Robert Hampton

Was Nigel Farage the UKIP candidate for Clacton? You’d think so, seeing as how it’s his grinning face staring out from the front page of every newspaper and web site. Douglas Carswell was the actual candidate, and the by-election triggered by Douglas Carswell’s resignation and defection to UKIP has resulted in a historic win for the anti-EU rabble.

UKIP is still very much a protest vote, the way the LibDems were until 2010. The shallowness of UKIP’s support was demonstrated recently, when a caller to an LBC phone-in couldn’t name any policy other than “immigration”.

Meanwhile, back in Clacton, evidence emerged that the voters were not as well-informed as they could have been:-

Inspired irony : Quote of the day from Clacton on Resident "Yes I voted UKIP the Tory MP has done nothing for years"

— david bush (@Davidbush) October 10, 2014

As it stands, Thursday will go down in history as the day when voters rebelled against old-style politics by re-electing their incumbent MP – a middle-aged white private schoolboy – to a party led by a former investment banker. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose (if we’re permitted some French in this brave new world).

Finally, some people in the media are actually challenging Nigel Farage and UKIP to proper scrutiny. Here is James O’Brien of LBC from earlier today. Break out the popcorn for this one:-

Did you get one of these through your letterbox recently? I did, and so did my friend Scott. I’m embedding his photo here because my copy of the leaflet went straight into the recycling.

The rise of UKIP makes me sad. Sad that a significant chunk of the country is content to blame immigrants for all our economic woes. Sad that the “fearless” free press is failing to challenge Farage and his chums on the issues. Sad that the European Convention on Human Rights, a document inspired by Winston Churchill as a response to the horrors of World War II and the Holocaust, could be scrapped.

“But they’re just saying what ordinary people are thinking!!!111” is the cry. I disagree – most ordinary people do not believe that the winter floods were caused by gay marriage, that Lenny Henry should leave the country, that “no self-respecting businessman would employ a lady of child-bearing age”, and so on. It’s happened just a few too many times to dismiss them as one-off comments from someone stepping out of line.

The media are happy to go along with the image of UKIP as jolly outsiders breaking up the cosy Westminster system. People are being conned into voting for them, to stick two fingers up to the mainstream parties, without knowing just how harmful their policies are. Here are three ways I, personally, will be worse off if UKIP policies go into effect:

1. They want to introduce a flat rate tax, so I would probably end up paying more – the same percentage as millionaires have to pay.

2. They want to scrap many of the employment laws that have been hard fought for over previous decades – effectively making it much easier for employers to sack people – so my job would be less secure.

3. They want to repeal the recently enacted same-sex marriage laws, so if I do find someone to love, my relationship would have second-class status.

We desperately need some fresh ideas in politics. All three main UK parties are led by career politicians with little concept of life outside the Westminster bubble. But UKIP are definitely not the party to bring change. Don’t vote for them in the upcoming elections.