UKIP are a bunch of vote-splitters

This is the assertion of of of Iain Dale's commenters, who says:

Unfortunatley [sic] UKIP are nothing more than a bunch of bitter vote splitters.

Now, this may be just me, but that rather implies—does it not?—that UKIP have exactly the same policies as the Tories but are dedicated to their evil plan of solely screwing over the Conservatives. They might as well simply be called "the Anti-Tories", eh?

Because UKIP definitely stand for precisely the same things as the Tories, don't they? Let's just cast our gaze over a few of these policies and see how very little difference there is between them, eh?

1. The Tories are pro-EU, as their Chairman stated quite categorically a while back.
   
   Some people have accused UKIP of acting in a "lemming-like" way by opposing the Tories because the Tories have the same attitude, i.e. they are EUsceptic. Let's just pop that little bubble, shall we?
   
   In the words of the Conservative Party Chairman:
   

   It is not the Conservative Party's view that we should be out of the European Union.

   
   
   Now, if that is too complicated for some of the fuckwits who continue to argue that the Tories are EUsceptics, let me spell this out for you again: THE TORIES DO NOT WISH TO WITHDRAW FROM THE EU. If you still can't grasp the concept, you may like to remember which party took us into the EEC (without a referendum) and which party signed the Maastricht Treaty (without a referendum and using a three-line whip to ensure that their MPs voted for it); a clue: it was the Tories.
   
   Therefore, to argue that UKIP are shooting their cause in the foot by opposing the Tories—even if UKIP had no other policies—is just totally fucking stupid, OK? If you don't like the EU, if you think that its unelected bureaucracy controls too much of our lives, then there is only one party that can do anything about it and that party is not the Tories.
   
   And anyone who thinks that the EU can be reformed is an idiot: why not check out the Serf's post to find out why?
   
   The EU has been estimated to cost Britain's economy nearly £100 billion every, single fucking year, and about 70% of our laws are initiated by EU Directives that we have no control over. Plus, of course, we have a trade deficit with our wonderful EU partners.



2. The Tories believe that government spending is at the right level. There have been, despite some claims, no firm moves over tax cuts or public service reform. All we have had from the Tories is some meaningless blather about "sharing the proceeds of growth". This is horseshit: whilst taxes are so high, growth is going to be fucking pitiful anyway. More importantly, the Tories do not seem to believe in tax simplification (which would allow for tax cuts anyway through the cutting down of the administrative burden).
   
   UKIP have a detailed Flat tax policy (which the Tories seem to have shelved) which, briefly, runs like this.
   
   • Income Tax and National Insurance merge into one income tax, rated at 33% across the board,
   
   
   • Personal Tax Allowance raised to £9,000 to take thousands of low earners out of tax completely,
   
   
   • The shortfall of £34 billion to be recouped from growth, lower administration costs and a freeze (and eventual drop) in the rate of government spending.
   
   The Tax Policy can be found here [PDF] and my detailed assessment can be found here.
   
   UKIP also support the abolition of Inheritance Tax (which brings in a pathetic £3 billion) and Capital Gains Tax (£2 billion).



3. The Tories support the state funding of political parties, a policy which even ConservativeHome opposes.
   
   UKIP utterly oppose the state funding of political parties.


4. The Tories have not published any detailed Education Policy, but we do know that the Tories are opposed to grammar schools and selection generally.
   
   UKIP's Education Policy document can be found here [PDF] and my assessment can be found here.
   
   The most important points are that UKIP support the privatisation of schools and funding through vouchers, a system similar to that which has been so successful in Sweden. They actively support selection and grammar schools.


5. The Tories support Green Taxes supported by extremely dodgy science [DK passim ad nauseam, but have a look at Junk Science for some rather more robust science.]. Furthermore, these green taxes will allow the EU far more power over our economic policy since the Environment is a wholly EU competence.
   
   UKIP think that the whole climate change malarkey is so much hysterical bollocks and so don't support Green Taxes but support the funding of new technologies to wean us off the burning of hydrocarbons.


6. The Tories don't support free trade (since they are pro-EU, they cannot).
   
   UKIP believe that free trade enriches us all, and so support entirely free trade with everyone (including Europe).


7. The Tories oppose electoral reform and seem unsure about an English Parliament.
   
   UKIP support limited reform and support an English Parliament.

Need I go on? Would you like to tell me, precisely, to what degree UKIP are simply "vote-splitters"? I would call them a distinct party with a distinct agenda, wouldn't you?

By the way, the correct answer here is "yes".

So can we stop all of this fucking bollocks about UKIP just being an old Tory pressure group, please? Or rather, if you want to make such points, go and make them over at Iain Dale's where your comments will warm the cockles of his his anti-EU, free-trading, Tory-supporting heart...