I think on balance it was a good night for UKIP. We didn;t go backwards which was always a possibility. We have held seats and gained a couple. Our vote shares were also pretty healthy with a few i have seen running between 10% - 25% and even a 38% somewhere.
We know it is hard to win seats in a FPTP election since our support is more evenly spread, where as the BNP whos support is more concentrated find it easier in their stronghold pockets. So what is really important is to know whether we have increased our absolute number of votes in places we stood previously, whether our total vote share has increased (on a mean average and median share basis), and whether we will cause any pain by holding part of a key to the balance of power in a council. (in Hartelpool the UKIP gain stripped Labour of overall control!)
FPTP election remind me of those penny arcade machines. We keep putting in the pennys with no observable result (i.e. increase our vote share), but at some point they will cascade over the edge and give us a windfall (hopefully!)
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