The Rise of the Independence Party in the UK

As an independent activists and a political junkie, I am interested in how independents are doing around the world. So who are the Independence Party in the UK (UKIP)?

The UK Independence Party is the fourth biggest party in Great Britain. The three biggest parties are Conservative, Labour, and Liberal Democrats. It was founded in 1993 to campaign for the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.

They believe in the right of the people of the UK to govern themselves, rather than be governed by unelected bureaucrats in Brussels (and, increasingly, in London and even the local town hall).

They believe in the minimum necessary government which defends individual freedom, supports those in real need, takes as little of their money as possible and doesn’t interfere in the citizen’s lives.

They believe in democracy devolved to the people, through national and local referendums on key issues, so that laws are made by the people’s will, not the fads of the political class.

They believe that the government of Britain should be for the people, by the people, all the people, regardless or their creed or color.


UKIP leader Nigel Farage
An ICM opinion poll for The Sunday Telegraph shows that a key group of Right-of-centre voters are much more attracted to UKIP’s policies on immigration, government spending, and same-sex marriage than to the Tories’ stance on the issues.

This same group, made up of those who have yet to decide which of the two parties to support, also rates UKIP’s Nigel Farage as a better party leader than the Prime Minister. The group make up one in 10 of all voters and their support is crucial to Mr Cameron’s chances of electoral success.

The poll comes at the start of Budget week amid fears among Conservative MPs and activists that UKIP will perform well in May’s local elections, placing Mr Cameron’s future under further scrutiny.

It is the support for UKIP’s policy positions among Right-of-centre voters that will most alarm 10 Downing Street. A group identified as Conservative-UKIP “switchers” supports Mr Farage’s party’s position over that taken by the Tories on immigration by 62% to 34%, on state spending by 64% to 28% and on same-sex marriage by 51% to 39%.

On leadership, among all voters the Prime Minister is seen as a better party leader than Mr Farage by 33% to 29% but the UKIP leader is the favourite by 37% to 32% among the Conservative-UKIP “switchers”.

Nearly a third of people who voted Conservative in 2010 now believe that UKIP is the political party with the best policies on Europe, a poll has disclosed.

It will pile pressure on David Cameron, who has ruled out a “lurch to the right” to combat the threat from UKIP, the eurosceptic party which beat the Tories into third place in the Eastleigh vote last week.

The poll found that 25% believe Labour to be the strongest party on Europe, followed by the Tories with 21%, UKIP with 16% and the Liberal Democrats with only 7%.

It comes as Nigel Farage, the UKIP leader, rejected claims by senior Tories that people in Eastleigh only voted for the eurosceptic party as a “protest” and that they are likely to return to the Conservatives in the build-up to the 2015 election.

In a comment piece for The Times, Mr Farage said that “the vast majority” of those who voted UKIP “feel that we speak for them on difficult issues that our political class has chosen to sweep under the carpet”.

Mr Farage said that his party will now attempt to improve its ground campaigning strategy in a bid to get its first MP elected in 2015.

Mr Farage added: “A vote for UKIP is not a vote for Labour by splitting the Tory vote, or a vote for Lib Dems by taking Labour votes.

“A vote for UKIP is an endorsement of our policies and the fact that we stand up for otherwise ignored voters."

CLICK HERE for more information about the UKIP.










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