My gut feeling is that our ridiculous anti-devolution policy will put off a lot of potential voters who won't vote for direct rule from London again and that our even more ridiculous "Britishness" policy will put off eurosceptic Northern Irish voters that don't buy into an outdated concept of enforced British nationalism that borders on cultural imperialism.
But the Northern Irish are a strange lot and there will be a lot of unionists that are looking for an alternative to the sectarian unionists that may be attracted to UKIP. Then again, the Conservatives stood there in the general election and bombed so maybe they're not yet ready for a London unionist party in Northern Ireland.
UKIP hasn't tried to crack Northern Ireland before so it's worth a punt. I'd suggest putting most of the money the party was planning to waste standing anti-devolution candidates in the Scottish and Welsh elections into a decent election campaign in Northern Ireland.
wonkotsane is an author at Bloggers4UKIP.
Logging you in...
Posts
Darren_Leckey 5p · 747 weeks ago
As for the Tory Party, they have a lot of history here and a great many people are resentful towards them for past acts. UKIP on the other hand are viewed in a rather positive light as the plucky underdog and what we stand for goes down well on the doorstep. Another key reason the Torys failed was because it was the most disorganised campaign ever ran, inactive UUP voters (99.9% of the people who would vote Tory/UUP) couldn't even see name the name UUP or the logo on the advertising or ballet! UKIP want to run a carefully managed, targeted well thought out campaign.
Unionism is ready for a change, so many people are sick to the teeth with the old parties, just maybe UKIP is the party to give them it. This election is under PR and it could be a very exciting time for UKIP.
wonkotsane 85p · 747 weeks ago
Darren_Leckey 5p · 747 weeks ago
UKIP NI argue that Stormont must be reformed, radically but we would not replace it, we like everyone else in NI want to see a strong, effective administration based in Belfast.
Anyway, after all the deals signed by America and the ROI as well as the UK we couldn't shut it down if we wanted to.
wonkotsane 85p · 747 weeks ago