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Letter of the week

One wonders why Aidan Rankin ("Escape from Ukip", 14 June) joined Ukip in the first place. If he was a person of progressive views--a former contributor to both the New Left Review and the Ecologist--and a Eurosceptic, he should have considered the Greens. We do not share the bigotry, xenophobia or homophobia of the right. We have a number of openly gay members, including Darren Johnson, our London Assembly member and recent mayoral candidate. We support the Palestinian cause. We are not "market fundamentalists" and favour localisation and fair trade over globalisation and unhindered corporate power.

Our Euroscepticism is reasonably moderate in tone. We are reformist rather than "withdrawalist" regarding the EU. We oppose the euro and we are sceptical of the new EU constitution. On the other hand, Ukip talks of "sovereignty" but is quite prepared to hand over economic power to undemocratic bodies such as the World Trade Organisation and to the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement. If Rankin had not flirted with the right, I imagine most of us would have been quite happy to welcome as a party member someone with such eclectic interests as the survival of indigenous peoples, justice for Palestine and social and cultural diversity.

But, after his involvement with such magazines as Right Now! and Third Way, would a party of the left have him?

James Wild

London SE4

Aidan Rankin's portrait of Ukip was unrecognisable from my experience. As a mere Ukip "foot soldier", the members I have met come from a wide variety of political backgrounds (yes, even the Labour Party) but share a common concern that, if we continue to surrender our democratic right to govern ourselves, it will not matter whether our views are from the left, right or centre because we will all be ruled by unelected bureaucrats in Brussels. Ukip, for all its perceived faults, is the only party which recognises that continued absorption into a European superstate erodes our right to rule ourselves.

Cliff Redman

Worthing, West Sussex

Aidan Rankin's article confirms my view that Ukip is basically an upmarket version of the British National Party. Whereas the BNP scapegoats blacks and Asians, Ukip scapegoats the European Union, in a thin disguise for a rampant xenophobia. More's the pity, therefore, not only that Michael Howard has failed to denounce Ukip nearly as stridently as he denounced the BNP; but also that the Labour Party expressed pleasure at the prospect of Ukip creaming off numerous Tory votes and reducing substantially the Tory share in the European election.

Alan Pavelin

Chislehurst, Kent

Aidan Rankin equates the call for people to be charged for visiting a doctor with neoliberal fundamentalism and heartlessness. Yet every time I visit a dentist I have to pay. What is the difference? I am informed that the left-of-centre government in Germany has introduced a charge of ten euros ([pounds sterling]6.60) for a visit to the doctor. My father, a (retired) GP and lifelong left-winger, always argued for a charge since two-thirds of his patients were not really ill but went to him to find help with other problems.

Reiner Luyken

Achiltibuie, Ross-shire

In my article, in which I described the homophobia of the right, I necessarily identified as gay. However, I have never been happy with that label because, like other labels--including "right" and "left"--it excludes possibilities. I have never shut out the possibility of heterosexual love and attachment. To do so would limit my potential as a human being; and love, in any case, transcends considerations of gender. A few years ago the Archbishop of York described his sexual orientation as a "grey area". He was derided for this at the time, but it was rather a wise statement, because it acknowledges complexity. Perhaps the next rallying cry should be: "Proud to be grey".

Aidan Rankin

London WC1

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