Time please for EU elections

DRIVING through the small village of Walton in Somerset the placards for the United Kingdom Independence Party are the only ones to be seen.
Somerset provides a snapshot of the dissatisfaction voters are feeling with the main parties. Following the devastating floods which hit the county during the winter residents protested about the lack of action the government had taken to prevent the chaos.
As politicians enter the final day of campaigning ahead of local and European elections polls have shown UKIP looking set to win tomorrow's elections.
Despite a number of high profile scandals, accusations of racism and yesterday's carnival debacle the inexperienced party's lead seems undiminished.
For a party to come from relative obscurity, and with little in the way of workable policies, would have seemed unlikely only a matter of years ago. Some commentators have referenced discontent among the electorate as the primary cause of the party's dominance. Looking at the comparison in data between people's choice for the EU elections and the General Election in 2015 it seems clear that it may only win as a protest against the other parties.
A lack of serious opposition from Labour and the Conservatives seems likely to have shifted the balance of power though. From the electorates perspective only Nick Clegg's Liberal Democrat party has really taken on Nigel Farage's UKIP, splitting the choice into a clear pro or anti Europe stance.
Already the main parties have geared up for the election in 2015, leaving the battlefield of the local and EU elections relatively unopposed. While Nigel Farage has become a near permanent fixture on the news, Prime Minister David Cameron and Labour leader Ed Miliband have remained relatively quiet.
Political parties know that they have to marshal resources where they are going to be most effective. Based on current trends it seems as though they are happy to leave Europe to the right wing party and focus on ensuring that it does not gain any more power within the country.
With Europe becoming an ever more contentious issue among voters a decision on Britain's future in the Union will be a key area of debate in 2015. By ignoring tomorrow's elections the main parties could be playing a dangerous game handing a win to UKIP for the future of Britain.

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A political presence

The United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) has had to cancel its Freepost service after receiving faeces to their offices. While I disagree with UKIP on almost every topic this was never going to be the way to make a political statement.

We are fortunate in Britain that we are able to have freedom of speech, to hold widely differing views and to argue those views. We live in a democracy where we can choose our elected representatives based on what they stand for, something denied to millions of people around the world. It is this which gives us the ability to participate in such childish pranks but it is also this we gives us a moral duty to not do so.

In our political system if you disagree with someone’s point of view then you are free to debate it with them. Changing minds through discourse, that is surely the basic premise of any free thinking political system. Sadly, however, we as a populace seem to have forgotten how to hold an argument, how to hold a view for that matter. We seem to be only interested in meeting the intellect of the lowest common denominator. We have dumbed down our society so much that we have forgotten the very principles upon which it was founded.

We have forgotten that millions of men and women have fought and died to preserve our right to free speech and freedom of political protest. We have forgotten that our leaders used to be intelligent men, and rightly so. We valued honour and intellect. We may have disagreed with someone’s views but we had the character to respect their right to have them. All of that seems to have been lost somewhere along the way.

Instead we now have celebrities telling us that the system is broken and we should stop voting. We should stop voting? We should sacrifice the right which so many people would still die to just have a glimpse at, which so many already have, as a form of protest. If the system is broken then the way in which we change it is by voting, by choosing better leaders.

Nigel Farage’s greatest selling point is his “voice of the common man” approach. People like him because he makes them feel on the same level. Surely our leaders should be the best and the brightest. They should be men and women of conscience and intellect, they should be brighter than the majority and we should feel that we can respect them.

As it stands at the moment we have very few such politicians in place. This is not the fault of the system though, this is the fault of us the electorate. We voted these people in. We chose them, we gave up on wanting the best.

If you want to prove that UKIP is wrong, something which does not take the best and the brightest by any means, then join in the debate. Show how flawed their ideals are, show why they are wrong, show that you have a better plan, don’t act in a way which would have your peers in primary school look down at you for immaturity.