For John Hughes.
John, the article in The New Statesman is one man's opinion. Yes, it should be listened to, maybe even respected but it is not compulsory to share it. For someone who would like us to believe he has researched his subject well he has failed to realise that there is no such word in English as "Ukip". The Party is the United Kingdom Independence Party (abbreviated to UKIP) If he cannot grasp such basics should we give the rest of the article any credence?

It never takes long for UKIPs critics to play the race card does it? I think the big 2 (can't class the Lib Dems as anything but a support act these days) need to take notice or be prepared to lose votes.

Ron you state: West Cumbria has done particularly well from EU grants over the years with more investment than would have been likely than from the UK government.

and became so reliant on such grants that are now being directed elsewhere, that it is in deep trouble. Had a walk around Whitehaven lately ?....the tarted up harbour is all that is left and that's distinctly tatty in parts too now. Do tell me what I am missing, where has all the EU money gone ? Hidden gems of West Cumbria courtesy of the EU reveal yourselves...

The remainder of the town, and the smaller. towns and villages are dying on their feet. Meanwhile Greece, Poland and Romania have fantastic new motorways and infra -structure, we have the single carriageway A66. Hardly a pull for potential investors.

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/02/ukip-party-bigots-lets-look-evidence

Says it all really.

"How do you explain the financial stability and high employment rates in Switzerland and Norway ?"

Er, centre left governments that refuse to implement the sort of mad free market policies that UKIP advocate, and which invest and create jobs rather than leave it to business. Unlike Tory Britain in the 1980s which frittered away the North Sea oil money on tax cuts for rich people, these countries ensure social equality and fairness. Read The Spirit Level.

Business aside let us not forget the final and avowed intention of the EU which is a federal state. We cease to be Britons and become a European citizen alongside countries who have had democracy five minutes. I will not agree to let go of hundreds of years history of the rights of the common man starting with Magna Carta.

As usual, when an article about Europe comes along, up pops the armchair politicians who seem to think that they know best, and not the business people, politicians, beaurocrats and civil servants who've spent their entire careers working at this kind of thing.

The rabid xenophobia that often accompanies anti-EU sentiment is spookily similar to the rhetoric that arose in the 1920's, and we all know where that led to.

A greater, more accountable, integration is what's needed. Not a complete abandonment of possibily the greatest movement for peace and international trade the world has ever seen. Yes, the EU has its flaws, but these are mainly a result of people like UKIP demanding concessions and special privileges from a system with the resultant treaties and agreements having to be compromised to the point of worthlessness.

Aside from some tabloid inspired paranoia and a healthy dose of tribalism, the EU is a benign, largely ignored facet of life and I suspect you'd struggle to point to one aspect of -your- life effected detrimentally by being part of it.

Why is it the rest of the EU countries use the so called directives as guidlines and ignore those that are stupid, where our civil servants use them as rules to build their empires? What do we not get the MPs to sort out these bureaucrats and use ome common sense for a change? It is notbrussels that is the problem, but Whitehall!

@ Ron on 18 February 2013 at 11:03

How do you explain the financial stability and high employment rates in Switzerland and Norway ?

Nothing wrong with the European Common Market, but there is no reason for un-elected, faceless, bureaucratic officials in Brussels having any say on our laws, rights to control our borders, rights to dictate imports and exports, rights to work when we choose, rights to retire when we choose, rights to self government, and the right to stop meat labeled as Beef being mixed with other meat products....

We are in a common market, not a United States of Brussels !

If it means we ditch the whole EU thing, then so-be-it.

I'd be happy to vote UKIP if it means we take back our rights to do the things that matter for THIS country. Europe is damaged goods.

Well done Gordon,good luck for the future.
Our once great country is on the brink of extinction,everything is collapsing all around
us.We have become the most overcrowded country
in Europe,we have lost control of our borders.We are broke,and hardly make anything any more,yet still they are allowed in.They leech benefits from a system and state that they never ever paid into.We need
to ditch the corrupt E.U.and the damn Human Rights Act.Please read our policies and stop
voting for Liebore,Libdemons,and Conartists.
Only UKIP can save us now.