Don't Vote UKIP

(I originally wrote this on my personal Facebook wall in the run up to the 2014 European Parliament elections.)

I am worried about UKIP's popularity. I am worried that people are actually going to vote for them. I've thought for awhile that voting for UKIP was a bad idea, but was also aware of my own ignorance of the situation. I thought that there might be something other than lie-filled propaganda fuelling their popularity.

Not any more. I am now absolutely certain that voting UKIP is a really, really bad idea.

UKIP's MEPs have a track record of not turning up to work, and not voting in Britain's interests, despite being paid £60,000 per year to do so. Voting for UKIP is a vote for lazy, apathetic workers who don't turn up. The sort of workers who would get sacked very quickly. As an MEP, they can't get Britain out of the EU, and they don't even bother to make the EU better for Britain, presumably so they have more to complain about in their propaganda.

The EU allows us to travel, to study, to work, to settle anywhere within it. A lot of British people do this. EU immigration works both ways. Importing and exporting is made a lot easier. We are a country reliant on imports. Britain's position in the EU is better than that of many EU countries. We've kept the pound; we have greater control over our economy. We are one of the strongest countries within it. The benefits of EU membership vastly outweigh its costs. It is in Britain's interest to stay in the EU; it is in the EU's interest to keep us in it.

Sure, our position could be improved, and its the job of competent (i.e. not UKIP) MEP's to sort that out. MEPs that turn up to work.

UKIP clearly have their own sinister agenda. Their propaganda presents the idea of leaving an internationally agreed human rights convention as a good thing. WHO READS THAT WITHOUT ALARMS GOING OFF? Who reads that and thinks 'Too right; I don't want my government accountable for human rights abuses'? They focus on the right of prisoners to vote, and suggest that this is an awful thing, presumably hoping for an emotional reaction to the idea that murderers and rapists can vote. The right of prisoners to vote is a safeguard against political oppression. Take it away and a government can imprison its opponents and stay in power. Take it away and we could become a dictatorship very quickly. We might get angry at the idea of a murderer being able to vote, but I'd rather that than live under a dictatorship. It might be a fairly ineffectual safeguard, but I can see why it's there.

I'm worried about the rise of UKIP. I really hope it's just a phase.

I don't align myself with any political party; I don't know who I'll be voting for on 22nd May, only that it won't be UKIP or BNP.

After having wandered round a decent chunk of the world, I now get annoyed at the idea of not voting when we live in a country where we can actually change who makes the decisions. We might not be particularly fond of any of them, but we can choose the ones that we think are least shit.
Laos is a 'democratic republic' with one political party. And a midnight curfew.

Use your vote.

And for fuck's sake, don't vote UKIP.