Time to eat humble pie seeing as the results for the European elections show UKIP leading the race – which was not what we were seeing in the local elections. But having admitted I was wrong about the UKIP earthquake, the way it happened is rather curious.
The massive increase in votes for UKIP is only apparent with the European elections. Could it be that voters are happier voting for UKIP when they think the votes don’t matter? It will be interesting to see how next year’s national elections pan out … but I suspect that UKIP will fade away to a certain extent. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them get an MP or two, but not into double figures.
But perhaps I should prepare some custard for the forthcoming humble pie.
Having said that, if the UKIP voters don’t take European elections very seriously, then Europe needs to fix that. Partly by increasing the power of the European parliament at the expense of the European Commission, but also by taking credit for all the good work that Europe does.