Anthony Butcher

UKIP received 8.1% of the vote in Bromley. The campaign apparently spent around £75,000, which is about £32 per vote.

Previous by-elections in Hartlepool and South Staffs exceeded 10% of the vote for UKIP.

On the up side, we did come third.

Intbel

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Christina

The only chance UKIP has of being successful is to have people like Anthony who are being realistic, even if it hurts, Intbel. You can build on a foundation of reality and truth, not delusion and wishful thinking. UKIP have to ask the hard questions, such as, why did all those Tory voters who stayed at home, not vote for us instead? Why would Tory voters rather not vote at all than vote for UKIP?

If UKIP could have found a way to gain those non-voters, they would have won the election.

One thing you are doing wrong, is campaigning negatively. On a couple of threads, it is made out that the Lib Dems managed to get Tories to vote for them. This isn't true. The LDs only gained around 800 votes. Labour did badly and the Tories, from last time.

Don't emulate the Lib Dems in negative campaigning. Appeal to the higher nature, not the lower and you may do a lot better.

andypandy

IntBel, it is not a question of which side one is on, surely everbody here is AGAINST the EU?

The problem is that UKIP seems to believe that they are the ONLY party against the EU, and that ONLY UKIP can deliver the results that show a public willing to listen to them. This is deffinately not the case, and Bromley has proved that. No matter how much UKIP spends, it does not have the broad appeal to muster that support in the only elections that matter - WESTMINSTER.

This by-election was a watershed for UKIP, and it has been drowned.

I am only sorry that the EDP were beaten by the National Front. It also proves that even the combined votes of the other anti-EU parties would have made little difference to UKIP.

If UKIP could not deliver in a seat vacated by a strong opponent of the EU, then it has little hope for the future, new leadership or not

Aardvark

The problem, that people don't seem to notice, is not the amount we spend per vote, but the amount the other parties spend, including taxpayers money, all year round. In the run up to the surprise by-election the media has been running political stories all day every day. Cameron's mob should have walked the by-election, the LibDems should have been also rans and Labour, despite the bad press, should have held it's vote if national opinion polls are anything to go by.

The media have now decided it is time for Blair to go and the hapless ministers at the Home Office have given them all of the ammunition they need. Labour has been pushed from second to fourth; couple this with the Blaenau Gwent elections and it is clear that the media assault on the Government has worked.

There is no consolation for the Tories in last night's results. Their supporters have stayed at home again despite the boy David running around all over the place trying to be more popular - I wonder if his private jet to save the environment in Norway, the gate-crashing of the Beckham's party and his private jet to watch a world cup soccer game when he couldn't even name the goalie would have gained or lost votes (DC would have gained more kudos giving his corporate ticket to some deserving little lad who worships the ground Wayne Rooney walks on).

The LibDems threw far more at this by-election than we did, they had a stronger local base, a Parliamentary presence and a national manifesto (if NF had won he would have been a lone voice, if the LibDem got in then the Parliamentary group would have increased - people do consider this).

We should be upbeat. We have just beaten the ruling party into fourth place. They have spent tens of millions of pounds of their supporters money and billions of taxpayers money to get to the position they were in last night and they were lucky to save their deposit! With an even bigger spend they couldn't regain Blaenau Gwent and have lost their majority in the Welsh Assembly. How many Labour people flooded into that constituency? Labour would have knocked every door in Blaenau Gwent and sent out several leaflets.

We should be very pleased?

Intbel

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andypandy

Even in defeat, it seems there is victory! You can say all that because you are committed, Aardvark, but how on earth can you attract the tens of thousands of new members and activists that are needed to WIN POWER, with ****-poor results such as this?

I mean, you are talking about how badly the ruling party did, yet UKIP, which would like to think it represents the "majority of public opinion" on many key issues, could do barely any better for god's sake! Labour can afford to be humiliated, it is STILL in government and will be for the next 3-4 years or until a general election is called. I could not care less if the Labour Party came last and lost their deposit, it would make little difference to their status as the ruling party or their core supporters, and at least THEY have some!


