This year's General Election is going to be crucially important in more ways than one. It may very well be that by the end of the term of the new Parliament the UK will be so inextricably bound up in the European Union that exit from it will only be possible by force of arms rather than via the democratic process - bullets instead of ballots!

The three big political Parties need to be challenged to explain why they think that government by those that we neither elect nor can hold to account is superior to self-government.

They need to be made to explain why they are content to see the British criminal justice system abandoned in favour of the totally alien continental system based upon the Napoleonic Code.

On the economic front the three big Parties need to answer some fundamental questions such as how they can possibly justify paying ever increasing amounts of borrowed money to the fraud-ridden EU; how they can countenance the endless stream of EU regulation which is prejudicing Britain's competitive position in world markets and what plans they have for redressing the unsustainable imbalance between burgeoning employment in the public sector and shrinking employment in the wealth-creating sector.

People on low incomes seek answers as to how they are going to be able to survive the ravages of the inflation that will be the inevitable consequence of profligate Government spending.

On the vexed question of Immigration voters want answers, not shrill accusations of 'racism' whenever the subject is mentioned.

Answers are also urgently needed regarding the blatant unfairness in the treatment of victims of crime as compared with that of offenders.

These are all questions that the big Parties don't want to discuss - only UKIP comes close to providing responsible and Common Sense alternatives.

Christopher Gill, your UKIP PPC for Ludlow, Spring 2010.