UKIP Second In Rotherham By-Election

[ChillDoubt]

More alarmingly, BNP were third.

Is the UKIP place a result of a knee jerk reaction to the recent foster parents case there or a broader wake up call for Dodgy Dave and his poodle?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-20535008

[MarkRae]

And in Middlesbrough. Labour holds, of course, Lib Dems third, cons fourth.

[David H]

I'll ignore the leading question element and try and answer the question itself. If you remember the early 70s, the Common Market burnt and buried food to keep the prices up, and we joined it. An organisation is reflected by its actions, so from that alone it indicated the sort of company and actions we were to expect. Back then Heath lied (which he admitted after retirement) it was just a trade group as he (and most others in the know) knew perfectly well it was a slow move to divesting national power to the collective, and we are almost now in a full political union. The fact they are happy to sacrifice the welfare of the entire Greek people in exchange of holding the Euro together shows they are no different now to day one. What sane person would want to be part of that? And if you don't vote UKIP you always will be.

[dave50]

The problem is Labour voters a tribal, they will vote for a donkey if it was wearing a red rosette without any consideration of policies, so any other party in these areas have no chance of winning.

[Quizmonster]

"In these areas," Dave? As long as you grasp that precisely the same "tribalism" applies in traditional Tory areas, except that the rosettes are blue as is the truism about donkeys!

[Quizmonster]

I meant to suggest above that the truism about donkeys - except that it is more marked - applies as well.

[youngmafbog]

Didn't the liberal loose their deposit?

Cameron has lost the plot too. He is a carbon copy of Blair and in similar fashion believes he knows better than the people. He will be out next election.

[LazyGun]

Disappointing to me to see the low voter turnout. I suppose if they are thought to be strong Labour strongholds, that might make voters less inclined to turnout,but still...

I understand that the Labour vote held up on a low turnout, so the major talking points would be the rise of the UKip share of the vote and the collapse of the LibDems, losing their deposit in at least one seat.

That seems to point to severe disappointment with the LibDems and their contribution to this coalition, and a growing eurosceptic tendency within the electorate.

[ludwig]

A number of factors coming together.

I think the point in the op about the foster parents case has some truth in it in Rotheram's case.

Also disillusioned tory voters who would previously vote libdem are now going to UKIP with their protest votes, because of the coalition.

Also, a genuine rise in euro scepticism due to the current state of the euro and eu member economies.

[jake-the-peg]

21% of the vote

Not that impressive really is it?

I'm somewhat interested by all this talk about a Conservative-UKIP coalition - because to be in a coalition you need to have seats in the house of commons and UKIP don't seem anywhere near getting that sort of majority - even in a protest bi-election.

They will continue to split the Tory vote and Ed Milliband will be the next Prime Minister.

Unless the Tories have the guts to try to replace Cameron and I don't think they do

They're running out of time to do that

[ichkeria]

Frankly I think these are disappointing results for UKIP. This was their big chance especially in Rotherham, with all the anti-EU hoo-ha, not to mention the rampant xenophobia of much of the media, and unpopularity of not one but two government parties, to "do a Galloway" (Bradford) or a "Lucas" (Brighton) or a "Long" (East Belfast) (the latter two actually occurring in main elections) but in the end all they did was increase their share of the vote. The ARE a single-interest party and I'm afraid like all single interest parties they'll find there's a limit to how much support they can garner. Amazingly, I can't find the actual full results anywhere but they'll make embarrassing reading for the Tories and Lib Dems (8th in Rotherham??!!)

[Gromit]

While Rotherham is not an area that we would expect the Tories to do well in, and we all know the LibDems will be decimated at the next election, it was still a very bad vote for the Coalition.

To be beaten by UKiP must have a lot of Tory MPs worried about their future job prospects. To be beaten by the BNP is just embarrassing.

This will just had more fuel to the calls for the removal of the Conservative and LibDem Party's leaders. My guess is that Clegg will eventually be axed but Cameron will survive to lose the election.

[modeller]

I think Dave 50 is the most correct when describing Labour areas . I used to do some polling and the expression " Oh we are all Labour here " was commonly used . I never heard the equivalent in Tory areas. Another difference was Tory voters were willing to argue their reasons in some detail. I rarely found that amongst Labour supporters .

[LazyGun]

I have heard plenty of households exclaiming "we are all tory here" modeller, so the tribalism can be seen on both wings.

[jake-the-peg]

To be honest I really can't understand why Cameron hasn't gone for the nuclear option and promised an EU referendum after the next election.

If he did that he'd wipe out the majority of the UKIP support base at a stroke and wrong foot Labour at the same time.

I can only assume that he actually gets it, and realises how devastating it would be for the country in the medium and long term and doesn't want to go down in history as the PM that did that

[emmie]

If Milliband becomes the next PM suggest it's time to get the passport out and leave. Whilst what we have currently isn't working particularly well, the idea of a Union puppet controlling the money sends shivers down my back. some people are voting UKIP, unlikely to be because of one case, more that Conservatives are bleeding their right to parties like them because they don't see handing more and more power to the EU as feasible and working.

[emmie]

I reckon if called a referendum on the EU to pull out, it would sweep him to power at the next election so fast, it would make all our heads spin. It isn't going to happen, not by him and his party certainly.

[bazwillrun]

You can be certain of one thing, no PM will allow a referendum on anything let alone getting out of the EU, unless or until such time that they can be sure of the vote going the way they want.