May I, through your Letters page, express my immense gratitude to the UKIP supporters who wrote letters in reply to my rather negative appraisal of their party. Their kind-hearted, measured and articulate responses have made me see the error of my ways.

I now shudder at the notion I was, as one lady astutely pointed out, connected with the Forest of Dean Anarchists. The idea that people are capable of self-rule is, frankly, preposterous, and to strive for democratic and egalitarian human freedom and social justice for all, in solidarity and free from exploitation, is a dangerous ideal. The poet Shelley was very wrong when he wrote:

"The man

Of virtuous soul commands not, nor obeys:

Power, like a desolating pestilence,

Pollutes whate'er it touches, and obedience,

Bane of all genius, virtue, freedom, truth,

Makes slaves of men, and, of the human frame,

A mechanised automaton."

And thank you for publishing the wisdom of the reliably moderate voice of reason Anthony Reeves. I couldn't have been more wrong when I spouted such "socialist claptrap" – the very idea is ludicrous that the rich have oppressed the poor, that the recession is a robbery in all but name, that MPs have bailed out failing banks to the tune of trillions of taxpayers' pounds while bankers awarded themselves bonuses; that MPs have spent millions of taxpayers' pounds on a ceremonial funeral for a former prime minister and also awarded themselves pay rises, while millions are in poverty, earning below the living wage, while public services have been cut or axed... it's all the fault of immigrants, of course. And a great many of them are criminals, as the nice Mr Farage reminds us. I can't wait for when UKIP gets rid of two million public sector "non-jobs" and also gets rid of the illegal people from other countries.  

How I got it in my head that St George is a multinational icon as he was was half-Turkish, half-Palestinian, and is revered by Christians and Muslims across Europe and Asia - and the St George's Cross flag originated in Italy – I really don't know!

Apologies, UKIP, multiculturalism is a false doctrine, and from your proposed history education changes I look forward to reading about how the British Empire was nothing but a force for good.

Ridiculously, I also thought of myself as an environmentalist, but trusting in renewable energy is patently absurd when the future has to be nuclear. I'd much rather another Oldbury than a wind farm spoiling my view.  

I should have realised that scientists have been spreading falsehoods for decades that climate change has been caused by industrial pollution and deforestation. The freezing-cold spring we've experienced is nothing to do with the ice caps melting and pushing the warming Gulf Stream away from our islands, resulting in a Siberian climate.

UKIP are merely nationalists and patriots, it says quite clearly on their website! As the local branch chairman, the lovely Richard Leppington has pointed out, it is I who was the "red fascist".

I can't wait, in Mr Leppington's words, to get "our country back", and am pleased he has just educated his Facebook readers with Enoch Powell's Rivers of Blood speech, which he passed on from that moderate group, the Infidels of Britain.

Finally I'm relieved to see that my ward's UKIP candidate, and ex-Teesside policeman, Colin Guyton, and his wife Ann, who is standing in Cinderford, have a "zero tolerance to crime" policy. I look forward to seeing them working in concert with Lydney's Alan Preest.

Yours Insincerely – Owen Adams, Ruardean.