Local elections: Nigel Farage hails results as game changer

[EnterpriseSovereign]

UKIP leader Nigel Farage has hailed gains in council elections across England as a "game changer".

UKIP won over 140 seats and averaged 25% of the vote in the wards where it was standing.

The Conservatives lost control of 10 councils, but retained 18, while Labour gained two councils and boosted its councillors by nearly 300.

David Cameron said he would "work really hard to win back" supporters who had decided to vote for UKIP.

Contests took place in 27 English county councils and seven unitary authorities, as well as in Anglesey. About 2,300 council seats were up for grabs in England, in a major mid-term test for the coalition government.

Full story here

[Crazedwraith]

I didn't even know there were elections. *checks google.* hmm. Looks like there weren't any local elections at my parents where I think I am register to vote but there were here. Ah well.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

It's all over the news how UKIP has made huge gains, though it won't actually affect the things they really want to change like immigration.

[Zaune]

I don't want to live in this country anymore.

[Juubi Karakuchi]

These mid-term elections are traditionally a time for protest votes, since the consequences tend to be minimal to nonexistent. The big question is whether these patterns will be repeated in two years time.

In the meantime, getting council seats could make or break UKIP, as its a chance for people to see how they would perform in positions of actual responsibility. For the BNP this was disastrous, since it exposed them as a pack of lazy incompetents, half of whom couldn't even be bothered to show up. Also, the media and the other parties' spin teams will be watching them like hawks, so even the smallest gaffe or foulup will be aired mercilessly. Unless I've greatly misjudged UKIP as a whole, they're probably going to lose what little credibility they had.

[Admiral Valdemar]

As if Farage wasn't already punchable, he now gets gloating rights for winning a non-trivial amount of voters over with his spiel on how Europe is so utterly terrible and holding dear old England back.

I can't wait for the next QT with him in (which is probably any episode these days).

[Starglider]

I don't want to live in this country anymore.

You've been saying that on a monthly basis since you joined this board. You can live anywhere in the EU without a visa, so why are you still in the UK?

[Zaune]

Because I can't afford evening classes in a foreign language.

[Hillary]

Because I can't afford evening classes in a foreign language.

That's fucking hilarious. It's the only possible way anyone can learn a foreign language after all...

There's a good quote of the BBC from one of their "polling experts"

BBC polling expert John Curtice has been looking in more depth at UKIP's success. He says the party "does better in places with relatively few graduates; it does worse in places with many graduates. This appears to be the sharpest difference of all." In addition, UKIP does well in places "with a relatively high level of people who claim a religious identity" and those "with more older people".

It's from the live feed here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21240020 you have to scroll down to 09.34 yesterday morning.

Essentially UKIPs voters are the less-well-educated, the old and the religious. Figures.

To be honest, being the only party of any size standing on a ticket of anti-EU and anti-Gay marriage, I'm surprised they didn't do better than they did. Especially when you consider that both the elderly and the religious are far more likely to vote in local elections than the general populace.

The big concern here is that it will harden Tory policies in Europe even further.

[Zaune]

I don't have the self-discipline to teach myself useful skills from books or the Internet. I've tried repeatedly.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Oh come on, you speak English. Just repeat every fifth word while talking very slowly, and then add "bunga-bunga" at the end of spoken paragraphs. They'll understand you perfectly! American tourists do this all the time. It's highly effective.

[Dr. Trainwreck]

Oh come on, you speak English. Just repeat every fifth word while talking very slowly, and then add "bunga-bunga" at the end of spoken paragraphs. They'll understand you perfectly! American tourists do this all the time. It's highly effective.

But then he'd have to get mistaken for an American tourist. Who would wish this on a fellow human being?

Hey Zaune, don't get that worked up. UKIP you say? Pffft, we have actual Nazis here in the south. You'll find culturally retarded crowds are backing the biggest fascist assholes no matter where you go.

