Rotherham: second, Middlesbrough: second, Croydon: third

Yesterday's by-elections in Rotherham, Middlesbrough and Croydon North saw fantastic results for UKIP with two second's and a third.

In Rotherham UKIP's Jane Collins came a very strong second, head and shoulders above the rest of the pack and securing almost half the Labour vote.  To put this into context, Rotherham has returned a Labour MP at every single election since 1933.  The worrying result in Rotherham is that three extremist parties took third, fourth and sixth places - the BNP, Respect and the English Democrats (that said, I know the former-Lib Dem who stood for the English Democrats and he has no truck with the extremist element of his party).  The Lib Dems (remember them?) came an embarrassing eighth with less than 10% of the UKIP vote and lost their deposit.  The turnout was just 33.8% which is appalling for a mid-term by-election and suggests Labour voters stayed at home to punish their party.

Rotherham
Lab	9,966
UKIP	4,648
BNP	1,804
Respect	1,778
Con	1,157
Eng Dem	703
Simon Copley	582
Lib Dem	451
Trade Union & Socialist	281
Paul Dickson	51
EDL	29
Turnout: 33.8%

In Middlesbrough UKIP's Richard Elvin came second, some 318 votes clear of the third-placed Lib Dem and 927 votes clear of the Tory candidate.  Middlesbrough is another safe Labour seat and Labour candidate Andy McDonald secured over 60% of the vote.  The Tory only managed to beat the fringe Peace Party candidate by 3 votes.

Middlesbrough
Lab	10,201
UKIP	1,990
Lib Dem	1,672
Con	1,063
Peace	1,060
BNP	328
Trade Union & Socialist	277
Mark Heslehurst	275
Turnout: 25.9%

In Croydon North UKIP's Winston McKenzie managed a comfortable third, 540 votes clear of the Lib Dem candidate and 2,737 votes behind the second-placed Tory.  Labour retained this safe seat with an increased majority.

Croydon North
Lab	15,898
Con	4,137
UKIP	1,400
Lib Dem	860
Green	855
Respect	707
Christian Peoples' Alliance	192
National Front	161
Communist	119
Loony	110
911 Was an Inside Job	66
Young Peoples' Party	63
Turnout: 26.4%

Vote UKIP in Rotherham, Croydon and Middlesbrough

UKIP is contesting three by-elections tomorrow in Rotherham, Croydon and Middlesbrough.

The highest profile is of course the Rotherham by-election where Jane Collins was already expected to rock the boat before the child snatchers at Rotherham social services took three children off their foster parents because they were UKIP members.  UKIP has gone up in the polls, bookies have shortened the odds of a UKIP win and the party received 750 new membership applications over the last few days.  It seems slightly distasteful to be profiting from the misfortune of three innocent children and their foster parents but this is the reaction of the general public, it's not been planned or instigated by the party and if it means we get a UKIP MP to help stop this sort of thing happening again then at least something positive has come out of it.  Rotherham has been Labour since 1930 and this vacancy only came up because their previous troughing Labour MP, Denis McShane, admitted stealing from the taxpayer.

Richard Elvin is UKIP's candidate for Middlsebrough, another pretty safe Labour seat which has become vacant following the death of the incumbent Labour MP, Sir Stuart Bell.

The final candidate is Winston McKenzie who is standing in Croydon North.  This is another Labour seat which has become vacant after the incumbent Labour MP, Malcolm Wicks, died.  Winston hit the news this week for his stupid comments on gay adoption which he has since withdrawn and which has led to him being removed from his post as a UKIP spokesman.  Despite his antiquated views on gay adoption Winston is a passionate campaigner, an energising speaker and committed community worker.

Winston gets it very wrong on gay adoption

UKIP's culture spokesman and PPC for the upcoming Croydon North by-election, Winston McKenzie, has hit the papers again but for all the wrong reasons this time.

McKenzie has likened placing children with gay adoptive parents to child abuse, saying that it deprives them of the chance to grow up with a normal life.  This is absolutely not what the party's line is and certainly isn't a view shared by most UKIP members.

Winston is entitled to his personal opinions on gay couples adopting and if his faith is such that he believes it to be wrong then that is his prerogative but it is entirely inappropriate for him to make such comments during an election campaign when the world's press is looking at the party in the wake of the Rotherham baby snatcher scandal and if he does feel a burning desire to make this type of comment then he should be making it abundantly clear that he is speaking for himself only and not associating the rest of the membership with his views.

To sum up UKIP's position on gay couples adopting in a nutshell: a child needs a loving, secure and stable home and if a gay couple can provide that then that is in the best interests of the child.

Given a choice between a child having no mum and dad and two mums or two dads, you would hope that the majority of people would welcome a gay couple adopting a child that might otherwise spend their formative years in an institution or being passed around a succession of foster parents.  Every child has a right to feel safe and secure and to be bought up by people who care about them and depriving them of that opportunity because a 2,000 year old book about a man who lives in the sky who made the world in 6 days (but not dinosaurs because they hadn't been invented back then) says it's wrong is child abuse, not giving them two parents of the same sex.

I used to like Winston despite his colourful political history because he was full of energy and infectious enthusiasm but I've lost all respect for him over this.  In his role as spokesman on culture Winston has done much to promote a positive relationship with our friends in the Commonwealth but this appalling lack of judgement means he has to go.

Our future is with the Commonwealth

The British government may have virtually ignored Commonwealth Day on Monday but UKIP didn't, nor did the rest of the Commonwealth.

UKIP's vision of the post-EU future includes a Commonwealth Free Trade Area which would give us access to lucrative markets in the Caribbean, the Pacific, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Africa and the world's second largest economy, India.  The LibLabCon vision of the future includes isolating ourselves from the rest of the world and staking our economic future on a group of failing economies.

UKIP even has a Commonwealth spokesman, Winston McKenzie, who wrote a Commonwealth Day piece for the UKIP website on why the Commonwealth still matters.  I first heard Winston talk about the Commonwealth at the leadership hustings last year and he passionately believes our future is in it.  Despite the LibLabCon's efforts over the years, we still do more trade with the Commonwealth than we do with their beloved EU (the official figures are deliberately falsified by the British government by counting exports sent to Rotterdam for onforwarding as exports to the EU).  Our future is with our friends in the Commonwealth who share our language, our values, our common history and legal system and above all, loyal friends who have stuck with us despite being marginalised and neglected in our name by our glorious leaders.

I would like to see UKIP put some meat on the bones of this Commonwealth Free Trade Agreement idea now. It's all well and good saying that it's worth billions but how many billions?  What sort of formal agreement do we need with the other Commonwealth nations to facilitate a Commonwealth Free Trade Agreement?  We don't want to free ourselves from the EU only to find ourselves in another increasingly political union.

Interestingly, I see that the subject of Ireland joining the Commonwealth has surfaced again.  Makes sense.

Winston McKenzie to stand for UKIP in Tottenham

Winston McKenzie is standing against David Lammy, the Liebour MP for Tottenham, in the general election.
McKenzie, who the Haringey Independent describe as a "political chameleon", re-joined UKIP to stand for leader of the party but pulled out when it became clear that he would fail to attract more than double figures in votes.
In the past, McKenzie has left whatever party he was in if he failed to get his own way but this time it appears to be different. Perhaps he's realised that the grass isn't always greener on the other side?
I will reserve judgement on McKenzie for now as, I suspect, will many other members. Not only does he have to convince the voters of Tottenham to support him in his bid to become an MP, he also has the difficult task of convincing party members that he is loyal to the party and their hard work and support during the election campaign won't be rewarded with a public slating and yet another resignation.