closedPerhaps one lesson from the rise of UKIP (for 'people' rather than politicians) is that there is a (desire to) move away from the party political system.
Not at all. It represents primarily a disaffection with the existing established political parties (ie. Tories, Labour, Lib Dems) which are increasingly difficult to distinguish from one another. The long lasting recession, austerity meaures, and no clear way out of the resulting mess, have stoked all kinds of fear and uncertainty amongst many people.
UKIP is also I would argue a phenomenon fomented by the incredible blitz of free publicity given to their politicians by the (largely) right wing media in the UK. Not to menton that two of UKIP's key issues (Europe and immigration) have been played up by the media for a number of years, and pandered to by those aforementioned mainstream parties.
This set of circumstances has allowed UKIP to set the political agenda in a manner not seen since the days of the National Front in the late 1970s.
Personally I never imagined we could see a political lurch even further to the right in the UK, but it seems to be happening. Little wonder then that Scots, with more of a (generalised) political tendency in recent dacades towards vaguely left leaning social democracy*, are more and more looking aghast at the UK political landscape.
* - That's not to say that Scots are somehow intrinsically more 'progressive' than those in England, but that our social and economic circumstances are less favourable for the agendas of populist right wing parties like UKIP.
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