UK - Council and European Election

[Beanz]

Miles you do not live in the UK. You do not pay taxes in the UK. You do not vote in the UK. What exactly are you trying to achieve ? You say this thread has made you so angry and yet it does not concern you. You are to all intents and purposes a foreigner. You are also an Immigrant. If Kirkland or Al or Mark TKO want to voice their own opinion, state that they are unhappy with the current immigration policy or show their support for UKIP it actually means something because they all live,work and pay taxes here.

I can understand as somebody born in England that you would be interested in what is happening in the place of your birth, but you seem to be suggesting that your choosing to live elsewhere has vindicated your decision making process to the point where every point you make is an unassailable truth. You are constantly contradicting yourself, so contorted are your efforts to teach others and always been seen as being right. The hilarious irony is that the same degree in History and politics that the career politicians who lord it over us have, seems to be your justification in telling us what a cesspit we live in and how if we had only listened you we would be OK.

You are on the one hand suggesting taking away the state so that people become more self reliant and then condemning the decision to buy a house and therefore become more self reliant ? My own personal views on UKIP are that a vote for them is not like you suggest a protest vote at all. It is as bad as listening to Russell Brand and not voting. It is the politics of inaction. A vote for a UKIP representative to stand in a Parliament that they do not believe in and from which they have no power to withdraw Britain is a wasted vote. Not only are they not interested in standing up for the working man by planning to raise income tax for the poorest 88%, they are actually not standing up for any man woman or child in England and getting paid £64,000 to do so. You are wilfully oversimplifying and obfuscating the issue to suggest otherwise. They are the party for disenchanted voters from the far right for whom the Tories are too moderate, and if that is where you politics lie then fair enough but don't pretend that that you are neither left nor right when professing support for them.

[Gandalf]

The only thing that made me really angry in this thread was being called a cunt. The other stuff such as policy I disagree with also makes me angry, but you are right, it doesn't affect me directly. I do think about it though and do care enough to argue points that I think are valid. What I will say though is that I only ever planned to leave the UK for a year and then come back, but whilst overseas I saw more and more things go wrong with the UK. The Iraq war was big and that really woke me up to things politically again, then of course the banking crisis and in all these years an immigration epidemic, from afar I have seen just how rotten it is for most ordinary workers or savers. The years rolled and I realised I could never return to a country in such a position. I have realised that if I ever were to come back it isn't a country I could happily live in. I have got used to low taxes, cheaper rents, and the work I can do well is plentiful for me here. That makes me sad really as I do still have friends and of course my family there and I am missing out on most family things. That would make anyone have a love/hate relationship with the place. There are things I love of course, but there are also a lot of things I hate.

My point about house ownership was simply that you have a house which is an investment, but at the same time make constant digs at my methods of investment. I think people should own whatever they want to own. I see no reason to attack people on that basis. That's the only point I was making, but I was tippled and so expressed it poorly. In terms of my politics. I am libertarian meaning small government and individual freedom as far as possible. However, I don't like inequality, so redistributive taxes will have to play a part and as far as it helps consumers, I would nationalise key utilities. I would certainly regulate immigration.

For sure, Ukip isn't ideal, but neither are any of the parties. Their manifesto isn't the worst thing I've ever perused. I think Scotland wanting independence and UKIP getting bigger will jolt Westminster with a wake up call. It's long overdue.