brian lee

eublues wrote1 Not in my experience

2 At a General Election TV exposure is indeed crucial, but Party Election broadcasts are not seen by very many voters. Those from UKIP are not put put out at the best times so it is easy to miss them. Coverage on the main news is what you need and that is free.

3 Money is important but 2004 was not a general election. Look up the Electoral Commission website and compare the votes gained against money spent at the 2005 General Election. There is no correlation. See also the recent Bromley By-election where £75,000 and UKIP's star performer achieved only 8% of the vote.

harryaldridge

Well done. Keep it up!

Sure am. Some very good local issues in my area should allow us to grab hold of votes.

Simon Muir

Depends entirely what you define as 'local issues'. Here in Briswest our Bliar Babe lost her seat because of the Iraq war (immigrant community), and we had a "Save Bristol North Baths" candidate, although I don't think his intervention was crucial .

Quite true. It's why all parties try to stick to the same topics each week of the campaign - to maximise coverage and highlight differences - suits all of them. I believe it's by mutual agreement (albeit unofficial).

It's not really free though. Whilst the cost of a PPB is easily quantified, the costs of getting into the headlines are staff+time etc. and can still be big. But you're right - it's still better if you can do it.

Quite, but that's more to do with the incompetence and stupidity of the way some of the money was spent, I suspect. Nigel hasn't the first idea how to run a campaign (Steve Allison might, but we'll have to wait and see). On balance, having it is far better than not having it!!

One of the things that *really* frustrated me about UKIP was that these things can be taught. I put a huge amount of work into developing press training - trying to give ordinary UKIPpers thrust into the role of press officer some understanding of how the press work and how to interface with them successfully, but the central organisation wouldn't pick it up and run with it.

They seem happy to collect membership names and hold them centrally (inefficient, expensive and perpetually inaccurate, and now, with the DPA and anti-terrorism laws, b***dy stupid from a security perspective), but when something useful needs rolling out nationally, they're not interested. If this actually changes, great, but I'm expecting under Farage they've exchanged one form of incompetence for another.

arden forester

I saw him and thought he did very well. The main thing here is that the BBC sees him as a leader who can actually challenge the big three. Not said, I grant you, but implied nevertheless. If he gets a broader base of policies together, I might think again about UKIP. Put it this way, he comes across a helluva lot better than poor old Knapman.

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arden forester

I'm now of a mind, after all the posts since this one above by me, that the new leader may be a touch too abrasive for UK politics. Oh dear! :shock:

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