max

In the normal scheme of things, coming third would be considered a good result.

The problem is that the UKIP campaign was overhyped, with a poll supposedly showing 22% support, and that £75,000 has been spent.

Coming third was not a disaster for UKIP. That it cost £75,000 to achieve those 2347 votes was.

Independent UKIP

How aware of that 22% were the people of B&C and how far the Great British Public. I think highly to overwhelmingly unaware. The public are far more likely to be aware that UKIP beat Labour into 4th place and sone general awareness was gained by UKIP accordingly.

progcon.org

Perhaps, but that would be clutching at straws if taken as a sign of progress or success.

UKIP was formed in 1993. Almost 13 years later, in a "perfect" seat where ukip's strongest asset was both local and standing, and the official Tory candidate and party seems to be drifting from the values of the previous and highly popular candidate, where it ran a positive campaign, spent what needed to be spent and had the endorsement of the associate editor of a long-term loyal Tory newspaper it polled just 8% of the vote.

That is not progress.

At this rate (and I know it is not linear but for example's sake), it could take 60 years to reach a 40% vote share to really be winning seats.

UKIP is a long, long way away from winning a parliamentary seat and it would be wishful thinking to believe otherwise.

However, I really believe that with the right change, things can turn around really quickly and success breeds success. It would be unrealistic to expect to win parliamentary seats in the next general election, but if the change is embraced, and the party focusses on building a local councillor base, then within 8-10 years it really could go into by-elections and general elections with a realistic chance of winning.

However, despite this is a marathon not a sprint, we do not have to wait a decade for success, as this rise of ukip in itself, before it actually wins parliamentary seats, will be able to influence politics and you never know, by removing the "barriers" that stop people feeling comfortable with ukip, there could even be the chance of a MP defection.

If UKIP does not fully embrace this leadership election as a chance to strip back the party to its foundations and rebuild then I really believe that by the time of the leadership election after next it will be, not quite too late but making it much, much harder to recover.

Right now the party needs to make a clear choice; is it an eu withdrawal pressure group or a political party. It can't be both. It has tried. And 13 years later it has no parliamentary seats, had a zero net gain in the local elections, and we are no nearer leaving the EU.

BASILDON BOY

We have 2 years before the next Euro-Elections and possibly 3 years before the next General Election.

Apart from public meetings and 'street events' (is stalls and petitions, demonstrations) UKIP needs to get actively involved in local campaigning.

Let UKIP be the torch bearer for local activity - where there is a local problem - let UKIP be the ones campaigning to get it fixes.

UKIP must campaign on many fronts - by campaigning on local issues UKIP will get the reputation of being the 'can do' party and gain respect at a local level - we only need a few branches to lead the way to see if it results in votes at election time!

We have 10 months before the next local elections - instead of wallowing in self pity - branches need to motivate local members into becoming local communityactivists!

http://www.libdemimage.co.uk/product...C+Publications

http://www.libdemimage.co.uk/product...cations&page=2

The LibDems do some good campaign guides.

Winning Elections, Campaign Manual, Focusing to win are just some of the publications that are invaluable in fighting elections!

progcon.org

I agree. We must be local champions first to build trust.

BASILDON BOY

People often scratch their heads and wonder why the LibDems can turn up out of nowhere and suddenly get a massive vote. Time and time again at local level these political oppurtunists gain massive local support.

That is becasue they become local champions first. They are the ones with the petitions for new bus stop or more play facilities or a zebra crossing.

If the Council refuse then its something they can campaign on - if they win then its another local victory for the LibDems.

By becoming local champions and becoming community activists then they gain the respect and support of local residents. With the LibDems support plummeting in the polls it is time for UKIP branches to step into this gap and become the 'independent community champions'.

Once the UKIP brand gets linked with hard working local community activists then it is much easier to sell the UKIP main message - from strong local foundations - election success will follow.

mkpdavies

They are not local champions in Woking. They pretend they are at election times and anyone with some sense realises this.

That accounts for about 10% of people though, the rest either hate them anyway or fall for it.

__________________
http://brits4ronpaul.blogspot.com/
http://wokinglibertarians.blogspot.com/
http://lpuk.org

My ignore list

Labour, Lib Dems

Mark Croucher

At least they stand. I seem to recall you failed to do so because you seemed to believe that a manifesto should include where your local by-pass should go, who should cut the grass in local public areas, and the maintenance of streetlamps locally.

