What absurd nonsense.

Excuse me, which main party offered a referendum on membership in their manifesto? It's also a lazy suggestion to imply that unless voters are using their rare main election vote to get out of the EU that this means that they are happy with it.....Risible.

The EU was never a institution worthy of real alarm until the 90s. Sure we were wary of it but until the Maastricht treaty was signed what was said to Britain about the common market still had traction.

Some of the reasons why Ukip have gained strength over these last few years can be summed up by your attitude in that post.

They have been lied to over the nature of the EU. Had objections dismissed or ignored and often belittled and insulted...Called 'bigots' by bigots themselves.

'Who are you and how did you get in here? I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.' (Leslie Nielsen)

Thanks so much.

Do you suffer from anger issues?

But back on track. So many of those voting for UKIP will vote Conservative in the general election if they are thrown even a vague hint of a referendum, which inevitably won't ever materialise. They'll desert UKIP. Then the same people, who make the 'main parties' main in the first place, will complain. Wash, rinse and repeat.

Edited by luckybuck (18 May 2014 2.01am)

There's no rule that says you have to vote for a main party. UKIP has been around since 1993 and the referendum party ran across almost the whole country in 1997. Yet neither have ever had an MP and II'm not sure they've even come close.

I'm not saying they were happy with it, simply that it wasn't an issue they felt strongly enough about to change their voting intention.

That was over 20 years ago, I think UKiP have had ample opportunity to represent the poor souls who don't like the EU.

And yet they've kept voting Tory and Labour.

"The fox has his den. The bee has his hive. The stoat, has, uh... his stoat-hole... but only man chooses to make his nest in an investment opportunity.” Stewart Lee

All parties need publicity and time to bed in to gain voters. Ukip have done very well to become as big as they have so soon.

So why bother making the point? Now I'm very anti the type of EU we have but even I have never voted Ukip at the main election...Up until now I've saved it for EU elections.

What winds me up is then people like you saying that this means that I don't feel strongly enough about it.

I'm sorry, but the prospect of Labour pursuing policies I didn't believe in across the board did overide even my anti EU feelings.

It isn't exactly news to tell you that I voted Tory not because I was completely happy about it but because it was the lesser evil with a chance of keeping out a larger one.

However due to now much Wisbech has changed due to Eastern European immigration over the last ten years I'd pretty much decided that enough was enough and that I was going to protest vote this time.... that's now bad immigration has got in my town....Changed the town completely. I know how it has affected services because I've worked in it.

Yet after Cameron's latest comments about the referendum now I'm fifty fifty on who to vote for....I'll see what's in the manifesto.....Regardless I'll never like Cameron.

I've already answered this but I'll add to this that the Tories are also quite anti EU and have been trying to destroy the Ukip voter base since it started.

Most people who vote Tory don't like the EU and that provides an outlet even if it's not ideal...It factors in.....So again,...I would have thought you would know this so it's annoying having to type this '101' stuff out.

Edited by Stirlingsays (18 May 2014 11.29am)

'Who are you and how did you get in here? I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.' (Leslie Nielsen)

Being "anti-EU" has come to encapsulate a code for being disatisfied with life and seeking a convenient "other" to blame it on....Hence, UKIP's mass appeal....as a protest vote.

Maybe its the EU's fault our taxi drivers don't wear uniforms as per UKIP's manifesto at the last elections?!

Blaming all woes on the EU very neatly incorporates many of the "others" people have sought to blame their/"our" woes on over the past few decades: economic decline post empire, loss of Empire, immigration, multi-culturalism.

The EU is very far from perfect (what is?) but, I suspect we need it more than vice versa and if people think leaving would lead to anything other than economic disaster, I fear they are living in dreamland...The figures recently published about how many from Romania and Bulgaria actually chose to come here post 1 January 2014 says it all about the gap between reality and the culture of blaming/fear of the outsider "other" we inhabit.

Go to former Yugoslavia, for example, and you get a stark view of the very real benefits to all (including us) of the EU existing.

Will be interesting to see re next year's general election, if UKIP can sustain their place as a receptacle of the general protest vote...ie all we need for everything in the UK to be hunky dory is no more immigrants and get out of the EU.

Not at all. I'm saying that they fail to stick to their guns and that the Conservative party will fail to stick to its promises.

Okay, Mr angry.

Edited by luckybuck (18 May 2014 1.05pm)