I hate to give these interminable git holes any more undeserved coverage but it has been brought to my attention that this forum has become stale on the keyboard warrior-ing and the rage spitting fury inducing debate front. To remedy the situation I had to pull out a right wretched subject to warm the cockles of TST's beautiful inner seething anger which I know is hiding just under the surface.
So I present to you a question - Why is UKIP doing quite so well and do they deserve success?
The reason they have done so well in my opinion is because there is a widespread understanding that something is desperately wrong with the socio-economic arrangement we live under but have been subjected to many many years of immigrant scapegoating. Whether it was with The Sun or The Mail, or any of the major new distribution sources who understood from the beginning that mistrust of that which is foreign is a great way to make newspaper sales, or whether it was from both the major political parties wheeling out the so-called 'issues' brought with immigration as a convenient distraction from serious structural economic and democratic failures (despite having no intention of implementing a restrictive immigration policy), people have been taking on board a largely unchallenged anti-migrant sentiment for decades --- scratch that, for centuries. So when the UKIPS come around with a slightly more tolerable approach than the BNP, they are able to make all manner of outrageous claims in relation to immigration and they are readily accepted as fact by the media's well trained minds which will not be changed despite the facts contravening every misguided belief.
This is why the UKIPS have been able to succeed, despite until last year having a policy to completely privatise the NHS in a model that would resemble the US model, like Nigel Farage was himself filmed advocating, and despite having policies that massively restrict workers rights, and despite having policies that cut tax for the richest 1% whilst increasing it for some of the poorest people in society.
The biggest problem has been that immigration has been allowed to dominate the conversation. If immigration is always presented in media to be an area for legitimate serious concern, then it reinforces the notion that it is a problem. All the while, the real massive issues such as the Banking corruption, the gigantic corporate tax avoidance, the proposed trans-atlantic trade deal, is all being swept under the carpet and forgotten about. These are the real sources of trouble in our society. When people complain about immigrants taking their jobs, actually that problem is a lack of jobs for everyone because they have been outsourced to third world slaves. If manufacturing was brought back to Britain (with a great deal of investment into renewable energy construction thrown in for good measure) with an enforced living wage there would be plenty of jobs and no-one would suffer the indignity of slave-like wages. When people claim that the local population are being undercut by immigrant workers, the problem here again isn't the dis-empowered migrants, it is the employers who will pick the people most desperate and therefore willing to work for pitiful money because they can. If the the minimum wage was set at a non-negotiable living wage and this was enforced properly with serious criminal consequences for those employers who didn't pay it, then there could be no claim of immigrants undercutting. Wherever there is a problem levied at the migrants, there is always someone with more power who is to blame for the problem and a fairer solution which means those responsible face justice, rather than having immigrants being prevented from coming here.
There is a whole other debate to be had about UKIP's anti EU stance which is also concerning, which isn't completely (mostly but not completely) without merit, but I certainly think is misguided in the extreme. That said I do not think it needs quite the same attention seeing as UKIPs power base definitely comes from the more anti-immigration/anti-multi-multiculturalism sentiments than the anti-EU sentiments.
Anywho... Over to you.
So I present to you a question - Why is UKIP doing quite so well and do they deserve success?
The reason they have done so well in my opinion is because there is a widespread understanding that something is desperately wrong with the socio-economic arrangement we live under but have been subjected to many many years of immigrant scapegoating. Whether it was with The Sun or The Mail, or any of the major new distribution sources who understood from the beginning that mistrust of that which is foreign is a great way to make newspaper sales, or whether it was from both the major political parties wheeling out the so-called 'issues' brought with immigration as a convenient distraction from serious structural economic and democratic failures (despite having no intention of implementing a restrictive immigration policy), people have been taking on board a largely unchallenged anti-migrant sentiment for decades --- scratch that, for centuries. So when the UKIPS come around with a slightly more tolerable approach than the BNP, they are able to make all manner of outrageous claims in relation to immigration and they are readily accepted as fact by the media's well trained minds which will not be changed despite the facts contravening every misguided belief.
This is why the UKIPS have been able to succeed, despite until last year having a policy to completely privatise the NHS in a model that would resemble the US model, like Nigel Farage was himself filmed advocating, and despite having policies that massively restrict workers rights, and despite having policies that cut tax for the richest 1% whilst increasing it for some of the poorest people in society.
The biggest problem has been that immigration has been allowed to dominate the conversation. If immigration is always presented in media to be an area for legitimate serious concern, then it reinforces the notion that it is a problem. All the while, the real massive issues such as the Banking corruption, the gigantic corporate tax avoidance, the proposed trans-atlantic trade deal, is all being swept under the carpet and forgotten about. These are the real sources of trouble in our society. When people complain about immigrants taking their jobs, actually that problem is a lack of jobs for everyone because they have been outsourced to third world slaves. If manufacturing was brought back to Britain (with a great deal of investment into renewable energy construction thrown in for good measure) with an enforced living wage there would be plenty of jobs and no-one would suffer the indignity of slave-like wages. When people claim that the local population are being undercut by immigrant workers, the problem here again isn't the dis-empowered migrants, it is the employers who will pick the people most desperate and therefore willing to work for pitiful money because they can. If the the minimum wage was set at a non-negotiable living wage and this was enforced properly with serious criminal consequences for those employers who didn't pay it, then there could be no claim of immigrants undercutting. Wherever there is a problem levied at the migrants, there is always someone with more power who is to blame for the problem and a fairer solution which means those responsible face justice, rather than having immigrants being prevented from coming here.
There is a whole other debate to be had about UKIP's anti EU stance which is also concerning, which isn't completely (mostly but not completely) without merit, but I certainly think is misguided in the extreme. That said I do not think it needs quite the same attention seeing as UKIPs power base definitely comes from the more anti-immigration/anti-multi-multiculturalism sentiments than the anti-EU sentiments.
Anywho... Over to you.
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