Reddit reviews Revolt on the Right: Explaining Support for the Radical Right in Britain (Extremism and Democracy)

Revolt on teh Right

By far the most indepth, analytical insight into UKIPs support base. I reccomend anybody to read it. Guardian luvvies Goodwin and Ford have produced a worldy that is very well recommended by even the said paper as well as by BBC BookTalk. I am using their figures.

> NHS....

Evolving policies. I think they may lose a lot of that support if they went into 2015 with such policies, hence why they won;t. They tap into the anxiety of globalisation, something people scoff at and deem racist. Bizzarely.

> I'm not sure why you think it shields them or their supporters from criticism

I think you should be careful about mocking genuine economic concerns and labelling them merely racist, when they are on the whole normal people who observe the world around the, and perceive to know what is in their best interests. Mass influxes of cheap labour is not in their interests.

I've mentioned a lot of what you just said in another comment, so I won't reply to specific disputes.

But I will say that it matters very little what the media say about UKIP as a party so long as they get coverage. Robert Ford's recent research on the phenomenon shows that UKIP attracts emotional support from a few middle and working class voting groups. A recent poll showed that a clear majority of the public guessed wrongly when quizzed about Farage's background even though he's clear to flaunt it whenever.

So really, extreme-right sentiment - about benefits, immigration or europe and general discontent/government fuckupery covered by the media is likely to build up hysteria and public support for UKIP. Looking at the media lately, its hard to doubt that's the case.

What's the answer then? More diversity in the press - give more of a voice to trade unionist and left-wing opinion than at present. Don't call climate change and otherwise settled matters a 'debate', accept them as fact. Realise that there are some opinions that are plain wrong and some voices that don't need to be heard. Focus on a wider portfolio of government activity - not just DWP stuff but whats happening in local government, infrastructure, house, energy and foreign policy. Engage with young people and otherwise looked over groups rather than focusing everything on the elderly.