The remarkable performance of Ukip in county council elections held last Thursday serves to demonstrate only too clearly the degree of disaffection with politics felt by people of all views and in all parts of the country. While gaining almost a quarter of all votes cast, Ukip captured only about 6% of the seats on offer, indicating that their support was spread across the country rather than being concentrated in particular areas as is the case with the three 'main' parties.
Unfortunately, the universal nature of Ukip's appeal is also a drag on their ability to achieve very much. Although they are an irritant to the others, particularly to the Tories but also to Labour and the Liberal Democrats, for them to become a party of real power they have to increase their share of the vote still further, certainly to more than 30%; only then would whole councils and even Parliamentary seats come their way.
Of course, next year's European elections are run under a different system and it is more than possible that Ukip will top the poll then and that they will gain a few more MEPs, but they are still unlikely to outnumber their opponents when it comes to representation from these islands. All that voters can do is take heart from this week's results, convince their neighbours to 'see the light' and push on.
That the other main parties are at least a little worried by the spectre of Ukip has been evident for some time though their leaders seem to have no idea as to how to combat it other than trotting out the same tired old phrases. The Cameroonians insist on talking about 'hard-working people', a catch-phrase that alienates whole swathes of the population - job-seekers, the sick and the retired. Worse still is when they refer to 'hard-working families', which leaves out anyone who happens to be single or not to have children; whoever dreamt up this piece of political cant needs putting down. Listening to Theresa May on the radio this morning was pretty embarrassing, as she stumbled around trying to tell the people what they wanted to hear but without actually saying anything.
Labour, too, has found a new phrase, a piece of Orwellian 'newspeak' that defies understanding; Miliband's 'One Nation Labour' is so meaningless, as it was when the Tories used an almost identical phrase, as to be laughable. Labour has but one purpose, that being to soak anyone who has anything in order for the state to waste the proceeds on whatever ludicrous social schemes it can invent. To try to claim that they have the good of the whole nation at heart is risible; one only has to listen to the ravings of the likes of Denis Skinner or any one of the assorted Trades Union leaders to know the extent of their hatred for what they see as the 'ruling classes'. 'One Nation', my eye.
As for the Liberal Democrats, their poll rating is rapidly disappearing off of the chart even if they still have areas of strength. Nationwide, they are seen as an increasingly pointless party and their performance in the South Shields by-election, in which they finished behind the BNP and only just beat the candidate from the 'Monster Raving Loony Party', must be one of the worst results ever for a major party. If Ukip are, in Cameroon's words, a party of closet racists, the Liberal Democrats are most certainly a party of closet socialists and perhaps people are beginning to realise this. Their love for all things European, nuclear disarmament and everything 'green', has also put them at odds with the real world in which we live and they are suffering for it.
For Ukip, it is easy as they aren't in power. For Nigel Farage to say what should be done is much easier than actually doing it but he does, at least, say the right things and appears to have a much better understanding of people than do Cameroon, Milipede and Clogg. He doesn't talk down to us and doesn't spout meaningless platitudes; he doesn't resort to gimmicks, unless his 'downing' of an occasional pint is one. His party, undoubtedly, were the real winners of the council elections and also came second in the by-election in the left wing stronghold of South Shields, demonstrating an ability to take votes from left as well as right.
This was round one and Ukip won on points; in round two, next year's European elections, they need to step up the pace and start getting their punches through to the body. If they can do that, anything's possible in round three, the 2015 General Election.
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