The national manifesto will never contain such details. What is needed is a vision for your local area, be it a town, a borough or a county. This is not something supplied by the top, but by the branch. Until members get to grips with this, we will remain becalmed in local elections and, therefore, in national ones outside of the Euros.

The Lib Dems in Bromley have never come close to capturing the seat. But what they do have are a number of local councillors, including Ben Abbotts, who campaign energetically on local issues, translating their national manifesto into a positive vision for how life could be in Bromley & Chislehurst.

This can not come from the top down, ever. Until the armchair warriors on here grasp this fairly fundamental point, what do you think will happen? Look at the rise of minor parties: the Lib Dems, SNP, PC - between them, they have managed to display a local vision on which they float their national policies, and this local vision came from their local activists understanding what they were trying to do in local elections.

Steve Allison, writing in the latest issue of Independence, is absolutely right. You will never, ever gain election to your local council if you think a couple of quick, text heavy leaflets on the EU delivered through letterboxes a fortnight before polling day are enough. I recently spoke to an NEC member who had not the slightest idea what fighting local elections really meant, or how to engage the population with issues which really mattered to them. I write this not as a criticism, but as an indication of what our political niaivety really means when it comes to campaigning. As someone who came to UKIP from local politics, I have always been heavily involved with the local election campaigns, and have yet to work out how to persuade local committees that they have to be fought on local not national, let alone supra-national issues.

The reality is that we need to forget the old hobby horse of regionalisation: it means nothing to the public. Yes, we can educate them through leaflets, but what are we? A political party, or a public information campaign? Ask 10 people on the street what regionalisation is, and I guarantee that 9 will give you a blank look, if not all 10. Forget the local authorities office in Brussels: as a percentage of total spend, it costs next to nothing. Forget the contributions to the RA, again, as a proportion of total spend, its almost 0. Forget the Committee of the Regions: you'll get an equal amount of blank looks.

People care about the fate of local primary services: schools, hospitals, GP surgeries, rubbish collection, youth crime, policing, planning, transport, roads, streetlighting, highways maintenance. Trying to fight a local election on anything else is what makes us look like nutters, because you will find precious little resonance with your electorate except in the broadest of terms.

I sit here on this forum and read through reams of turgid rubbish, largely from the almost overwhelming number of non-UKIP people, but occasionally from our own, bitterly complaining about the need to focus on local elections. Well, having started a series in Independence about local campaign activity, there's precious little of it going on anywhere outside of Dartford and Norwich. OK, so perhaps it is, and I simply don't hear about it, but I also get the digests of the local media, and I don't see it there, either.

Well, I've got news for you. Neither I, nor anyone else outside of Preston, Woking, Bristol, Basildon etc knows what the big local issues are in those towns, so how do you think a local campaign will begin? By flipping a coin? Drawing local issues at random from a pot, and sticking pins in a map to decide where we'll use them? Successful local campaigning involves more than coming on here and berating the leadership for not having an opinion on public safety in Nantwich. It means getting out there, joining residents associations and local campaign groups. It means finding important local issues, and fighting for them. It means getting your hands dirty. And above all, it means having a vision for your local area which is shared by the majority of the local population. An ideal which will inspire the electorate to support it, and a means of putting it into practise. Without this, it matters little who is elected as leader, because the fundamental truth is that it is this lack which holds UKIP back at local and national level. If it is not addressed, the next leader will suffer the same constant, carping, ill-informed and empty criticism that Roger and Jeffrey suffered.

Rgds

Mark

Robin

Hire a venue (in a hotel perhaps).All UKIP personnel who are actually(MEPs)or likely to be in the public eye are to be there.
Have some tape recorders and cam corders,desks and interview chairs.
Some people are to interview the ones in the public eye.They are to ask hard questions,really hard questions that get asked on the radio and television.
Playback the tapes and film.Discuss whether better answers could be given,the interviewee looked cool and competent.
All the high staff and MEPs are to be there and they are not in charge for the duration.
Practise should make perfect.

max

In my previous post I was referring more to the comments on this forum (that the result was a disaster) than on the views of the general public.

That UKIP came third will give it some public profile. Coming third is not a disaster.

The problem is that at a cost of £75,000 then such a performance is unsustainable.