“You can't tell an awful lot from a by-election result - the media concentration on it, the fact that all the party leaders and cabinets turn up mean it's not very representative of a General Election. But it does tell us something about the way the political wind is blowing.

Given the incredibly negative campaign I think Labour did OK holding their vote up. They were always going to come fourth. Similarly, with the LDs, the campaign by the tories and UKIP was all about the last bloke and the mess around Clegg and Lord Rennard, whereas the LDs kept it (more or less) local.

UKIP have come out the best obviosuly but I still don't think they have more than 10 or 11% support nationally and, although they have been concentrating on getting more grassroots support (vital in a general election) apart from their very vocal fans on twitter they don't seem to be suceeding. They are the archetypal keyboard warriors for sure. They poured everything into Eastleigh, something they will not be able to repeat nationwide. At the moment Farage can say pretty much anything he likes (this morning he said the UKIP vote was because of their opposition to gay marriage which I don't think had anything to do with it frankly) and not worry about would happen if he was actually in power and actually had to do something.

Undoubtedly it was bad news for the tories. Thanks to Cameron's courting of UKIP voters by halfheartedly promising a referendum they are now stuck between the preverbial rocks and hard places. It seems some tories are panicking this morning calling for Osbourne to go, do a deal with UKIP, do something, etc. but it's difficult to see what they can do. Cameron isn't going to get rid of Osbourne and turning Right (as they did at Eastleigh) didn't win back the UKIP voters (many of whom were not conservative voters anyway!). With UKIP (mistakenly, in my view) thinking they can win seats from the tories they don't seem to be in the mood for dealmaking, but Farage is an odd character and I suspect the lure of power might be too much. He isn't Beppe Grillo!”

“"The EDL/English Democrats have shown that their message resonates, they almost got more votes than the Elvis Loves Pets party... :)"


To paraphrase Obi-Wan Ke***i; who's the bigger fool? The marginalised fool trying to make sense of life through activism, or the establishment fool who disses him? ;-).”

“what does this post mean? x”

“The next few years will tell as people become fed up with the lies over wars and immigration by politicians; Blair led us directly or indirectly into two wars. Cameron does not seem to know what day it is and giving away money to foreign aid while wringing the last few pennies out of our tax payers and the old and ill die of cold. Have the hard workers of this country just had enough? Time will tell. Then it maybe to late.”