5/31/2014

The Rise of UKIP?

Here in the UK the UK Independence Party has massively increased the amount of seats they hold in the European Parliament. And it's not just been in the UK, all over Europe people have flocked to more extreme parties.

You can debate until world's end about why this is; and, it's probably more a whole host of reasons than just one. For me I feel it's a couple of key reasons. 
It's the fact that people have had years of financial issues and the economy has take a downturn which is taking a long time to sort out. 
A lot of people have come to blame this downturn on the European Union and believe that getting the hell out is the easy option to sort all of our problems. I'm not so sure. 
People voting in more extreme parties is a knee jerk reaction. The reason why so many ukip votes were gained is because people were dissatisfied with the EU that they made a conscious effort to vote this time. As opposed to those who feel ok with it all because they assume it's going to stay the same anyway. 
It's also part of the reason why I feel that the education systems need to up their game and educate kids about politics from a young age. Give them a chance to understand what is going on so that they at least have the knowledge to make an informed decision. 
It's why the EU needs to be more transparent  in their costs and benefits and different media outlets need to stop spinning figures. If we have one single figure - that is correct - we will be able to discuss the issue more thoroughly and better.  Thus why I also believe that a referendum at this point in time would be counter productive. Educate the population first, then ask questions. 
Just like you wouldn't ask a poultry farmer about how to grow the best tomatoes or how milk is best processed. Asking a nation without much of a clue about how the EU works if they want to go out is doing exactly that. They'll follow the most charismatic individual. In this case it has been Farrage, who is very talented in telling whoever he has as his audience what they want to hear. His own motivations? They're as of yet unclear to me. 

We need to build educated countries whose people are informed and educated, not scaremongered into making a decision which might harm their country more than they think. 

And ukip using the fact that we have to abide by the convention of human rights as a negative? Well that just makes me feel like we've stepped back in time quite a bit. 

Wake up people, they're not telling you the whole story. They're telling you the bits they want you to hear. They're politicians. That's what they get paid to do. So do your research and listen to all of the points before you make your mind up!