The UKIP deputy leader Suzanne Evans has written a pamphlet as a part of the 'Why Vote...' series published by Biteback Publishing.
I've read it, so you don't have to.
On the whole, the book is written with the self-confident
feel of a doomed-to-fail A-level essay – the pupil given the assignment and
launching forth into what she considers a magnum opus based solely on the York
notes. Footnote numbers in the text lead simply to footnotes, and where
references are given, they are incorrectly or incompletely listed, affording
the reader little chance of consulting the source material. But the source material in most cases seems to be articles in the Daily and Sunday Express, and where these haven't actually been written by senior UKIP figures, they have an obvious leaning in that direction to say the least.
The introduction
The first 10% of the book (Kindle edition), is given to
outspoken defence of UKIP whilst attacking other parties (note use of the
favourite line of UKIP defence – smear),
interspersed with tired, jingoistic, post-imperialist nonsense.
It is hard to see a mention of any policy or fundamental
ideology listed other than leaving the EU, one of the reasons being it’s “theoretically possible for 500 million”
people to come to the UK.
Chapter 1 – leaving
the EU
This is unsurprisingly the theme of the first chapter. UKIP
watchers will not be surprised to learn that this drags out all the usual UKIP
tropes that bear so little relation to what people in the real world call
‘facts’. The whole chapter is an attack – again, not one policy other than the
title of the chapter – not even how this policy would be practically achieved.
Chapter 2 - immigration
UKIP has “the least racist immigration policy” being put
forward by any party – which of itself, is a chilling way for a party to
describe any policy.
Our ‘tiny’ island is being swamped with a population density
of 680 per square mile (actual figure
is 96 - this figure would make the population 166.5 million!). We need to build
a house every 7 seconds (no reference given but this comes from right-wing
lobby group Migration Watch not the
ONS as stated) and so how long before our ‘green and pleasant land’ is
concreted over?
As the text goes on, it becomes more rhetorical and frenzied
in style. As in the first chapter, most of the text is given over to attack.
One ‘fact’ is 16 ‘alleged illegal’ immigrants were fighting deportation at a
cost of £1.5 million to the taxpayer. The source for this is ‘government
figures released 16 April 2014’ – however the actual source for this story is
the Daily Express of that date which is also not referenced – so the government documents
cannot be traced – though from other sources, it seems that these ‘alleged
illegal’ immigrants are in fact asylum seekers in detention whilst their cases
are heard.
The author states the case that the current immigration
policy is ‘arguably racist’ in that it discriminates in favour of
‘predominantly white’ and ‘Christian’ EU citizens. This is laughable nonsense –
following this argument, UK-only desks at border control would also be racist.
Whilst stating that UKIP would operate a points system, fair
for all, and wouldn’t pull up the drawbridge, it does specify in black and
white the policy of denying all state assistance, health, benefits and
education to all immigrants for five years. The author acknowledges that this
would greatly reduce immigration. Of course the truth is that it would effectively
end all immigration.
It goes on to state that whilst ‘overseas workers’ would be
prevented from taking minimum-wage jobs, ‘those already living here could apply
as usual’ (note that IS a direct quote).
Speaking ‘competent’ English would be a condition of entry
too – but what level is considered ‘competent’ or how this would be assessed is
not stated.
Chapter 3 – trade
This again follows a
pattern of attack, attack, attack, (smear) attack. Though the theme is trade,
hidden in the text is an attack on safety and worker’s rights legislation, and
once again, the main fault for unemployment and low wages lies with the hordes
of immigrants. It follows the ‘lump of labour’ fallacy as expected, and doesn’t
mention the fact that the highest proportion of jobs advertised to the EU
relate to the lack of the required qualifications in the UK labour market, or
that indeed all these jobs are advertised within the UK and open to anyone
(with the right qualifications).
Chapter 4 -
Government waste and lowering taxes.
This goes on about tax in the way that you would expect from
a neo-liberalist party. Tax is an inherent evil, so the state will be
dismantled in order to reduce it.
It does mention some policy, though confused and obviously,
not costed. It confuses minimum wage with living wage, stating the lowest paid
will be removed from income tax (as they are currently), whilst the top rate of
tax will be reduced to 40% and start at £45k. Apparently earning this much
‘doesn’t make you wealthy’ – though you would be in the top 17%, earning almost
double the average wage of £26,500 (that stat DOES come from the ONS).
