USTheres not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; theres the United States of America. This was President Obamas vision and for many of his supporters, his election represented a milestone in U.S. history, marking the dawn of a postracial societya new era in which skin color would no longer stand as a barrier to opportunity or achievement. Although he acknowledged the countrys history of racial division and conflict, he clearly envisioned a future in which racial distinctions would fade into insignificance, and he promoted himself as an avatar of that future. However, six years after President Barack Obamas inauguration and the promise of a transformation in race relation there are still some enormous problems regarding race relations in the United States, even though they have improved greatly.

UK

A party of fruitcakes, loonies or closet racists, mostly, this is how David Cameron once dismissed the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP). However, it soon became clear that they could pose a serious threat to the political landscape in the UK. The first big surprise was the European election on May 22 2014 when UKIP came top of the poll, which was the first time a political party other than the Labour Party or Conservative Party had won the popular vote in a national election for a very long time. Moreover, in October 2014, Douglas Carswell, who had previously defected from the Tories to UKIP, and thereby triggered a by-election in his constituency, won said by-election with almost 60 percent of the vote and in November 2014 another defector won the by-election in his constituency. Ever since then it has become apparent that UKIP will heavily influence the British general election in May 2015 with current opinion polls suggesting that the party may win 7 to 15 percent of the vote. There are several reasons for this success and for UKIPs growing popularity among the electorate in Great Britain.

One reason why the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) is gaining more and more support among the electorate is that the voters are dissatisfied with politics in general. That dissatisfaction started back in 2010 when no party was able to win a majority in the general election. Starting from this point a coalition government had to be formed and this has been the first coalition in the UK for approximately 60 years, However, in years before 2010, the British electorate had gotten used to the fact that they get what they voted for that means if they voted for the Conservatice Party the want Tory policitcs and if the British cast their ballot for Labour they want Labour politics. A coalition government, though, was not only a problem for the electorate but also for the parties themselves since all parties want to implement their politics without having to make any concessions to another party. The problem, which resulted from that was that the two parties, The Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats, had to brak some of their campaign pledges. For instance, the Liberal Democrats had to back the decision by David Camerons Tories to raise the tuition fees even though they had reiterated again and again during their campagning that there would be no increase of the said fees if they were part of the government. And all these broken promises, in the end, might have led to the fat that many voters have been disenchanted and lost their truhst in the established parties and hence conclude that those parties are no longer the answer anymore and feel that protest parties such as UKIP may represent their interests better.

Not only are British people dissatisfied with politics in general but also with the standard of living or often referred as the cost of living crisis. When the coalition government consisting of The Conservatives and LiberalDemocrats assumed their office the financial crisis generated the worst global recession since the interwar period and this left its mark on the UKs public finances. Britain had to deal with a huge deficit and the economy was performing at a low level, too. The coalition of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats came into government promising an acceleration in the austerity programme with the ambition of eliminating the deficit. However, to reach that goal a huge amount of money had to be raised. Therefore the government decided to raise the tuition fees from around 3,000 to 9,000 pounds. As a consequence, real wages of the typical UK workers have fallen by almost 10 % since 2008. Furthermore, the food bank charity says it handed out some 347,000 food parcels in 2012 and the number raised to 913,000 within a year that is equivalent to a rise of 51 %. In addition, Median family incomes have not fallen by quite as much as median wages, in part due to the automatic stabiliserslike welfare benefits, but also through tax changes such as increases in the personal allowance. But some people may now argue that these reforms were necessary and in the end they have been successful and the British economy is back on track. Although this may be true, people still have the feeling that they do not feel the improvement since their wages and salaries have not increased and they had to bear the costs of this reform as the coalition also cut subsidies for services & benefits. Albeit, real wage growth has started to pick up a little very recently, but this is mailny due to a falling price inflation, not improved nominal wage growth. Falling real wages is a principalreason why the living standards of working age households are doing worse than before the crisis whereas pensioner householdshave fared much better and that therefore therefore they might consider voting Nigel Farages party, because they think that Labour is not really an alternative because the current deterioration in living standards is a clear consequence of Labours mismanagement of the economy.

However, there are not only domestic reason which might contribute to UKIPs popularity but also continental issues such as the EU because some Britains have the feeling that Britain has ended up in a supranational organisation. In recent month, the EU has become such a controversial topic as Nigel Farage has kept on bringing it up and has not lost no oppurtunity to rail against the EU and how Great Britain would flourish outside the EU. In particular the fact that UK law is overruled by the European courts is a major topic on Eurosceptics agenda. They argue that neither the UKs judges nor the parliament should accept the fact that there is a higher ruling than British law. For example, there was a huge outcry when the European Court of Justice decided on the so-called Working Time Directive, which basically says that every EU worker has the right to work no more than 48 hours a week. But not only people who are in favour of leaving the European Union have criticised this regulation but also the medical professions because they argue this undermines the training of young doctors and prevents them from becoming more experienced in their job in light of the cap on working hours. In addition to that, there was another overruling from the European Court of Justice. It ruled that is was a breach of the European convention on human rights to disenfranchise prisoners from any parliamentary or local election. By far the harshest critcism came from the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, himself who said that knowing that people who committed crimes have the right to vote makes me physically sick. And this reiteration from Eurosceptics that the EU has only harmed the UK might also contribute to the growing support for UKIP.

But not only the overruling of British laws are a thorn in the Euroscepics flesh, but also the level of immigration resulting from the freedom of movement regulation. Many people feel that far more people are coming to Britain than it should be allowed due to one of the four basic principles enshrined in the EU constitution. However, there is the immigration from inside the EU and from outside the EU. UK politicians cant do anything against the immigration from the EU as long as the UK is a member of the EU, but they can certainly do something against the immigration from outside the EU. Moreover, the have the feeling that thereby the number of immigrants has had some negative effects for schools, the National Health Service (NHS), and also the housing market, because homes are being kept on building everywhere but they are not really affordable. In addition to that, some Britains also have the impression that public services, for instance hospitals and their doctors, that they now have to wait longer to see their doctor due to the high number of immigratns in Great Britan, furthermore they think their children are not properly looked after in schools. Furthermore, some are again dissatisfied by the handling of the issue since David Cameron promised to curb immigration to a maximum of 100,000 by the end of the current parliament, however, in 2014 the net migration was around 250.000. And they do not trust Labour either since they were responsible for a huge amount of immigrants back in 2004 when the EU enlarged eastwards. Therefore Nigel Farage suggested to implement a points system based on the Australian points system or something similar to the green-card visa system in the US. And this might also contribute to the rising popularity of UKIP.

So, after all, there are various reasons why UKIP is enjoying increasingly support from the British electorate. For instance, that the voters have the feeling that they have been left in the lurch since the coalition government broke election promises or that the standard of living is so incredibly high, in addition to that, there are the high number of immigrants coming to the UK, of course not just from the EU, but still people might feel frustrated. And then of course there is still the fact that the EU has overruled British law and they have the feeling they have ended up in a suprantional organisation. According to opinion polls, UKIP is polling around 7 to 15 percent, however, it will probably only pick up a handful of seats, but will exercise influence by affecting the results in dozens more. For example, it might take away enough votes from the Conservatives to let the Labour Party sneak in and win the constitutency and with Labour as part of the government there will be no referendum as Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, reiterated that he considerd the EU as important for the UK. Another effect might be that there is another coalition government due to a hung parliament or that there might be a minority government with indirect support from another party in certain topic areas. But by far the worst case might be that UKIP could even trigger a new-election if there cannot be agreed upon on a government. So, in the end, it reamins to be seen which effect UKIP will have.