What is UKIP’s (latest) economic policy?
Things have changed a lot in a few months for UKIP’s economic policy. When I first surveyed it here it was called “UKIP’s Economic Plan”. The meaningless title for Monday’s policy launch was “An Economy believing in Britain“. No, me neither.
It isn’t just the title that has changed – after various revolutions in recent years, UKIP’s economic policy appears to have changed again since October.
Here’s what’s still there, what’s new and what’s vanished:
http://www.conservativehome.com/highlights/2015/03/what-is-ukips-latest-economic-policy.html
original :http://www.ukip.org/an_economy_believing_in_britain
Links from RR.
Rotherham Politics 
Not of the most impressive, to be sure.
But given that our masters in the City and Westminster have spent the last 35 years closing our industries, flogging them off abroad and abrogating economic sovereignty wholesale to the EU/WTO I am not sure what Big Picture Strategic would look like.
If you know RR, please enlighten me
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Why don’t you read their manifestos when they are published, and tell the rest of us.
I’m running short on time at the moment – as Rothpol well knows.
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This doesn’t add up. The assumption of savings by leaving the EU neglects the possibility of the cost of the UK of having to join the European Free Market area. Also there is a risk of many businesses leaving Britain. Tax cuts but increases in spending on defence and the NHS is a staple of small parties with no chance of winning power.
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You can always promise something you are never going to deliver, sounds appealing to the dumbest electorate , but most people have a modicum of intelligence and will see through this rubbish.
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I have never understood UKIP’s beef about inheritance tax. Supposedly it’s double taxation as one has already paid tax when the money was earned. But that’s true of the money I pay the plumber. I paid tax on it when I received it but he is still liable for tax when I give it to him. The only difference is that he earns it with the sweat of his brow rather than for the unimpressive feat of crawling from his mother’s womb.
Moreover a couple can already leave £650,000 tax free but if the plumber earns £650,000 he has to pay around two fifths in tax. And to pay for this tax cut they want us to cut foreign aid by 80% or more. I am afraid I am old school. I think we have obligations to our former colonies. If there is fat to cut there’s so many better places to spend the savings. Not least on locking up the army of rapists walking free. Not to mention that the super rich are experts in avoiding tax so the argument that they have already paid tax once is false in many cases.
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Even leaving aside some of the inconsistencies in UKIP’s approach to the economy in general and taxation in particular it is starting to look as though they are going through the process of re-positioning themselves towards the left of the political spectrum. Taxation of turnover rather than profit gives the game away. (I seem to remember this policy being mooted by Labour, probably in the 1960s or 1970s)
Scrapping the Bedroom Tax is further indication of a lurch to the left and, as the Conservative Home analysis points out, they would subsidise unused spare rooms but penalise larger families by reductions in child benefit.
Then there is the protectionist element of their economic policy. Restricting economic migration is a protectionist measure as it prevents the free movement of labour. The end result is higher wages in the short term fueling imports to satisfy consumer demand but then rising unemployment caused by loss of competitiveness.
Inheritance Tax is probably left in to satisfy their right wing but that fox has been shot as the Conservatives plan to include a manifesto commitment to raise the threshold to an estimated £1 million.
I hope people will challenge their candidates to explain UKIP’s economic policy before they get the chance to turn us into a western european version of North Korea.
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They won’t get the chance. They are just a repository for the protest vote.
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“I think we have obligations to our former colonies.”
I have never seen aid as part of out obligations to former colonies,
We all share one world, and so we support each other as best we can, “Covering each others back” is a phrase one often hears in old mining communities.
– Remember that I lived and worked thu’ the Ethiopian famine, – got to admit I couldn’t do it twice, but some people just do go on… . .
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Aha! After agreeing twice in one day I am glad we a back to form. However I do believe Geldof has commented on the substantial uselessness of the Live Aid efforts as the Ethiopan Government blocked the food getting to the rebel areas where it was needed. I salute you! I doubt I could have done it once.
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Live Aid was good on the ground, supporting the far more experienced agencies. Geldof was fine mobilising public opinion in UK/US.
Aid was needed in many of the northdrn areas – not just those under TPLF or EPLF control , and sure the Addis government didn’t like aid going into those areas – there was a war on.
But there were other routes into the north – War on Want went in that way, and ultimately the ICRC were able to deliver aid into those areas from the south. The lead driver was an acquaintance of mine.
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Thank you. I am glad to hear all that. I’d hate to think all those efforts were wasted.
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Our views aren’t mutually exclusive. I see aid as meeting both our historical obligations and our human obligation to “cover one another’s back” as you put it and also as enlightened self interest. If UKIP want to reduce the immigration they should be looking at closing the gap in living standards between the richer and poorer nations, not axing aid.
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An unbiased review of UKIP policy from conservative home, really?
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An unbiased review from conservative home website, really?
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UKIP candidates,Alan Cowles and Jane Collins said they would represent their constituents rather than follow party lines.Alan Cowles said,in the Advertiser,that he agreed with the World Bank’s view on foreign aid:adjust it,don’t cut or abolish it,as UKIP’s manifesto says.In his election leaflet,he says”cut foreign aid”.They’ve not even been elected yet and they’re “fibbing”like good-uns already.We need a new kind of politician?It certainly ain’t UKIP.
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Would apply equally if you were to change UKIP for any other party name. They all promise ‘Jam tomorrow’, only tomorrow never comes!
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Which blows a hole in UKIP’s claim to be a different kind of politician,doesn’t it?
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