Commentary on Ukip Manifesto - Foreign Affairs

Caroline Berger

Commentary on the extract of UKIP Manifesto 2015, written by Nigel Farage

This extract of the UKIP Manifesto has been written in 2015 by Nigel Farage, the current president of this right-wing populist and anti-EU party. The manifesto sets forth UKIP’s program for the following elections which took place on May 7th 2015, and explains the point of view of the party about political issues of the country. The objective is to inform electors about the solutions that UKIP proposes in order to address Britain’s problems, in a context of political campaign for general elections. This extract focuses on Foreign Affairs issues. As a fervent Eurosceptic, Nigel Farage criticize the EU interventions in various conflicts and the fact that EU regulations prevents UK from pursuing its own interests. Incidentally, UKIP got its best result at those elections, as it obtained 12.6% of the votes and won one seat in the House of Commons. This result and the fact that the Brexit referendum will take place in June 2016 seem to show a rise of nationalism and Euroscepticism in UK, but the majority of the nation’s parties are still in favour of remaining a member of the European Union. In front of Farage’s radical statements about the European Union, we get onto this question: would an exit from European Union really enable UK to improve its security and the defence of its own interests? We will first see how Farage condemns UK interventionism in foreign countries along the EU side, then how he exposes another strategy to assure the security of UK. A final section will approach Farage’s vision of a sovereign British nation, only linked by trade to the EU and with closer ties with the “Anglosphere”.

First of all, we can see that the manifesto expresses a strong criticism toward UK interventionism by European Union side.

Since the end of World War II; UK has made various interventions in conflicts around the world, and each one have been condemned by Nigel Farage and his party. Indeed, UK forces have fought in conflicts taking place in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Libya, Iraq and recently in Syria with the Islamic state. This number of conflicts is too high for Farage, who uses the expression “war of terror” to qualify British commitment in the Middle-East. It is true that this wave of interventionism, especially in Afghanistan and in Iraq, led to really high human and financial costs for UK. There have been more than 200 deaths in the war of Afghanistan and the country debt in 2015 was nearly 90% of the GDP. In term of social cost, Farage also mentions the bad veteran’s policies, as in UK the number of mental-health issues among veterans became really high in the past years, and treatments still take time to obtain. The manifesto also proposes several propositions to give benefits to veterans (easy access to treatments, guarantee of a post-service job…)

This involvement with the European Union in conflicts also damaged the country’s relations with Russia. Indeed, UK officially declared that it was on the side of Ukraine rebellion while Russia was attempting to annex Crimea. In 2014, it suspended all military relations with Russia. For that reasons Farage says that UK political leaders are not really independent, that they follow the other European Union countries without a good previous discussion and without consulting the Parliament. Farage clearly does not want to ruin the relationship between UK and Russia, as UK has trade opportunities in this country and because he does not wish a great revenge from Russia. Indeed, in reaction to the suspension of military relations, Russia had stopped importing British food which was damaging for trade. Russia and UK’s relationship has been, in all case, complicated since the end of the Cold War: spying suspicions, violations of the human rights… Some even say that they never really stopped Cold War.

Over the last decade, UKIP has always shown its opposition to interventions in foreign wars accusing the European Union of pursuing an expansionist foreign policy. Paradoxically, Farage also wants to increases drastically UK’s military budget. However, despite his wish to a wider neutrality toward conflicts, Farage confirms its engagement toward NATO, that allies keep being allies, but the decisions should be made after better consultation and discussion.

Then, as the interventionism seems not to be a solution for Farage, he expresses his wish to focus on a new defence strategy, to guarantee Britain’s security without being implied in foreign conflicts

Farage does not want to intervene but Is nevertheless conscious of some threats, and he places the rise of Islamic extremism at the top of those threats. In front of various attacks toward Europe during the last years, the climate of fear is real. England itself has been victim of two attacks in 2005 and one in 2007, the majority of the suspects being British-born radical Muslims. For this reason, Farage states that fighting the ideology in foreign countries such as Syria or Iraq is not efficient, that. UK should focus on fighting at home, in order to avoid incitements to terrorism.