This represents a considerable electoral triumph — although few people in Britain have any idea of what the European Parliament actually does or is supposed to do. But by its successful campaigning over the last decade, the UKIP has done much to stiffen the Eurosceptic sinews of a Conservative Party whose former leaders have been chiefly responsible for getting us into this European mess in the first place.
But who am I to vote for in the UK General Election which will probably be held in mid-2005? Is it possible for UKIP to further stiffen the sinews of the Conservative Party in the direction of restoring to the British electorate some of the personal freedom we enjoyed before Hitler's war began? War has a nasty way of enabling politicians to grab for themselves "emergency" powers which never seem to get restored to the people when the war is over. So can the United Kingdom Independence Party re-interpret its title to include not only independence of the EU but also making the individual subjects of the Monarch much less dependent on national government and their attendant dictatorial bureaucracies? I would like to vote for a party which genuinely intends to restore to the people personal and local responsibility for their own health, education and welfare.
Responsible individuals naturally consent to share their sovereignty with their spouses when they marry, with some of their neighbours when they set up house, with their employers and others with whom they may enter into various forms of contractual obligation, and with their carers when they are not capable of looking after themselves. But at no point in their lives do they explicitly authorise professional politicians to exercise sovereignty on their behalf. (A "professional" politician is characterised by seeking adoption as a candidate of a permanent political party, as opposed to a party — such as UKIP — set up to concentrate attention on a single important issue.)
Continuing experience shows that government of the people by professional politicians is by no mean an adequate substitute for real democracy, i.e. government of the people by themselves.
Independence does not imply merely independence of the EU, but also, and particularly, of bullying by home-grown professional politicians in Westminster and in centres of local government, who feed on the cream of taxation without in any way having to show that they give value for money or, indeed, that they give any value at all. So I would gladly support the UKIP in national elections if I could see them as the Independence Party within the UK as well as in Europe.
But consider the "influence" currently wielded by states far smaller than the UK. The on-going confrontation between the relatively tiny state of Israel and the tiny non-state of Palestine has repercussions throughout the world, and nobody seems able to do anything about it. The same could be said of many small states scattered around the globe, where ordinary people are slaughtered in large numbers by their own kith and kin at the behest of unregulated unprincipled politicians striving for supremacy over one another. Politicians create the climate in which terrorism can flourish — because fear is the only reason why anyone should trust a professional politician rather than himself.
Many people in Britain have been indoctrinated to fear "privatisation" of the so-called "Public Services". But why? There is no obvious requirement for public services to be provided by government. Would people really prefer their super-markets to be operated by government departments and financed by taxation?
All services are public services, no matter who supplies them. Anybody who requires a service should be able to obtain it in the local market, and no case has ever been made for supposing that health and education can be supplied more economically by professional politicians then by professional purveyors of services.
Politicians brag about all the hospitals they have built with our money: but hospitals are for the sick, not the healthy, whose taxes pay for them and for all their attendant bureaucracy. Doctors and nurses are human beings dedicated to making sick people better as best they can. They are perfectly capable of organising themselves, and their morale and standards of care would undoubtedly rise if central Government got out of their way. Many of us would rather spend our hard-earned money on maintaining our own health than on having to give it to politicians to spend on wasteful symbols of political power. Please refer to The National "Health" Service
Similarly, politicians brag about the schools they have built with our money: but schools are by no means synonymous with education. Good teachers have left state schools in droves because government interference prevented them from teaching, and quantity is no substitute for quality. In these days of television and the Internet, child education can often be carried out extremely cost-effectively at mother's knee — as long as mother isn't forced to go out to work just to help pay the family tax bill. For further discussion, please see Education in England
No politician draws attention to the evil of Income Tax — whereby young people have to start making a political contribution before they have earned enough to feed and clothe themselves, let alone start a family or set up house independent of their parents. It is not good for the future of the nation when its young people are taxed to the hilt mainly to cosset irresponsible people who will never make a positive contribution to the national economy, and to artificially extend the consuming lives of OAPs like myself, no matter how painful we may find it, just because we still have a vote. Please see Senility.
I would like the people of the United Kingdom, an offshore island, to go even further than Switzerland in the courageous democratic direction. Please refer to Towards True Democracy for further discussion.
1. Resigning from the European Union.
This would at least imply saying "No" in a referendum on the Constitutional Treaty, and — such is the skill which professional politicians have acquired in distorting the English language — some analysis may be required to help the voters interpret which box in a weasel-worded referendum question implies "No" or "Yes".
2. Giving all responsible adult subjects of the Crown the absolute right to declare themselves self-employed.
This would enable every individual to negotiate his or her own terms in contractual relationships with customers, clients, employers, or sub-contractors without reference to any European Court or the bureaucrats of the UK Treasury.
3. Granting every unmarried subject of the Crown the entitlement to earn the index-linked equivalent of at least £10,000 a year without liability to income tax, rising to £20,000 for a married couple, and by a further £2,500 for each child of the marriage.
This would give every responsible hard-working young person a chance to save up for a house, start a family, and provide continuing health and education services for family members as deemed appropriate in the light of prevailing circumstances.
4. Empowering the lowest tier of local government (the Parish or Ward) to conduct its own elections, to authorise and collect all taxes, to make its own by-laws for the maintenance of order and the administration of justice within its boundaries, and to provide such local services as the electorate might require. Taxation would include contributions to finance such intermediate tiers of administration as might be required to maintain the integrity of the nation, and a nationally agreed per capita contribution for national defence and a last resort system of justice.
5. Enabling each Parish or Ward to hold referenda to determine policy on matters of local importance.
6. Enabling each Parish or Ward to appoint representatives to the next higher tier of government.
Items 4, 5, and 6 would really empower all the people and make political parties redundant.
7. Repealing all legislation providing for the provision of personal services by central government.
8. Repealing all national legislation relating to compulsory schooling.
9. Repealing all national legislation banning any activity which is not demonstrably harmful to any human third party.
Items 7, 8, and 9 would be necessary to empower local administration.
Having secured these objectives, the UKIP could take a back seat — and eventually be honourably disbanded — having accomplished a glorious bloodless revolution.