MADAM - It is welcome that John Marjoram has (hopefully) begun the process of exposing Ukip for what they really are.

They are the British version of the Tea Party in the USA.

Amongst the many odious policies that Ukip have are the dismantling of all employment rights workers have, including maternity leave, and the wholesale dismantling of the welfare state, including disability benefits.

Madam, it is bad enough that Labour (to its eternal shame) voted with the government to enact the cap on welfare spending, and therefore by definition continued the cruel assault on disabled people that the ConDems have enacted, but compared to what Ukip would do that is relatively trivial.

Perhaps more heartening is the fact that not all of Europe voted for nationalism, and racism, in both Spain and Greece left of centre parties campaigning for an end to cruel austerity measures swept the board, and in more central, and Eastern Europe, extreme right wing parties thankfully failed miserably.

Extreme right wing nationalism has no future to offer; surely the two major wars in the first half of the last century comprehensively prove that.

All that Ukip has to offer is a return to a sort of Victorian approach, coupled with racism, and nationalism that has been comprehensively rejected for over 60 years. Let’s not go back there.

Kevin Ellis

Stroud