[Crazedwraith]

The big concern here is that it will harden Tory policies in Europe even further.

pretty much

Tories 'can win back votes from UKIP', home secretary says
COMMENTS (1189)
The Conservatives can win back voters who have deserted them in favour of the UK Independence Party, Home Secretary Theresa May has insisted.
UKIP made gains in local elections as the Tories lost control of 10 councils.
Senior Tory David Davis is calling for a planned referendum on the European Union to be brought forward to counteract the UKIP threat.
Mrs May dismissed the idea but said the public needed "greater certainty" that a referendum would happen.
She said David Cameron had made it clear a referendum on the UK's membership of the EU would take place early in the next parliament.
UKIP, which campaigns for the UK to leave the EU, averaged 25% of the vote in the wards where it was standing in Thursday's elections and won more than 140 seats.
In response to Mrs May's comments, UKIP leader Nigel Farage, said: "She is asking us to trust the PM on a matter of a European referendum. He has a remarkably bad track record of keeping his word on this particular matter."
In opposition, Mr Cameron promised to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty amending the EU constitution but, once in power, said he was unable to do so because it had already been ratified.
'More straight talking'
Mr Davis, who lost the contest to become Tory leader to David Cameron in 2005, said UKIP's policies on law and order, immigration, taxation, foreign affairs, and Europe "mimic a simplified 1980s Tory manifesto".
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, he said the Conservatives must break the impression that they were "privileged and out of touch", "deal properly with fears over immigration" and urgently take steps to cut taxes.
There must be "more straight talking and fewer focus groups; more conventional Tory policies, not because they are Tory, but because they work; less pandering to metropolitan interest groups; and please, please, no more Old Etonian advisers".
The prime minister has pledged to hold an in-out referendum on the EU during the early part of the next parliament - by the end of 2017 at the latest - if the Conservatives win the next general election.
But he has first vowed to renegotiate the UK's position within the EU.
Mr Davis, however, said the vote should be held ahead of next year's European elections, "otherwise Nigel Farage will characterise those elections as 'the referendum the Tories wouldn't let you have'".
Mrs May told the BBC the party would learn lessons from the local elections and would work hard to bring back those voters who left the Conservatives and voted for UKIP.
Asked about the prospect of bringing forward the referendum, she said she believed the original timing was right, but added: "Now we [can] look at whether we can give some greater certainty in terms of the referendum but the whole question is [about] actually having a referendum on the basis of a renegotiated settlement...
"I think what we need to do is be able to show people that we will hold that referendum and we will hold that referendum after the next general election."
Earlier, Sarah Newton, the Conservative Party deputy chairman, said the government should consider bringing forward the legislation in this parliament that would guarantee a referendum would be held, "so people can be in no doubt".
Asked about such a move, Mrs May said: "I'm not saying that's definitely what we're going to be doing."
Greater scrutiny
BBC political correspondent Iain Watson said the Tory leadership believed any damage could be limited at the next general election in 2015.
They intended to subject UKIP's policies to greater scrutiny, said our correspondent.
Asked about the surge in voters opting for UKIP, Labour's Angela Eagle told the BBC: "I think they are probably saying 'None of the above.'"
The shadow leader of the House of Commons continued: "There's not a lot we can do about what's going on on the right. We'll leave them to it.
"But we must not let them drag the country to the right - and not act in the best interests of the country - because they're having a spat in the conservative family."
Liberal Democrat MP Sir Nick Harvey said the fall in his party's popularity would make its members "think long and hard" before entering into coalition again.
"It certainly would look a fair bet that our vote will be considerably smaller [in 2015], but I think perhaps the one bit of comfort we could take from this week's results would be that we did manage to concentrate our support in areas where we needed it," he said.
"And I think we will therefore still be a significant part of the parliamentary equation in the next parliament."

[madd0ct0r]

I would point out what many seem to be overlooking.

The Greens still have more councilors than UKIP (I think). It's a sea-change in UK politics!

[EnterpriseSovereign]

As an aside, I voted Conservative, but UKIP still won in my town

[Dartzap]

Much like the BNP, I can well imagine UKIP getting ripped to shreds in a few years.

[Lord Pounder]

Seems to be a massive protest vote. Labour is inept and ineffective in their role as opposition. The Tories are a farce and a vote for the Lib Dems is a vote for the Tories. Who else is left?

[The Xeelee]

I love how the fact that they are taking votes split the right wing making it mire likely that labour will get in- that disagrees with all it's policies.

[Zaune]

I love how the fact that they are taking votes split the right wing making it mire likely that labour will get in- that disagrees with all it's policies.

Bwahahahahahahaha! Did you just seriously insinuate that post-Neil Kinnock Labour are a left-wing party?

[The Xeelee]

If you could read you would notice there is no mention of left wing in that post. But yes, left wingers vote labour.

[fordlltwm]

If you could read you would notice there is no mention of left wing in that post. But yes, left wingers vote labour.

They do? Most left wingers I know of spit at the mention of New Labour, pre the last election they voted Lib Dem, this time? I suspect they'll vote Green party.