Fresh Choice was the wrong choice

Thursday's performance in London was pretty disappointing with mayoral candidate, Lawrence Webb, gaining only 2% of the vote and the party failing to hit the 5% mark required for a seat on the London Assembly.  But what went wrong?

The general consensus is that having "Fresh Choice for London" on the ballot papers was the reason behind the unexpectedly low result for UKIP in London and the consensus is probably right.  The UKIP name is well known now and upwards of 1 in 10 people told pollsters that they would vote for the party.  On average it was actually 14% of people that voted UKIP so the polls underestimated the purple vote.

London bucked the trend though with less than 5% in the London-wide vote and 2% in the mayoral election.  The London mayoral election is like a Westminster election so the 2%, whilst disappointingly low, isn't particularly unusual.  But the sub-5% GLA vote is and it can only be down to the absence of UKIP's name on the ballot paper.

The decision to have "Fresh Choice of London" on the ballot papers instead of UKIP was a mistake.  Not just the slogan but actually asking for it - someone was told to fill out the papers with the wrong information and because the papers were filed at the last minute, it was too late to try and do something about it.

Some party activists who helped with the campaign in London are understandably unhappy with the "Fresh Choice for London" cock-up and some have called for whoever was responsible to be sacked.  As unnecessary as the mistake was, there's really no need to sack anyone.  There are lessons to be learnt from the London campaign but there's no need for any sackings.  Mistakes happen and election prospects go unrealised; as long as the mistakes are accepted and lessons have been learnt, we need to start working on the 2015 election campaign and consolidating the massive boost we received at the ballot box this week.

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.

Some highlights of the election so far

Sadly last night's announcement on the Basildon Council website about UKIP winning three seats was a bit premature ... and wrong!  In the end, Basildon Council had declared 15 results in total despite only have 4 seats contested.

Moving on from that minor disappointment though, UKIP has made gains at the expense of the Tories, the Lib Dems and Labour (the former two more so as expected).  Some of the highlights include: gained one councillor in North East Lincs, one in Thurrock (taking the total to three) and one in Vale of Glamorgan; turned a Tory majority of 700 into 25 in Great Yarmouth in a ward that has never had a UKIP candidate before; a great second in Hetton (Lab 1628, UKIP 1363, LD 154); second or third in all seats in Plymouth and all except one in Tandridge; two second places out of four wards contested in Runymede.

Only one mayoral election has declared so far - Liverpool - and the UKIP candidate came 8th out of 12 on first preference votes.  Second preference would have been the interesting one to see but the Labour candidate got over 59% of the vote so they weren't counted.  Three elected mayor referenda results have been declared so far and all three have said no.

UKIP wins three seats in Basildon?

The first few UKIP results are in and they're looking great.

UKIP candidates have secured some very close second places and it appears three UKIP councillors have been elected in Basildon. Confirmation is being sought on this.

UKIP candidates are leading the political revolution tonight, we can expect more successes as the results trickle in through the early hours (although possibly not on here as some of us have to work tomorrow)!

Be part of a political revolution tomorrow: vote UKIP

Tomorrow is election day for half the country and the biggest test of the ConDem coalition's popularity so far.

Labour will be the biggest winners tomorrow on sheer numbers (but not in the London mayoral election) but UKIP are on track to cause the biggest upset, consistently polling equal to, or 1% above or below, the Lib Dems for weeks in every opinion poll.

A vote for the LibLabCon tomorrow is a vote for the status quo, for the same tired old politics, sleaze and corruption.  Be part of a political revolution tomorrow: vote UKIP.

Email address for election results

We have set up an email address to collect election results for Thursday's elections.

If you are at an election count or get news of election results, send us an email at elections@bloggers4ukip.org.uk.

As well as us, the email goes to Young Independence and other UKIP bloggers so you can do your bit in spreading the good election news!

It's not rocket science: Vote UKIP

It's just over a week until the English local elections and the ConDems (but mainly the Tories) are starting to panic about the UKIP effect.

The Lib Dems are flapping for obvious reasons - UKIP topped them in the polls for two days last week and the two were level last night.  The Lib Dem propaganda machine (and it's very effective) will be gearing up over the next week to explain to prospective Lib Dem voters just how desperate things are for them.

The Tories are flapping because they stand to lose the most to UKIP.  They're putting out the message that a vote for UKIP in London is a vote for Red Ken.  Desperate times call for desperate measures I guess but it speaks volumes about the Tories.

Let's be very clear about this.  If you agree with UKIP on the EU, on the economy, on schools, on health, on defence, on transport, then vote for UKIP.  Forget about whether Boris or Ken or the Tories or Labour will win - your vote alone is unlikely to make a difference but even if it does, so what?  If everyone voted for the party or candidate they wanted to win, politics would be so much different.

If you vote for someone you don't want because you think it'll stop someone else you don't want from winning you're probably going to end up being represented by someone you don't want.  It's not rocket science.