Exciting news for British politics: UKIP are very nearly a political party to be taken seriously. They had a good by-election in Eastleigh last week securing 28% of the vote and barging the Tories into third place. Some analysts have heralded this as the beginning of the end for the Conservatives, which it is not. Some argue that UKIP might be positioning themselves to divide the perennially Conservative-voting right at the next general election, which it may be.
Nigel Farage will not be the next Prime Minister, and ultimately (if anyone) Labour will be responsible for the destabilisation of the Conservatives in 2015. The rise of UKIP is, however, a phenomenon worth closer inspection, specifically in light of their growing popularity amongst students.
Some of you, like me, may indulge in the occasional browse through the aggressively over-informed webpages of The Student Room (TSR). If so you will be aware of its recent saturation with UKIP-related posts. The varied threads of discussion popping up on the site’s homepage, speak of the broad scope of student-response to the party’s recently-found limelight.
Across the country opinion is apparently polarised, from the bewildered and questioning that ask, “Why is there more support for UKIP?” to the more rambunctiously revolutionary who cry “UKIP on the rise!”.
We must, of course, approach the opinions expressed on TSR with circumspection. Whilst it may be relatively free of the insouciant trolling that plagues other online communities, it still gives voice to the like of ‘AnythingButChardonnay’ who, supporting one of UKIP’s more controversial manifesto pledges, opines that the Human Rights Act is “a sick and expensive joke.”
However, in spite of the forum’s shortcomings (yes, I think I am claiming that enabling free speech is sometimes a shortcoming,) this e-hubbub does go to prove that UKIP’s ascension has, to at least some extent, touched a yellow and purple nerve amongst Britain’s students.
Since his re-election to their leadership in 2010, Nigel Farage has stressed the importance to UKIP of engaging the youth vote, specifically targeting students, and expanding their youth-wing, Young Independence. In part, this must be an attempt to counterbalance the dominance amongst the party’s pre-existing membership of, what The Guardian describes as, “older people with fewer qualifications.” But in Farage’s proselytizing, there is a hint of something more rebellious; an attempt to engage the politically-disaffected young. UKIP is entrenched in a protracted rebranding exercise, hoping to boost its credentials as the radical outsider opposing the insipid, neologising blanditude of the mainstream parties.
Vive la revolu…wait no, not that; that smacks of cultural euro-centrism. You get the point though; UKIP is carting out dynamic, revolutionary rhetoric, yet, their student-focused policies are remarkably familiar.
UKIP is targeting the student vote on the basis of their compelling promise to: “End the 50% university target for school leavers, scrap tuition fees and reintroduce student grants.” But, just in case you needed reminding, in 2010 the Lib Dems promised to: “Phase out university tuition fees within six years [and] scrap targets of 50% of people going to university.” The only distinction is that the Lib Dems were ultimately in a position to enact this promise before reneging on it. It is unrealistic to expect UKIP to approach any comparable position in the foreseeable future, and why would we vote on the basis of a policy that is borrowed, near verbatim, and has already proven untenable in coalition government?
As a political entity UKIP is founded on, and acts, through divisive strategies, polarising forums of debate from The Student Room to the European Parliament. If their student-focused policies don’t stand up to scrutiny, I fear their popularity amongst students is based on shallower reasoning.
The one point of agreement in all of TSR’s UKIP posts, from Farage’s sincerest supporters, to his most vociferous detractors, is that he can talk convincingly. Surely, that can’t be all UKIP has to offer?