EU, the ultimate statist thieves

Monday 4 April 2011

UKIP - The Local Manifesto!


Democracy first. We, the people, shall rule

We will –

Empower local people by giving you the right to call binding referenda on local issues
Let you, the people, decide major planning schemes like supermarkets by referendum
Grant no right of appeal from the people’s decisions on planning schemes
Introduce election for county health, education and police boards
Expect your councillors to put the people’s needs first, ahead of party dogmas
Make councils, schools, police, hospitals, planning and social care put local people first
Keep central government out of local government, abolish regional government
Restore our ancient county, borough and parish councils
Let councils control their own finances by keeping half of local business rates
Replace VAT with a Local Sales Tax, with a proportion going direct to councils


Council services: No front-line cuts

To maintain and improve front-line council services, we will –

Halt all cuts to front-line council services
Keep police on the beat to protect the people from anti-social behaviour
Improve health care for the elderly
Develop youth services
Maintain the roads properly
Give rates relief to local businesses
Increase provision of free parking
Invest in high-quality state education
Preserve our public libraries
Improve public transport
Energise the voluntary sector
Devolve budgets, not burdens
End aspirational waffle about local communities. The Big Society is a big mistake

Protecting local people from crime

To keep the people and the streets safe, we will –

Oppose votes for prisoners
Halt the scrapping of police jobs
Refuse to tolerate any antisocial behaviour or petty crime
Build more prisons
Make sentences mean what they say
Elect county police boards to let local people set police priorities
Cut police form-filling and free officers for real  police work
Crack down on nuisance neighbours

Immigration: Britain for the British first

To cut immigration and the heavy cost of immigration, we will –

End Labour’s immigration free-for-all, which let in three million in 13 years
Withhold all State benefits from immigrants for five years
Introduce proper border controls Increase UK Border Agency staff as needed
Freeze permanent immigration for five years until we sort out the system
Deport all illegal immigrants
Target working visas only on those with the skills we need

Planning for our green and pleasant land

To put the people in charge of the decisions that affect our countryside, we will –

Put people’s wishes above central government and big business with planning referenda
Ban new windfarms and subject existing ones to democratic local planning procedures
Protect with new Conservators
Annul the Localism Bill’s right to build on green belt
Direct new housing and business developments to brown-field, not green-field, sites
Build new nuclear and clean-coal power plants to secure our energy supply
Use existing houses more efficiently by encouraging rentals


Health: Sorting out the National Health Service

To keep the health service safe and protect our elderly and disabled people, we will –

Let the people elect county health boards to oversee vital services
Halt all cuts in front-line NHS doctors, surgeons, dentists and nurses
Axe failing, surplus NHS management Reintroduce proper matrons to run clean hospitals
Make specialist care available as needed, to save lives now lost through delay
Cut waiting lists to European levels – Poland treats cancer patients faster than we do

Education: Put pupils and parents first

To bring Britain’s education up to international standards, we will –

Let the people elect county education boards to make our schools better
Scrap useless paperwork and trust teachers to do their jobs
Build more Grammar Schools
Insist that schools teach the 3 Rs
Close colleges using bogus courses as a back door into Britain for foreign students
Reinstate the student grant and educational maintenance allowance
Encourage vocational apprenticeships
Give parents the right to choose where their children go to school
Protect rural schools
Encourage home schooling

Housing: Local British people first

To address the housing shortage caused by three million immigrants in 13 years, we will –

Restore proper controls on immigration to ease the demand for housing
Incentivise re-use of 970,000 empty houses, equal to eight years’ English house-building

Transport: Keeping our communities on the move

To keep Britain moving, we will –


Let the people decide on local transport infrastructure by calling binding referenda
Reopen local railway lines where needed
Preserve wayleaves of disused railway lines in case they are needed again
Halt widespread over-zealousness in parking enforcement
Remove all speed cameras, except those proven to reduce accidents or demanded by the community
Provide free parking at all hospitals
Protect free parking for Blue Badge holders
Protect rural bus services


BUT, whatever we, the people, want or decide...


UKIP would like to point out that unelected EU
bureaucrats set overall policy in –


Foreign affairs l Economic affairs
Public health l Transport
Justice l Energy
Employment l Environment
Police l Farming
Social affairs l Fisheries
Immigration l Law enforcement


And they won’t stop there. That is why we want
our national and our local democracy back.

 If you want it too, vote UKIP with pride.




Download the whole thing from here

6 comments:

  1. I'm afraid this all sounds a bit sixth-form to me. All those lovely promises, but not a word on how they will be paid for. Far better if UKIP said 'we will hold an immediate in/out binding referendum, then have another GE within six months'. I'd vote for that happily. But this wish-list would be torn apart in an election campaign, even by Labour. I hope the manifesto contains more detail ... *goes to look*

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  2. Can't argue with most of those!

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  3. Wonderful words BUT honesty should temper all these bold statements with a promise that they would make every effort to .................
    If UKIP chooses to make impossible political promises we may as well play a game of pinning the tail on the election card donkey.
    Yes or No to AV we'll still end up with professional politicians willing to lie for votes.
    I believe in UKIP but I also believe in the 'art of the workable'.

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  4. Richard, if you download the manifesto, that is covered. The money we save by leaving the EU and getting rid of non jobs and quangoes will cover much of that.

    Xopher, I don't think anybody realistically thinks this is going to happen quickly. The country is in such a mess that the priority for UKIP is to leave the EU first or none of this will be possible.

    At the risk of sounding like a "one policy party", their aspirations for reform are set out for all to see!

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  5. Sue, don't get me wrong. I would support the majority of those commitments. And if leaving the EU would pay for all of that, then great. But it reminds me a little bit of Liberal manifestos of the past, promising everything to everyone in the full knowledge that they will never have to make it work in the real world. I sincerely wish UKIP well, but if they were a single-issue party I would find them easier to support.

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  6. Richard, they can't do a worse job than the ConDemNation are doing.

    I want to live in a democracy where I am at least given a choice of whether to be in the EU or not. It's stifling us and killing our economy.

    UKIP can only be an improvement.

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