Was the UKIP result a protest vote blip or will it translate into MPs at the general election?

I don't know what their policy on it is

says it all really, you voted for a party without having clue what they stand for.

I don't know what their policy on it is. I think their policies are all at sea at the moment and they will have to make everything much clearer and I think that a lot of their policies will change in the process.

UKIP have women mayors and councillors and candidates, so I don't think that their policies will be against the interests of women, when they are clarified.

If they are, then I won't vote for them and nor will millions of others. They are a new party and still need to firm up their policies. I don't think they will shoot themselves in the foot, unless they are a party that is not for real and is just a protest party.

well. it is difficult to feel reassured by people who have made it amply clear they despise you and hold you responsible for the problems of the country. i can't imagine what they can say which will calm my nerves.

oh well.

anyway, as you say, the people have spoken! hurray! they hate my guts and wish me ill!

and that was just the 25% who could be bothered to vote!

presumably you've never claimed maternity leave claig and have no problem with UKIP's policy to abolish it?

I think UKIP's policies on immigrants who are already here are not clear and do seem unfair from what I have heard about them. I think that UKIP will need to make their policies much clearer to reassure people who are currently here.

i am a working person, too.

i am not a metropolitan elite, whatever that is.

i am an immigrant.

i vacillate between nervous and afraid of what they will do to me, and people like me if/when they get in. likewise how the other parties will swing their manifestos to match ukip's.

but hey, i'm just that parasitical cockroach who teaches your kids. i probably have it coming.

Great post stiffy, very reassuring. I've been concerned that we will end up with a Tory/UKIP coalition at the next general election.

Agree with Claig - can't really add anything to her posts.

As farage said, all 3 establishment oarties are nearly indistinguishable. They all believe in global warmimng and foreign aid and higher minimum pricing for alcohol and subsidies to rich landowners to erect inefficient windmills etc.

UKIP has emerged as a party that speaks for what the people really think (which is similar to the much derided by the metropolitan elite Daily Mail view) and which does not get discussed on the BBC.

UKIP is the party of the bourgeoisie and the working people and that is why the metropolitan elite call them "nutters" and "fruitcakes".

The answer is no. They have virtually no chance of getting a Westminster seat.

1. Farage is the only one with a shot as things stand, as no one knows any others, and very few have the track record to run a campaign. The chances are that the next two years are unlikely to see any other party members rise to anything other than unwelcome notoriety. Farage will have to pick his seat very carefully. He needs a three-way marginal, preferably with a non-incumbent standing. The failure to win Eastleigh given the Huhne scandal was quite telling, and certainly Farage should have stood himself.

1. People use protest votes in local elections in a way they don't in general elections. The Lib Dems and Greens have been vastly more successful in local elections for a good couple of decades without making great inroads in Westminster. UKIP's best hope of an MP is a by election in the near future while they still have some momentum.

1. The first past the post system makes it much harder to win a seat in a general election. In addition, you'll have a higher turnout which may well dilute the UKIP vote. Even if Farage, and maybe a very small number of others, find and win seats, they will be a tiny minority in the Commons. There has been a UKIP MP already - Dr Bob Spink deferred when the Tories chucked him out before the last election. He made precisely no impression. A minority Government would be the only scenario where they would wield any power at all.

1. Their record in local government will be crucial. Most of the new councillors have no experience. In addition, their views on a range of social and political issues are unknown and untested. Based on the small sample so far, there will be skeletons in cupboards. There is far more reason for anti-UKIP people to do lots of digging now than before. By 2015, UKIP could have a very different reputation. The BNP 10 years ago was seen as a growing power in local government and a threat to Westminster. Now it is mostly dead.

1. UKIP had virtually no manifesto for these elections. Threads on here have also shown that people voted for them without knowing some of their more conservative policies and were a bit shocked. Crucially they avoided all economic discussion in detail. It isn't (shouldn't be?) possible to go into a general election with such an approach. Particularly if the other parties have immigration and EU policy which has moved towards UKIP's stance, their other policies are currently very weak.

I can just see New Labour fighting for more windmills, more carbon taxes and more solar panels against UKIP and the general public.

Bring it on, and bring them down!

In the European elections next year, UKIP will probably win hands down.

A rubicon has now been crossed. Thousands of voters who had never before voted UKIP because they felt it would be a wasted vote, finally decided to vote UKIP in these elections, because they are so disillusioned with the mainstream parties who do not represent them. Having voted UKIP once, it becomes much easier to vote for them again.

If they get airtime on TV and explain how they will cut foreign aid, quangos and some of these charities and salaries of the charity bosses, councillors and NHS Trust bosses etc, then lots of the public will vote for them as a breath of fresh air.

Chuka Umunna was on TV the other night and tried to challenge farage by saying why doesn't he believe in global warming, as if that would save New Labour. I think Farage replied something like "bring it on".

Bring it on, let the people have their say instead of the metroplitan elites, the quangos, the spinners and the liars.

I'm not sure. I voted UKIP in this local election, but probably won't at general election. It really depends on how the Tories react and if they change and start listening to ordinary voters. It also depends on the economy. If it recovers, then people will vote Tory, if it doesn't and if the Tories keep the same policies with the same Old Etonians etc, then people may vote UKIP as a protest again.

Grant Schapps was on TV today and it seems to me that the Tories still haven't got the message. he said we have heard what people have said and we are "on it" i.e. just more of the same, they are doing the right things, it will just take time. That won't work if the economy does not recover.

The UKIP MEP, Geoffrey Bloom, was on TV and he said they would scrap most of the quangos and save £50 billion, they would stop what he called "bogus charities" and save £1 billion and they would save something like £10 billion in foreign aid. A lot of teh 25% of people who voted for them would agree with all those policies. The metropolitan elite wouldn't like it, but I think a lot of the public would.

I think Labour will not win the next election. The 25% of voters showed that they will not give them their trust and that they would rather vote UKIP.

It is really in the Tories' hands. If they start listening and carrying out the wishes of ordinary voters then they will still win.