Recently there has been a lot of talk about UKIP.From the regional and European elections' results it is clear that the UK Independence Party have taken a large share of the vote. In some places they were up there with Labour and the Conservatives. And way ahead of the Liberal Democrats.
Is this a change in UK politics? A shift away from mainstream political parties?
First of all, the results have to be taken in context. Only a little over a third of voters turned out. This is not unusual for local and European elections but it still a low percentage. Of these UKIP took around a quarter to just under a third of votes. What this means is they attracted around ten percent of potential voters. When you consider that the UKIP supporters were much more likely to turn out (being a then it shows that their results are less spectacular.
Also voters tend to choose different candidates in the General Election. It is taken far more seriously and people will not use it as a protest as they often do with regional elections. The nature of first-past--the-post and the makeup of the House of Commons means there is more focus on the main parties.
But the rise of UKIP cannot be dismissed. Voters are unhappy with the mainstream parties, possibly the whole system of representative government in the UK. The Scottish independence vote, whichever way it goes, similarly signals a discontent with Westminster. Though many voters may not know the full extent of their policies, UKIP offer simple solutions to our current predicaments.
However, the problem is they have distilled the complex nature of a post-empire Britain in a modern, globalised-industrial-capitalist economy (with population migration, off-shoring and powerful trans-national firms) into easy-digestable issues to do with immigration and EU membership. UKIP suggest that leaving the EU will solve many of our difficulties and we can return to stability and prosperity experienced in the post-war (pre European Community) period, something difficult if not impossible to enact.
There is no serious talk of the banking crisis, debt-fuelled growth, multi-national firms' power or income inequality. The discussion is around local authorities, uncontrolled immigration and EU regulations. In fact UKIP says little more about our relationship with Europe than the Eurosceptic Conservative MPs who are keen to cut bureaucracy, essentially wanting to remove EU laws that protect workers and the environment but add costs to business. This is sold as freeing us all up but it actually benefits the wealthier members of society much more than the majority. And the talk of immigrants revolves around poorer East-Europeans seeking work rather than general movements in population.
So UKIP offer simple solutions to complex problems. They provide easy ways to cure the ills of the UK based on restricting immigration and leaving the EU. And they offer it in a more down-to-earth package. But in reality they actually offer less than the other parties - protest policies with minor tinkering to our neoliberal economy: a Eurosceptic conservatism that mitigates some symptoms of globalisation whilst ensuring the needs of the wealthy minority are protected.
Hardly a new perspective.