Reader's Letter Of The Day

From the Evening Standard (4 Mar 2013, page 51):

I very much doubt the next election will be fought on local issues, as Matthew D"Ancona suggests. The key concerns will be the economy, the UK's constitutional make-up after the Scottish referendum and Britain's relationship with the EU. Since there will be hardly any difference between the main parties on any of these, the present sense of frustration will endure.

Ukip, which I founded, has sadly become a new version of the BNP with a principal focus on immigration and Islam, as shown by its flagship 2010 policy to ban the burka and Nigel Farage's claim on Question Time that London's housing shortage was due to council properties being given to migrants the day after they stepped off the plane.

The party's "economic policy" would bankrupt the country. All in all, the next election promises to be a rather unedifying affair.

Dr Alan Sked, LSE.