Hold your nose if you have to, but vote UKIP, just this once

I tweeted the following yesterday but just wanted to expand, briefly on what I mean:

They won't (yet) get my vote in a Gen Election but on the basis of what's good for the country, I hope #UKIP does well on Thursday. 

It's a rare opportunity to tell Dave et al that we've had enough of EU bullshit. Almost a mini-referendum imo. Don't waste it. #no2EU

A vote 4 Dave says 'it's all going OK' when it isn't. For Ed it's a vote 4... well what exactly? No ideas or policies. A UKIP vote= #no2EU 

********************************************


Of course all the parties will 'spin' Thursdays results once they're in: 

The Tories (who will probably do surprisingly well given where we are in the electoral cycle - mid term - and given the state of the economy) will tell us that what they're doing is working and that their vote has held up well (most of the seats being contested are in the south though, remember). But they will lose significant numbers of councillors just because they are starting from such a high base - or from Labour's lowest ever base when these seats were last contested. 

I think Labour will do much worse than they should be doing at the stage in the cycle for geographical reasons and because they currently offer very little in the way of reasons to vote 'for' them. No policies, no big ideas, no charismatic leadership from Mr Miliband. The spectre of McCluskey and the unions pulling their strings. Their crass and complete economic failure when they were last in power and for which they have still not taken responsibility or apologised. 

Ed Balls.

Not much has been said during the build-up about the Lib Dems, but I think they are quietly dreading Friday morning. I think Thursday will be disastrous for the Lib Dems. I think they have moved from the forgotten party that could say anything because they would never have to implement it in reality, to one which has had its hands on the levers of power and been found woefully wanting. Oh for a quiet life eh Nick? Still Simon Hughes will be wheeled out to put any kind of gloss that he can on things. Good luck with that Simon.

So, UKIP then. I think and hope that they will do well. Not because I am a UKIP member or supporter, but because if they do, it will shunt what I believe is the biggest issue facing all of us at this time - that's all of us in the UK and in Europe - further up the political agenda to the point where it cannot be virtually ignored by politicians as is currently the case. I am of course referring to the EU.

I have blogged about the EU many times. About how it is an organisation established in the 1950s to address a problem of the 1930s and 40s. How it is unaccountable, undemocratic. How it is effectively a German takeover of continental Europe, using banks and not tanks this time, but the end result will be the same unless we do something to stop it.

That may sound a bit strong, but before you dismiss the notion, consider the issues and the facts that are going on right under our noses - here.

While the unelected fat cats of the Eurocrasy are enjoying their fabulous lifestyles and pissing €billions of our money up the wall, real people, across the whole of Southern Europe are struggling to eat. Germany is booming because it has  the double economic benefit of lower exchange rates than would be the case if it had its own currency (making it massively more competitive in the world and damaging other EU members' competitiveness and indeed the UK's ability to compete against German industry and services) and much lower borrowing costs because it is effectively the central bank for the Eurozone. Meanwhile all other EU economies are struggling, some are openly bust and some, like France, are hanging on in quiet desperation, wholly subservient to Germany for its economic continuance.

They say that all politics is local, and the coming elections are 'local' after all. So how does moving the seat of government further away, to a place where they don't even speak your language, let alone understand your local issues, help matters? And how does it help if the people making decisions which affect all of us are effectively unelected and unaccountable to ordinary voters.

The EU has shown recently that it can steal your money, from your own bank account - money that has been legitimately earned and on which tax will already have been paid - in order to bail-out failing banks and to recoup money loaned by the ECB (European Central Bank) to borrowers in southern Europe, for example, whom they knew would piss it up the wall before the loan was originally made.

Do you think Germany didn't know that Greeks work a few hours a day, retire at 52, enjoy the sunshine and the wine and don't pay much if any tax, before they got them into financial hock (pardon the pun) by giving them cheap money? And then, when they couldn't pay the first lot back, gave them even more money to the point where they now have no hope of ever paying it back?

And that's not being critical of Greeks, just stating the reality. Given the choice between their lifestyle and that of a German - or British - worker, I know which I'd choose, if I could get away with it and sustain it. 

The trouble is that now they're tied in to the Euro these southern European countries cannot devalue their currencies in order to rebalance their economies and become more competitive with Germany. And by the same token, Germany has established a playing field whereby its efficient industries are competing with laughably weak counterparts in the south. No wonder Germany's booming. A captive market that cannot possibly dream of competing with them. German companies are currently buying up southern European businesses like it's going out of fashion. 

A free trade area, which is what we signed up to via Ted Heath's trickery in the early 1970s, is all well and good but 'Union'? That was never voted on by anyone in Europe. It has just been, 'slowly slowly' and 'step by step' imposed from the centre. By Germany in reality. And it's bumbling failures and silly laws have been put out there to the point where many people just ignore the EU as a silly ineffective joke of an organisation. While behind the buffoonery, the sinister, carefully planned, Machiavellian process of taking over all aspects of European governance and control has been relentlessly going on.

The EU makes laws we cannot rescind in the UK even if our democratically elected Government wishes to do so. The EU spends 120m a year just moving the whole circus between Strasbourg and Brussels to appease the French. The EU is unaccountable, its annual budgets have been rejected by auditors for the last 18 years in a row. They have never been signed off as accurate and accountable, but it's our money.  It is trying to make Spanish, Greek, Cypriot, Portuguese, Irish people 'German' in their outlook and behaviour. It is effectively creating a single super-state that will control every aspect of our lives.

It's time, in my view that we had a vote on this stuff. A proper vote not just some mealy-mouthed half-baked excuse that will change nothing. The European Union project is fundamentally flawed and is more likely to create conflict and war than to achieve its original aim of making European wars less likely in the future. It is unfair to its citizens and it's time to dismantle the machinery before it's too late. it might already be too late.

One thing's for sure, voting for Dave and telling him it's all OK really, will not make any difference to his approach to the EU. Telling Ed that you believe in what he stands for (and if you do, I'd be grateful if you could let me know what it is), will similarly have no effect on the EU. Telling pro-EU Nick Clegg that he's doing a good job, might just shock him into changing, but I doubt it.

It's UKIP then. I'm not suggesting that you sign up, become a member or a lifelong supporter. I'm not suggesting that you make a donation. I'm not even suggesting that you study their manifesto and investigate their policies on bananas. I am suggesting, just this once - and hold your nose if you have to - that you vote for them. Only through a great performance by UKIP on Thursday will this vote have any impact on our stance on Europe. Only then will Dave et al have to acknowledge that the EU is a massive issue for the UK population and only then will we get the proper debate and the proper investigation and yes referendum that we so desperately want and need in this country.

It's a local election, not a general one. I'd suggest that you treat it as a mini-referendum on the EU. I know it's not billed as that, but a vote for UKIP would effectively make it so. It would be a clear signal to Government. No other vote will have anything like the same impact of effect.

So do go and vote. Hold your nose if you have to, it's not a permanent and binding contract, just a cross on a piece of paper. But it will send a clear message to Dave and Van Rompuy et al, that enough is enough. Vote UKIP just this once and then let's see, on Thursday.

Thanks for reading.