘grants’ and market disrupting subsidies – all conceded
on Brussels’ terms, and matched by more tax money from us. The money
we give the EU would be better used to improve our over- stretched public
services.
Wouldn’t
Britain lose influence in the world?
We will if we stay in the EU! When the EU finally becomes one country,
with common economic, foreign and defence policies, Britain will lose
its seat - and voice – on the UN, NATO and other world organisations,
as we already have at the World Trade Organisation. Increased “Qualified
Majority Voting” means that Britain will even more frequently lose
out to our EU ‘partners’ who look after themselves. For years,
we have urged reform of the Common Agricultural and Fishing Policies,
which have brought British farming to its knees and all but destroyed
our fishing industry. Yet the countries that benefit from these policies
stubbornly block any proposals for serious reform to protect their own
interests.
Won't foreign investors pull out if we leave
the EU?
Companies invest in Britain because it’s profitable for them. Our
business culture, lower taxes, fewer rules and the English language have
made ‘Euro- sceptic’ Britain a magnet to foreign investors
- many from other EU countries! But the longer we stay in the EU, the
more we risk seeing this investment going elsewhere. The Confederation
of British Industry (CBI) reckons that the first four years of Tony Blair’s
government added £22 billion pounds to British industry’s
costs. Much of that is the result of EU legislation.
Surely
we’ll have to join the single currency one-day?
This is just what the Euro-pushers and EU propagandists want you to believe.
But hundreds of smaller nations thrive with their own independent currencies.
In contrast, Britain has the world’s 4th largest economy and London
is a major financial centre. The ‘City’ reckons it is stronger
now than when the euro was launched! The point is that the euro is not
about economics but politics. It’s yet another part of the grand
plan to have us all governed by the corrupt institutions of the EU by
politicians who are all powerful and democratically unaccountable.
But
doesn’t business want the euro?
The companies that call most loudly for the euro are the big corporations
that can influence the EU to protect their interests. Small businesses
- 95% of all British companies - have voted consistently to reject the
euro and, more recently, to leave the EU altogether. Nine jobs out of
ten in Britain have no connection with EU export markets - but all are
put at risk by the huge cost of complying with the EU’s mad ‘single
market’ rules and Red Tape.
Surely
consumers will benefit from the euro?
The very small savings gained from not having to change holiday money
are sure to be more than offset by the colossal, initial euro conversion
costs. Otherwise, economists acknowledge that there’s nothing really
to be gained. Being in the euro simply means that the important economic
decisions will be taken in Frankfurt and Brussels. VAT, income tax and
other taxes will rise as we are forced to ‘converge’ up to
levels needed to run the single European economy and pay for their massive
pensions deficit. If the euro is so great, how come unemployment in the
euro zone is still twice the rate here? Remember, too, that the euro is
a one-way street. Once in, there’ll be no escape – either
from the euro or the EU itself!
What
about the idea of ‘being in the EU but not run by it’?
This may sound fine, but it simply doesn’t work. The EU is about
nothing less than binding the individual nation states into one giant
centrally run political federation. If Continental politicians can be
up front about this, why can’t ours? In any case, even if we could
resist further federalism, we’d still be stuck with the 100,000+
regulations already in force – and, of course, the EU’s shameful
policies on farming and fishing. To see the EU as some kind of ‘menu’
from which you can pick out the policy parts that suit, shows an alarming
ignorance of what the EU is all about – or a deceitful unwillingness
to honestly face the facts.
Why
do other Parties brand UKIP ‘The One Issue Party’?
Other parties try to rubbish UKIP with this slur to hide the fact that
the reverse is the truth. Because the Lab / Lib / Con cartel are committed
to their EU masters, they can only offer ONE policy on agriculture (The
CAP), ONE policy on fishing (The CFP), ONE policy on the environment,
ONE policy on Trade and Industry, ONE policy on Health & Safety, ONE
policy on transport, ONE policy on VAT and ONE policy on a whole range
of other issues such as RED TAPE (Keep what we have and add lots more
from Brussels!). This is why everyone is saying these days “there’s
no difference between any of them!” and have stopped voting. Only
UKIP can offer different, dynamic and popular policies, because we can
tear up the EU rule book and give people the policies that are wanted
and needed for the prosperity, security and freedom of the UK.
Why
do other Parties brand you as ‘Little Englanders’?
They like to rubbish UKIP with black propaganda on this score and suggest
that we are ‘xenophobic’ to deter people supporting us. Again,
the reverse is the truth! UKIP believe in GLOBAL trade, rather than the
inward looking, protectionist customs union that is now the EU. We would
like open trade with other trading blocks such as the North American Free
Trade Association, the old Commonwealth Countries, and others. Our membership
of the EU hampers this trade with tariffs and costly regulations even
though we do more trade elsewhere in the world than with the EU. Neither
are we ‘anti-European’. We like our neighbours and will trade
freely with them, but that does not mean we have to be ruled by them!
Oh, and by the way, we are proud to be English, Welsh, Scottish or Irish
with our traditions of freedom, tolerance, fairness and honesty!
What
are your views on race and immigration?
UKIP is a moderate party encompassing a wide range of political persuasions.
We welcome people of goodwill as members, from all races and creeds, provided
that they are not extremist, racist or sexist. On immigration we believe
that existing immigration controls should be properly enforced so that
only economic migrants needed in the UK gain entry and every effort should
be made to integrate immigrants into our community and the British way
of life. Asylum seekers are welcome only in cases of genuine oppression
and threat to life in their home countries.
Anything else?
Plenty! For example if we stay in the EU, we’ll lose the English
legal system (including trial by jury), lose the presumption of innocence
and get indefinite detention without charge; Europol will get more powers
and already enjoys immunity from prosecution for its misdeeds. Political
Parties are to be state funded and ‘controlled’ so that ‘real’
opposition parties like UKIP will be squeezed out. Then there’s
the way the EU is infiltrating local government. New “regional assemblies”,
with huge Europe-wide committees and plush offices in Brussels, mean more
bureaucracy, higher taxes and less money for essential services. UKIP
believes we should get back to a British government that answers only
to British voters, and to local councils that must answer only to those
who pay the council tax.
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