BASILDON BOY

For UKIP - yes - rather 13% of the vote and triple figure votes than humiliating last with 40 or 50 votes!

Hartlepool

Baseboy,are you a UKIP Member?

A yes or no will do.

RTSTN

For UKIP that is a not bad result.
UKIP'S closest political rivals the BNP got 16% in Welham Green, a safe Tory seat which the BNP had not contested before.

Britannist

I wonder what would have happened if the europhile Liberal Dim party had put up a candidate?

Possibly if they had put up a candidate it would not have made any difference to the overall ranking in the above-quoted result.

The above is a good result for UKIP - it is very close to the national vote share the party got at the last EU Election: a result which got the europhile metropolitan 'elite' very worried .

kernow

I agree, but 13% Nationally would definately win us seats!

Independent UKIP

Congrats to Mr Clapp for that acheivement. And heres hoping for more & better results like throughout 2008.

Britannist

Yes - 13% nationally would see UKIP do extremely well again in next year's EU Election.

If UKIP got 13% nationally in a General Election it could mean that the party was coming very close to - or even winning - a couple of constituencies in the south-west of England (an area, for those who do not know it, where support for UKIP is now generally higher than it is in most other parts of the UK).

In view of UKIP getting over 13% of the vote in the Fenlands local ward By-Election on Thursday of this week - would it not be a good idea for UKIP head office to decide to seriously target the constituency which covers the Fenlands and make it a priority seat for UKIP from this time onwards?

indigo

With only three candidates, almost any party or candidate can get ~10% of the vote. This isn't some mysterious omen that UKIP is on the up.

Expect sub-5% results as the norm.

prober

Stop it Basildon Boy. You know perfectly well that UKIP is determined to stay as a "branch alone" wheel inventing amateur party at locals with, the concept of structural arrangements for spreading learning curves between branches a definite no no let alone a plan to cross reinforce the best results of 2007 as done by other parties.

By the way which MEP is local government issues/systems expert or spokesperson nowadays ?

Britannist

Had a candidate from the europhile Liberal Dims stood in the recent Fenland contest I still would have expected UKIP to beat that candidate. In such circumstances (i.e. usual Cons./Labour/Liberal Dim contest) I would have thought the UKIP candidate would have got about 9% or 10% of the vote.

It is now not uncommon for UKIP candidates standing in suburban, semi-rural or rural wards/constituencies to get about 10% of the vote with Labour doing particularly badly in such wards/constituencies (i.e. the 2006 Bromley Parliamentary By-Election is a good example).