UKIP if you want to ...

I see than the grinning Nigel Farage has been re-elected as UKIP leader. In a way, I don't trust Farage. He reminds me of the hail-fellow-well-met type you meet at social functions who clap you on the back and say things like "so tell me, Richard, what's your poison old boy, eh?" He is definitely of the blazer-wearing tendency, and I bet he secretly hankers after a Jaguar if he doesn't already own one. And drives it in a car coat and string-back gloves.

However, accidents and near-misses have a habit of endearing people to you, despite your reservations. I can never see Norman Tebbit without remembering the awful image of him being lifted out of the rubble of the Grand Hotel, Brighton in his pyjamas, caked in dust and with a look of anguish on his face. He was never Vlad the Impaler after that. And Farage's plane crash on election day has had the same effect. I feel rather fond of the old boy.

This comes at rather a good time. I had the strong feeling that the country I grew up in and loved had gone in a different and very wrong direction, and away from me, in the last 13 years of Labour. I had high hopes for the coalition, after their promises to roll back the database state and have a bonfire of unnecessary laws. And of course there was the 'cast-iron' guarantee of a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. Heh.

I do not have unrealistic expectations about what can be achieved and how quickly. I don't expect the coalition to bring back the Golden Age in the first 12 months of office. But there are depressing signs that things are perhaps not going to be done quite as I had hoped. A lot of quangos are to be axed, but an awful lot will be spared too. There is no sign of the Government tackling the spiteful bias of the BBC's news and current affairs output. Nothing was done before the announcement of the Spending Review, which allowed the BBC to colour the whole affair as 'the terrible cuts', and any action taken now won't repair the damage that the coverage did to the public's view of the events. Maybe they won't do anything. Call Me Dave seems to have kowtowed to the EU just as much as Blair and Brown, although with less visible enthusiasm.

I have always voted for the party that stands a realistic chance of effecting the kind of politics that I want, which is why I haven't ever voted for minority parties. Last May, the Conservatives seemed to be the party that was offering something close to what I wanted, and they had a good chance of forming a government and being able actually to do something. I'm not writing them off yet - for all their faults, they are a million miles better then the last lot of hucksters and criminals - but I am starting to feel a lot of disappointment at their lack of activity on certain things that I regard as vitally important, specifically

• cutting the BBC down to size and making it politically neutral once more
• standing up for British interests abroad, and especially with the EU
• starting to reform the law in favour of the law-abiding majority and not the terrorist and the criminal
• "That government is best which governs least".

Of course, many of the reforms that I would like to see are impossible while we are full members of the EU. So tackling that relationship - and being brave enough to take some bold and far-reaching steps - has to come at the top of the list. And I no longer have much confidence that Cameron is about to do anything remotely radical about it. He's looking more and more like Blair in a blue tie.

Farage talks a good talk, and isn't afraid to say what ordinary people are thinking, without the self-censorship that most politicians indulge in. I still hold out hope that the coalition will do some good things, and maybe even start working towards a Britain that I will recognise as my own. But their time is running out for me, and if they lose my confidence and support, UKIP is likely to be the beneficiary.

It's easy to look at small, single-issue parties and see the lack of proportion and paucity of talent. You may agree with everything the BNP says, for example, but would you want them in charge of the economy? Really? Of all the minor parties, UKIP seem the most coherent and competent. And, if Cameron can't or won't deliver what the country needs, how much worse would they be? At least we know what they stand for.

I haven't changed my voting intentions yet, but I can now see a time when I might.

Wrong, wrong, wrong

According to the Torygraph:

Prisoners will be given the vote in general elections for the first time in 140 years after David Cameron conceded there was nothing he could do to halt a European court ruling demanding the change, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

This is utterly and completely wrong, and I am bitterly disappointed that Cameron had caved in to the EU over the issue. On its own, this is worth a referendum on leaving the EU.

The principle is a simple one. If you break the law, you forego the right to participate in the democratic process that makes the law. If you don't like that, then don't commit murder, theft, rape, whatever. Your choice.

We, the law-abiding majority, create the law, and we enforce it. You, the criminal, are the outsider, and prison is your punishment for messing with us. If you don't like it, tough. You are excluded from society for a reason.

Imagine a prospective MP campaigning in a marginal constituency which has a large prison population, and where that population may be critical in returning a majority. "Vote for me, and I'll let you out early! Vote for me, for better televisions, free lottery tickets and wages for prisoners! Vote for me, and I'll cut police numbers in half!"

Not in those words exactly, but it's going to happen.

When, if ever, are we going to stand up for ourselves?

Defence Review to start immediately

The Good Doctor is wasting no time in getting a review of defence, and a rethink of the previous government's shameful attitude to the armed forces, on the table.

ID cards, databases, and now defence.

I'm liking this bunch more and more. Let's hope they keep up the momentum.

Optimistic

There's a lot going on, dissecting the latest moves and rumours, so I will leave that to others. All I can say here is that I feel a sense of optimism. Cameron seems to have got the important stuff agreed with Clegg, and the good stuff from the Lib Dem manifesto has made it onto the table too. The best of both worlds, in a way.

I'm going to put my natural cynicism on hold for a while, and see how things turn out. Watching the two of them giving their news conference today, I saw two guys who genuinely seemed to get on together. Perhaps they're just good actors, but I sensed that their co-operation was genuine and the talk of a new kind of politics may not be just a lot of wishy-washy nonsense.

If Cameron and Clegg between them can get the deficit under control, make some sensible decisions on tax, and make a start on repealing some of the avalanche of repressive legislation from the last 13 years of statist control-freakery, then I can see the coalition being a great success. ID cards stopped on their first day in power - a good sign.

They have both played a blinder. Clegg has got some significant pledges on the table, himself as Deputy PM, four colleagues in the Cabinet, and 20-odd (or should that be 20 odd?) MPs in the Government - not bad for someone who had a minority party in the last parliament and actually lost seats at the election. And Cameron has locked the Lib Dems into a long-term arrangement, secured his power for five years and kept the most important Tory manifesto commitments. And when the cuts start to bite, as they surely will, and the losers start to squeal, as they surely will, it won't be those eeeeeevil Tories eating working-class babies. He will be able to point to all those Lib Dems in significant positions of power and say it was them too.

This could potentially put Labour out of power for a very long time.

Or it could all last a fortnight.

We shall see. But, for the first time in a long time, I feel that I have a Government that is on my side and will take decisions in my interest. It's very unusual to feel that - and rather pleasant.

I wish them good luck. They will need it.