There is the inevitable attack on green policies and wind
power, claiming to quote stats from a report by Graham Sinden from the
Environmental Change Institute - claiming, as somewhat curiously, that report
is the only one not published online. The extract below however from another report by the same author, seems to completely contradict what was attributed
to him:
Low wind speed conditions affecting 90% or more of the UK
would occur in
around one hour every five years during winter;
The chance of wind turbines shutting down due to high wind
speed
conditions is very rare – high winds affecting 40% or more
of the UK would
occur in around one hour every 10 years.
Though the chapter is about tax, here the policy of building
more gas-fired power stations fuelled through fracking is laid out. The process
is ‘safe’ (!) and would ‘invigorate rural communities’ – though what this would
do to our ‘green and pleasant land’ isn’t mentioned here. It quotes the
American case, and says that shale would be a source of wealth and drop
domestic fuel costs. It doesn’t mention that to reach those levels in the UK
would require in excess of 50,000 fracking wells throughout the countryside,
from urban areas to green belt and national parks.
And again, those to blame for the welfare bill are…
immigrants, with the source of this scholarly information being… The Daily
Express. So whilst it talks about cutting the welfare bill (of which only 0.8%
is spent on foreign-born migrants – and most of that will be on the asylum
seekers and refugees that UKIP says it will look after), other than its policy
of effectively ending immigration, it doesn’t say how this will be achieved.
Chapter 5 – Ethical
Foreign Policy and Aid.
Basically, according to the author, the EU developing its own foreign
policy is to blame for wars, pestilence and famine, from Afghanistan to the
Ukraine. The LibLabCons have repeatedly made errors with interventionist
policies. UKIP intends to maintain the UK’s ‘seats’ at NATO and the UN but will
retain full control of the armed forces, only intervening if there is direct
threat to the UK or ‘moral grounds’ for doing so – no mention how this would
affect standing treaties.
The international aid budget would be slashed. There seems
to be naïve lack of understanding as to how aid works hand-in-hand with trade
and cultural exchange – for example not understanding why developing countries
give aid to each other. It talks at some length about the UK giving aid to
India – when in fact this has already been terminated by mutual agreement.
It says that UKIP would not give aid to corrupt governments,
and curiously not to governments that deny rights to LGBT people – the first
and only mention.
Chapter 6 – investing
in the NHS
As before the first part of the chapter is defence of UKIP
and attacking the other parties, accusing them of responsibility for all the
recent health scandals. Not forgetting the nasty EU with their Working Time
Directive, meaning doctors can’t work more than 48 hours in a week.
And let’s continue to scapegoat immigrants of course, not
just the myth of the ‘health tourist’, but also ‘foreign-born mothers’ (so we
don’t know whether this includes residents or citizens as well) responsible for
one-in-four births. ‘Serious diseases have been re-introduced to Britain’ it
declares (!).
So how would UKIP save the NHS?
- · Abolish ‘non-jobs’ in admin (redundancies – how many?)
- · Free eye and dental checks to cut long term costs
- · Open GP surgeries one evening a week
- · Put nurse training back to on-the-job in the hospital as there is no need for nurses to have academic training
- · Free at the point of delivery to UK-born ‘residents’ (citizens? nationals?) and immigrants who have been here for five years
- · Scrapping car park charges
Two things are concerning about this – the classification of
UK-born residents – as if being born
in the UK does not automatically determine citizenship and nationality. Also,
throughout the text, free is always
immediately qualified by at the point of
delivery.
As for the much publicised ideas of privatisation and
procurement – no mention at all, other than to criticise the way it was done by Labour and the Tories.
Chapter 7 - Farmers
and Fisheries
From this point forward we’ll skip over the EU did this,
LibLabCon did this etc.
Some agreement here in the way the Common Fisheries Policy
has been applied. The author doesn’t mention that one of the key reasons for
the CFP is over-fishing and declining fish stocks, to the point where we could
pass the point of no return on fish populations. The way industrial fishing is
being done has not changed, so that rather than catching to quota (which on the
face of it, may be impractical) the trawlers continue to trawl everything and
then sort on deck, throwing dead and dying fish, not saleable due to quota,
size or species, back into the sea to rot.
