Why UKIP are really bad news

This is not an exhaustive list by any manner of means - but they have seriously annoyed me with the leaflet they put through my door this morning because it's just basically complete nonsense. Here's some reasons why they aren't worth voting for on Thursday:

1. Their leaflets hurt my eyes - they think pink goes with yellow - enough reason for them to go straight in the recycling.

2. They tell huge great enormous lies. And they can't even get those lies straight. Nigel Farage said on Question Time the other night that EU membership cost us £40 million per day. The leaflet I got today suggests £30 million per day. Well, if their estimates on cost can be out by 25% to start with, it calls their credibility into question.

In any event, either figure is complete horse manure. In actual fact, each person in the UK contributes around 18p a day - you couldn't even buy a bag of crisps for that - or £1.29 per week - not even the cost of a latte on the way to work for membership of the EU.

And what do we get for it? Well, around 3 million jobs directly linked to trade with the EU, hundreds of millions of extra people to sell our products to at no extra cost to start with.

3. They have the nerve to go on about how if we left the EU it would make it easier to deport criminals. These are the same people who oppose measures like the European Arrest Warrant which would make it easier to catch criminals and which has been responsible for bringing around 90 paedophiles to justice. Yes, that's right, 90 paedophiles would have stayed free if UKIP (and the Tories for that matter) had their way. I don't want to have anything to do with parties who want to make it easier for people to enslave women and kids in drugs and prostitution rackests, thanks very much.

4. This leaflet even blames the EU because we are now paying 5 times more for low energy light bulbs - without realising the long term saving because they last for ages and ages and ages.

5. They want to restrict EU citizens coming here to work. Hmmm, so what does that mean for the many more UK citizens who work in EU countries? They would be chucked out and sent back here to fight for an ever decreasing pool of jobs.

6. And if you are thinking that, well, you want to give the main parties a kicking cos of MPs' expenses, don't bother with this lot because of the 12 MEPs voted in last time, one did time for benefit fraud and another has had issues with their expenses. And, more importantly, the UKIP MEPs have consistently voted against openness and transparency with MEP expenses. So, they whinge about how much the EU costs but jump enthusiastically on the expenses gravy train. By their deeds shall you know them and all of that.

Their isolationist stance would bring disaster for this country - we live in a global economy, criminals and climate change know no borders. If they (and the Tories for that matter) had their way, it would make it so much more difficult for us to regulate the financial institutions whose irreponsibility brought our economy to its knees, to effectively tackle climate change and to catch criminals.

They have nothing positive to offer - their literature is a seemingly potent cocktail of half truth and scare story with no solutions to anything. The recycling is the best place for it.

LibDig This!