Editorial: Whoops, no manifesto!

What comes first, your candidates or your election manifesto? Well, if you are the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) you first announce your candidates, you then criticise the other parties for having few ideas and then you get to work on your own manifesto. UKIPabruptly replaced its policy chief yesterday, less than four months before a national election, because it said he was too busy to finish writing the party’s manifesto. Now surely a political manifesto is vital if you want to be taken seriously. UKIP wants to take part in the political debates but doesn’t have a manifesto! Surely, if you don’t have a manifesto then you don’t really have a party. You see the trouble with UKIPis that it is a one-ticket wonder. Their main policy is basically leave the European Union and that is it. End of story. And ofcourse tough on immigration. But if you don’t have a manifesto you can’t really say how you are going to carry out these key policies. What is UKIP´s education policy? Ban foreign languages in school? What is UKIP´s defence policy? Form a Home Guard to defend Britain from “Johnny Foreigner”? And what is their economic policy? Ban all foreign imports!  I am glad that the wheels are slowly coming off the UKIPjuggernaut. I was rather concerned that the great British public was getting duped by the party. The bigger political parties may not be great but at least they have a manifesto which you can read and ponder.