UKIP - A welcome spanner in the works?

I'm sure that cleverer people than I could get the following sentiment into 140 characters. Just about everyone, then, but I cannot, hence a quick and hopefully short blog on the success of UKIP and the pulling of UK politics to what people (usually with a left-leaning agenda) call 'the right'.

It would be completely disingenuous of me, having advocated that people should vote for UKIP in order to kick the other parties; to raise the issue of the EU much higher up the political agenda; to try to get the voices of 'ordinary' voters heard, and to 'force' call-me-Dave into shifting his ground, if I were now to criticise him for doing so.

Whether, in his heart of hearts he really believes in a more Ukipian stance: lower taxes, smaller Government, fewer laws and regulations, an exit from the disaster that is the EU, is largely irrelevant to me: If he doesn't believe in these traditional 'Tory' values, even though the majority of the population does, (48% voted for Tory or UKIP against 29% for Labour this week) then we need a way of forcing him into it. They supposedly work for us after all. (I know that's laughable but hey ho).

People will say that the traditional parties have MPs and UKIP does not; that they (the existing main parties) have publicly and democratically mandated policies, so they have the voters 'on side'. But where is the choice? None of the main parties was offering an anti EU option at the last election. Even though it was a front and centre issue for many people. And to say, as they endlessly and infuriatingly do, that you voted for us so you must accept everything in our manifesto, is just bollocks. People vote for people, leaders in the main and the general stance of the party, rather than local MPs, or every single detail in the manifesto. So to say 'it was in our manifesto' as a catch-all, get out of jail free card drives me potty.

The fact is that Dave is so far out of step with traditional Tory values that he might as well be Blair's successor. Yes they're doing things about Welfare and the NHS, MOD funding and equipment levels that were woeful under the last lot; Gove is taking on the dinosaur teaching unions at last, and there is a fairly half-hearted attempt to get UK finances back under control after the almost criminal ineptitude of the last Labour Government.

But there's no 'vision'. No route-map to getting the country back on its feet. No recognition of the biggest threat we face in my opinion, which is the Germanification of Europe - not just to the detriment of the UK, but the potentially fatal damage being done to our friends amongst the ordinary populous of Southern Europe.

I am not anti-Europe in any way: I am European. I have worked in France, Germany, Holland, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Scandinavia. I have friends there. I love the culture and lifestyle of many of those countries. I would fight for their freedom - as we did as a nation twice during the unpleasantnesses of the last century. So why are we standing by while they are oppressed by the EU as Germany's current agent in its quest for European domination? (Think that's too strong? Think about it carefully, objectively, then get back to me).

So enter UKIP. A welcome voice for people who have no other outlet on this issue: Is defending people who are struggling to feed their kids in Spain, Greece etc., right wing? Is it nasty? While fat Eurocrats enjoy a lifestyle that would make Solomon blush? Is stealing money out of people's own bank accounts something we should applaud? What if it was your account?

So if UKIP's success can force Dave to change his stance in the right direction, can help to change UK policy on the EU, can, by making our eventual exit more likely, help the struggling people of southern Europe in particular (if we leave the EU will crumble even more quickly than it will naturally imo - they need us more than we need them), then it's a good thing. Possibly a great thing.

So, as I see it right now, UKIP can be an effective spanner in the works that gives us more of a say on the EU and that forces Dave to move to the right for his own survival. Ultimately, if they won't listen to voter's views or do what's right for the country over what's right for their party, they will, if faced with losing their own livelihood and career, have to do what keeps them in a job.

That's not how it should be. Not how most MPs would describe their motivation, but it is the reality of modern-day political office. Just as the Eurocrats will do anything to keep their extremely well-paid jobs, including selling out their own people without hesitation, so UK MPs will do whatever it takes to keep their cushy jobs. It's time to use this power we have over them, to force them to do what we want them to do. There's no other way it seems to me.

UKIP is doing us all a service in this regard and long may they continue to do so. And it's not just the Tories who are under threat. The Lib Dems are pretty much toast now thankfully, but even Labour's stance on Europe, on borrowing, on immigration is being swept away by the sense being talked by UKIP imo. The political landscape is changing. At last. And that's a good thing. UKIP is healthy for our democracy because it is challenging the status quo and it is not simply a protest party. It has momentum, leadership, vision, charisma. You might not like it, but it's true.

Final point, just so as not to seem to be entirely Machiavellian about this, Frage is a Tory to his roots. I'm not sure Dave is. So who knows what the future may hold?

Thanks for reading.