Following a discussion with Camilla about UKIP, I decided to write to them about a schoolboy error I found on their website a few days ago. I thought this might make interesting reading for those of you who are following the UK general election from a largely Eurosceptic country.

Error on your website.

Hello,

http://www.ukip.org/content/latest-news/1587-eu-criticises-uk-attitude-to-smacking

This news item confuses the Council of Europe with the European Union. The two are very different. The Council of Europe was founded in 1949 with the UK as one of its founder members. It has 49 members (including Turkey, Russia, the former Yugoslav countries and the Caucasian countries) and cannot make laws for the UK. The European Union was founded in 1957 (as the EEC) and has 27 members. The UK joined in 1973. As UKIP is all too aware, the EU can make laws for the UK which supersede those made at Westminster.

This article contains an error which I can only assume is intended to mislead readers into believing that the Council of Europe has the power to ban smacking in the UK against the will of the British people. This is not the case. The alternative is that the error results from simple ignorance, which I find surprising in a party so strongly committed on the issue of European integration. Surely you should know your enemy better than this?

This e-mail will be published online. My opinion of UKIP will greatly increase if a correction to this article is published on the front page of your website before the general election.

Yours faithfully,

Tim Macdonald
School of Law
University of Edinburgh