I have joined UKIP from the Conservative Party , which I left in June 2007.
I left the Conservative Party and I’m giving UKIP a try because, despite their current Poll leads, I believe the Conservatives are dying as a political force outside of the south-east of England. They are irrelevant in Yorkshire. We need something else now – I hope it can be UKIP.
I despair at the current political situation. It seems to me that political parties in this country are dominated by 3 categories of people :
Category 1 : ‘Blazer and tie’ wearing bullying bigots and ‘Colonel Blimp’ types who just want to turn the clock back 50 years. Also Public School Eton types who mainly work in Marketing and Public Relations.
Category 2: Skinheads, Boot Boys and Football Hooligan types.
Category 3: Obnoxious middle class do-gooders and trendy lawyers
I am not a conventional Conservative. I have a sense of humour, I am creative, I like a drink, I like rock music and I like going to pubs. Show me a party with a message of real change , dominated by professionals, scientists , engineers and IT people. If I can’t find that soon I will probably leave this country.
I now regard the Conservatives as just another spin dominated centre bloc party. A Conservative General election victory would not at all be welcome.
However - I was a Conservative Candidate from the 2006 & 2007 Harrogate District local elections, and I still stand by everything I have ever said in any leaflet – mainly because it focused really on local issues. I remember in particular attacking Labour’s disgraceful environmental vandalism which I still vehemently oppose now.
I am based in North Yorkshire, and I have my own Political Blog, which features the 6 letters I have had published in the Yorkshire Post this year.
In my opinion, there’s not a single problem happening these days that can’t be traced back to Conservative policy in the 1980s. They are all 1980s Conservative screw ups that Labour are failing to correct. I’m sick of Labour – but I don’t want the Tories back.
Northern Rock etc.: A lot of associated issues here. Blame this on Labour ? No - it only became a Bank due to Conservative de-regulation in the 1980s. It should have remained a Building Society.
And just look at the 57 Billion NL are now pumping into this institution. When the mining industry needed help in the 1980s we were told by the then Conservative Government that the mines were not economically viable. So we stopped burning British Coal and went on a short term ‘Dash for Gas’, even though coal reserves would have lasted perhaps a further 200 years. There’s one law for financial services, and one law for industry, it seems.
As North Sea reserves are run down, we are likely to end up importing most of our energy needs within 10-15 years.
In fact, the real problem is we basically import virtually everything these days – as evidenced by our record Balance of Payments deficit.
We all seem to have been sold the idea that we needn’t make things. The problem is, this has produced a workforce that believes ‘detail’ and ‘preciseness’ is always someone else’s problem. We only seem to produce middle managers and Marketing, Recruitment and Public Relations specialists these days. The rigours and disciplines of Engineering and Science are simply not present in our Service Industries.
Flooding etc: Following the recent catastrophic flooding in Yorkshire, surely we can now see the folly of Conservative privatisation of the Water Industry. There’s obviously not been sufficient investment in drainage for years as (mostly foreign) shareholders cream off the profits.
Private companies simply won’t make the kind of huge investment required in our infrastructure, unless they are coerced into doing so through some increased form of regulation. The openness of the UK corporate sector to foreign ownership may be ok for some industries, but not where essential utilities are concerned.
We have a weak infrastructure that needs investing in. For instance, commuting to work on our congested road network has become a nightmare and is an obstacle to seeking work outside your immediate area. I’m all for focusing on enterprise and the work ethic. But anyone who runs a business knows, you can’t function at all without an effective infrastructure around you.
Housebuilding and Immigration : The proposal for half a million new houses in Yorkshire is largely the result of the Conservatives taking us into the EU. We have surrendered control of our borders to the EU and are now destroying our countryside in our attempts to find room for the resulting immigration.
Political Correctness: I am utterly opposed to politically correct ‘Health Fascist’ legislation like the Blanket smoking ban. It’s yet another example of EU driven nonsense. I was very upset to hear the Conservatives supported this. A smoking room and extractor fans would take the ‘risk’ of passive smoking down from infinitesimal to nought. In other EU countries such as Spain, bars which don’t serve food are exempt from the ban.
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Yorkshire Independent - Putting Yorkshire First