Introduction

The UK Independence party is a moderate political party founded in 1993. Its members believe that the three main parties are all participating in one manner or another in the integration of our country into a European superstate. UKIP's vision is of a Europe of sovereign nation states each free to run its own affairs in the normal way.

The issue of the UK's political integration is enormously complex. The rules and regulations that have been produced by Brussels make stacks of A4 paper tens of feet high. Even full time politicians struggle to keep up with it. Baroness Shirley Williams, at a meeting in Winchester a while ago, was emphatically denying that there were plans for a new pan-European legal system (called 'Corpus Jurus'). This was over a year after the proposals had first been made and, unfortunately for Baroness Williams, four days before the Daily Telegraph splashed the news across its front page!

To help explain our position and the problems with the EU a series of 'Research papers' are offered on this web-site (see menu option on left). Please read these. The 'pro' arguments are very simplistic and emotional. They are usually the 'working with our brothers and sisters across Europe towards a glorious future' type thing (haven't you ever wondered why the government hasn't put out an economic white paper explaining why the EU was so good for us?!!). It is a very complex topic but whatever you do don't go away thinking we have anything to do with 'little Englanders' or bigotry!

In summary, we oppose the EU on two main counts.

  1. It is wrong in principle. People are generally happy with their nationality. We shouldn't be creating a new nation called 'Europe' - if anything the boundaries of the nation state should continue to slowly whither away as we all become more 'international' rather than be reinforced by this new nation.
  2. It is wrong in practice. Even if it was desirable to create a new European state the model used for the EU is entirely wrong. It is an undemocratic bureaucracy with more akin to the old Soviet Union than a modern democracy - a point once made by Mikhail Gorbachev, the ex-Soviet president.