UKIP would take our territorial waters back to 200 miles
(what is now classified as the Exclusive Economic Zone by the UN, not as
stated) and exclude all other fleets, effectively
stopping the livelihood of every North Sea fisherman from every other European
country. All quotas would cease, all fish to be landed. It mentions security
resource – so imagine how many navy ships would need to be on constant patrol
to secure just under 300,000 square km of sea?
Farming – UKIP would continue farming subsidies but cap this
at £150k p.a. and no have no set-aside award. De-regulation will consider ‘risk’ and ‘hazard separately,
basically setting aside all the current safety and environmental protection
laws specifically mentioning: nitrate vulnerable zones, electronic sheep tagging, white
asbestos (!) and anti-BSE measures. They will ban the export of live animals
for slaughter and control the import of bush meat (already illegal) as this can
spread disease like ebola (it can’t).
Chapter 8 – Education
The chapter starts with building development. It will protect the
green belt, build on brownfields, invest in roads, re-establish local bus
routes and re-open branch lines. No idea where the money will come from or how
this will be achieved. They will also guarantee free parking within town
centres (imagine what that will do to congestion).
Policing: a no-nonsense zero-tolerance policy with police
freed from paperwork (no mention how that will be done either). It will
lengthen and enforce prison sentences, making space by deporting foreign
convicts. It will remove us from the ECHR and deport criminals whether they
have families in the UK or not. Again, no mention how this would be achieved or
how the countries receiving the convicts and their families would react.
They will build more prisons, have full education and
rehabilitation programs within prison and rehabilitation centres after
release. No mention again of how this will be paid for or realised. Compulsory
education? Special needs and adult teachers to be trained – in some respects
laudable, in others practically impossible and laughably naïve.
Education – grammar schools. Despite all the evidence to the
contrary, they believe that grammar schools are the magic bullet and will bring back strict selection and the school system
of fifty years ago. Those ‘not suited to the academic’ will be placed in
vocational training and apprenticeships.
University tuition fees will be
scrapped for those who meet the academic requirements and go on government
approved courses to fill skill gaps.
The focus here entirely is education to
get a job and for the good of the state – not education as an end in itself.
The result would be an extension of what is happening under the current system
– only the privileged would be able to study what they want and the humanities and arts
would eventually only be taught at a few universities. Everyone else would be
fighting for the gov. approved and funded engineering and science courses. The university system would be quite deliberately destroyed through this policy.
Chapter 9 – Taking
Pride in Britain
This chapter isn’t really a policy at all. It attacks
multiculturalism, blaming it for everything from terrorism to FGM. UKIP is not
ashamed but proud of Britain’s imperial history. Of course the PM should not
apologise for the slave trade! The ‘sneering intelligentsia’ look down on the
empire and have invented ideas of ‘post-colonial guilt’. The empire has
benefited the world. It stands up for Christian values, and perhaps the
denigration of these values by ‘left-wing atheists’ has caused ‘negative
consequences’. There is a very heavy emphasis here on Christianity at the heart of British culture and law that came as a surprise.
Multiculturalism is determined and designed with the
intention of ‘destroying’ the culture of the majority, condemning any idea of
patriotism as ‘racism’. UKIP will stop funding for multiculturalist projects,
stop multi-lingual formatting of government literature (except indigenous
languages); teach pride of empire in schools.
Chapter 10 – UKIP in
Government
UKIP follows the neo-liberalist idea of small government. It
will close the following ministries:
- International Development
- Justice
- Energy and Climate Change
- Communities and Local Government
- Culture Media and Sport
- BIS
It would stop charities such as Child Poverty, War on Want, Oxfam, WWF
for Nature and FoE from any political activity, reporting or lobbying.
They would ‘clean-up’ Westminster, controlling SPADs,
quangos and tsars.
Aside from the damage that the removal of these departments
would do to everything from efforts to combat climate change to investment in
the arts, the total restriction of the activities of charities can only be seen
as a deliberate attack on any form of organised dissent or non-commercial
influence on government policy.
So, still not much in the way of actual policy or how this will be achieved, but wading through the ranting attacks and scapegoating, some new and very frightening policy intentions. And as Farage says in his blurb on the cover,
"This lively and authoritative guide sets the record straight about what UKIP really stands for..."
