Some analysis of yesterday's election results

UKIP had some great results in yesterday's elections with over 130 second places and UKIP on 9 councillors.

Now, comparing 9 councillors to Labour's 2,158 or the Tories' 1,005 it looks pretty dire.  Even comparing it to the Lib Dems' 431 it looks poor but the ConDems have just lost 741 councillors and control of 13 councils between them.  Those 130 second places means UKIP has beaten two out of the three old parties 130 times.  There have been a string of third places to compliment the seconds which means that UKIP has beaten one of the three old parties.

It isn't all good news of course - a few sitting UKIP councillors have been lost in Labour landslides and London mayoral candidate Lawrence Webb is sitting on a pretty disappointing 2% of first preference votes.  Second preferences should see the UKIP vote rally but with the widespread voter fraud in London bumping up the Labour Party vote, it's not going to make a material different to the end result.  Sadly UKIP has missed out on getting a seat on the GLA despite all the early indications that we would win at least one, possibly two.  It's a shame but it's impossible to compete with Labour's army of Bangladeshi ghost voters.

Regardless of these minor disappointments, UKIP's vote share has more than tripled in many places and is only 2% behind the Lib Dems.  The UKIP candidate for Salford's elected mayor came third which is a great result and the Mayor of UKIP-controlled Ramsay took over 60% of the vote proving that UKIP can run a council successfully and with the confidence of residents.

The First Past the Post system has frustrated democracy once again - almost as many people voted UKIP as the Lib Dems yet the Lib Dems have got 48 times as many councillors as UKIP.  We've had our once in a generation chance to change the electoral system and the career politicians who have so much to gain from it managed to protect the status quo so we have to persevere with the antiquated FPTP system.

The Tories are veering between delusional dismissal of UKIP and spitting feathers at how UKIP cost them the votes they have a god-given right to.  If only the Tories would stop splitting the UKIP vote, we could have seen real change yesterday.