I am getting very worried indeed about an increasingly apparent trend in british politics. I’m sure you will have heard by now how well UKIP did in yesterday’s local elections; you all would have seen Farage’s grinning mug all over the lunchtime news bulletins. I came in here to write about it, but now that I have I’m not sure what to say. As Lyn wisely pointed out to me earlier, simply hurling abuse at him and his followers will achieve nothing and get nowhere. And yet, they frighten me: it is clear that they represent a step backwards, a step towards isolationism and xenophobia, a step down a very dangerous path. Take any ukip policy and I will show you its underlying folly, its roots in xenophobia, or its sheer ideocy. For instance, ukip are against vthe smoking ban in pubs: what a cynical, populist move. Since the ban came in, pubs have become much nicer, cleaner and more pleasant. But because the type of people who vote ukip only see things in terms of their own rights rather than those of others, and they want to smoke, they oppose he ban. Something similar could be said aout their stance on climate change: because the environmental rules designed to tackle global warming inconvenience them, and they want the right to pump whatever shit they want into the atmosphere, they oppose all such regulation not worrying about the problems it causes for others. Theirs is a short-sighted, selfish, even childish worldview; one we could ell do without given the problems we face. Such problems can only be solved if we work with the EU, encourage the free-flow of people and ideas, and help everyone in society to forfil their potential. the moment we start listening to bigots like farage – and he is a bigot, just look at his speeches – we step back to a time when difference was feared, greed was valued and hatred was commonplace.

We need to step backwards, look at ukip and what they stand for, and see them as the fascists they are. That is not happening at the moment, so Farage can go onto programs like Question Time, spewing hate and folly and calling it ‘realistic’, and people will vote for him. He and his party of loons need to be engaged with, analysed, and exposed as the bigots they are before they gain any more credence and people start believing they are legitimate and viable. Fail todo so and something very dark and hateful will creep back into society. This has stred to happen now, and the weasel words of ukip have begun, trying to portray themselves as somehow non-racist and inclusive, but the sooner people see the folly farage represents, the better.