UKIP, on the other hand, cannot afford to wallow in single figure percentages and try and make out that they are somehow justified by the spending of nearly a hundred grand for the privilage! Get real, this result sucks, and as I have said elsewhere, even the National Front, with not too dissimilar ballpark policies on Europe and Immigration, managed just over 1,800 votes LESS than UKIP with a fraction of the financial, physical and media back-up that UKIP enjoyed. Doesn't that say soemthign about UKIP's approach?

As regards the other parties campaigning all year round etc, what is UKIP's excuse with TEN elected MEPs that could spend more time in Britain going on the road and holding open-air public addresses from the back of a lorry if they wanted to? What do they do, pretend that however remotely, that any time spent in Brussels is in any way, shape, or form, able to influence what the EU does. Total garbage.

UKIP is facing electoral crisis, and what does it do? Boast about coming third and saving a deposit with only 1 in 12 people voting for them! If that is all UKIP think, then they are doomed to be small players in British politics for years to come.

mkpdavies

It's slightly less than I expected. I thought we would beat Labour just, but I also thought we might hit 10%. It depresses me that the Lib Dems vote was so good, as their campaign was insulting to anyone who had a little bit of intelligence.

In the final analysis you have to say that the result was not worth the cash. The T.V is managing to avoid mentioning UKIP at all and with a very strong clear campaign, we managed to get less than 1 in 10 people who bothered to vote. The people who agree with UKIP, tend to be so disalusioned they stay at home.

The fact the English Democrats et al did so poorly, just backs up the fact that people really still look at the old parties as their choices. Even with a well run, money no object campaign, we still couldn't push out an excellent result.

Questions we have to ask ourselves.

1) Is our message really the right one?
2) Does it make any difference what our message is?
3) How do we break the old parties stanglehold?
4) Do we have to accept this isn't going to happen over night?
5) How come Respect can do it with their message, but we can't? (Wrong message)
6) Do we do this again if a similar seat comes up?
7) Focusing on the Tories soley damaged them, but what about the Lib Dems?
8) I believe we actually put out too many leaflets. I spoke to a lot of people who were sick of seeing them. Perhaps we could have condensed them down into a more quality booklet or something.
9) Image. UKIP still look like Dad's army. Time to start thinking SAS?
10) Immigration may be a big issue, but once again it has not proven to be that big an issue. I actually think our language scares people off, so that we fish from the small rancid pool the BNP fishes from (better than us). We need to move over to the lake where the winners fish from. That means much smarter language.

I won 10 quid in a bet for this result (from a Lib Dem, even better), so it isn't all bad for me. The result wasn't as surprise really, it was only Inbels secret weapon that gave me the slightest hope. Sadly it was another one of those non-existant types.

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Anthony Butcher

On the contrary, I have been very impressed by the level of support and financing. It is great to see the party put together such a campaign.

However, it would be remiss of me and every other NEC member not to look at why it went wrong and whether the money was well spent. THAT IS MY JOB.

I am on the side of making this party into a proper force for indepence and democracy. I strongly believe that the Farage/Knapman strategy is completely wrong, and that has been demonstrated here.

John Carter

No. Folks aren't interesting in coming out of the EU because they haven't got a clue as to how it directly affects their lives.

It doesn't make any difference, since the vast majority of people who don't follow politics (i.e. those who don't watch Question Time) are barely aware that UKIP even exist.

I've told you that one already. And it's the only way.

By continuing to believe that UKIP will one day save the day, UKIP members are exhibiting exactly the same sheeple characteristics as those still in the Tory Party who expect it to become Old Tory again.

Check out the demographic in Respect's successful constituencies.

UKIP's image is beyond redemption. Heck, I support UKIP and even I have a negative image of them.

No, it's a huge issue. Have a look at today's Have Your Say on the BBC.
But, people are sheep and will default to the big three.