Farage summed it up nicely by saying that if the Tories hadn't split the UKIP vote, UKIP would have won!

Thought she was poor to be honest. She should have livened it up a bit by nutting that Tory cow next to her, what a sanctimonious piece of work she was.

Completely unelectable - the demand for government to tell you how to live your life is low also do we really want all the higher personal taxes we would pay to be spent on inefficient public services and increased benefits?

I don't think they are as nutty as you think they are.
The leader keeping himself out of the firing line and focusing on the MEP votes is a smart move.
I can honestly see them being the biggest MEP's party and in doing so costing Cameron his job and possibly forcing a referendum faster than they want in the fear of UKIP in the general.

I think we can all see how a referendum would end up so UKIP win anyway.

Indeed.

And the problem is, any such party needs to be ist/populist enough to gain votes from a broader spectrum of political opinion than would occur with having, say, an out and out, old-fashioned socialist party. You only need to see that UKIP is splitting the Tory vote to realise the problems of having a party that appeals to what could be described as a more extreme version of the most mainstream.

I cannot pretend, unlike yourself, to talk on behalf of "we", but personally, I'd prefer a society where the poor, the low-paid and the vulnerable are not demonised, and where people who screw up and blight or ruin the lives of many more are not rewarded.

Firstly, under the system I suggested, it would probably be quite hard for any party except the central ones to be electable and even they might need coalition partners quite regularly. That might enable both right and left to have some kind of proportionate voice rather than being marginalised in their current parties.

I am not suggesting Labour publish their manifesto now but as you mention above go on the attack and rebut the inaccurate spin. They need to stop apologising as well. There seems to be a view that to win back the electorates trust they have to keep apologising and admit to various mistakes. This makes them seem weak IMO and gives the impression the "It's all Labour's fault" stuck record on the economy the ConDem's spout at every opportunity is actually true.

They also need to not shy away from explaining how making sure people and companies pay their taxes and why restricting the bonus culture won't drive people away from the UK. Instead they still seem rather stuck as to how to appear business friendly while at the same time dealing with these obvious issues.

So you want to go back to the days when Parliamentarians were not paid?

I think most people would like to live in this sort of caring, Utopian like society, but, unfortunately, it will never happen, because human nature dictates that there will always be people who don't play the game fairly and choose instead to cheat any system that is set up to help the vulnerable.

Has with many things in life, the minority always spoil it for the majority.

I'm sorry, but I just don't see it. I remember concerns being raised before the last general election that the BNP were making ground and might actually win a seat in parliament. I think I read on Twitter the other day that UKIP are just the BNP for people who shop at M+S, which seems a fair assessment to me.

11571 votes in a mid term by election is nothing to get excited about

I don't remember MP's of the current government actually making calls for them to be in discussions with the BNP and getting their heads together.
Tories have done exactly that today.
The BNP came across as raving loons but UKIP come across as smarter than that and they have a very easy target which is the Tory loony right.
Plus don't forget they have history of actually winning elections in the euro's.
Like I say the Tories will be worried right now and if UKIP do well in the euro's the cost may be high and not just to the Tories.

The Tory bint was nearly as irritating as the the Baroness, but not quite.
The Labourite female panellist was wholly uninspiring, loooked like it was the last place she wanted to be.
The Lib/Demmer had no answer to the female audience member who basically told him that his party leader was a liar.
Neil Hamilton. Dear me.
Ken Loach, the non politician, spoke more sense than the other four wasters put together.

The Tories' s are just twitching because of the Eastleigh result. There's no way UKIP will ever be seen as anything other than a way to stick it to Dave. They're a one-issue party.

If, as has been reported, Cameron will refuse to participate in any pre-2015 election televised debates, I'm sure Farage would welcome the opportunity to take his place at the podium

How are you going to do that - remove all the humans because that is the reality, whilst ever you have an unequal society this will always happen. Life is not fair it never will be so to suggest we can even things out is naive. Would you rather have things as they are or a society such as existed in Russia under Stalin i.e. a hard left approach.

We have had this discussion before even in a socialist state you will still have those in position of power who lead a very privileged existence. Look at North Korea - the leaders blight the lives of millions yet live a life of immense wealth is that the kind of society you want.

In this country the poor, low paid and vulnerable are not demonised the benefits available mean they can have a roof over their head and they can feed themselves - compare that to India for example?

Why do you always use such extreme cases India, Soviet Russia, North Korea) as comparators?

Why not compare us to Sweden or Denmark?

I must admit to a slight titter when I read this tweet from Frankie Boyle:

[iFrankie Boyle ‏@frankieboyle

Claire Perry must have a clitoris like a toddler's leg hanging out of a pram #bbcqt[/i

So UKIP came second in a mid term by-election.

Am I the only one who remembers the Mnster Raving Loonies doing the same in (IIRC) Bootle in the late 80s? The difference being that one party had policies that could actually make it to law, and the others are a bunch of posh xenophobes.

Because the kind of hard left society some are craving doesn't exist outside of the old soviet union or Korea and it certainly doesn't exist in either Sweden or Denmark.

You really are quite breathtakingly clueless.

Look at Sweden and Denmark's fiscal deficts relative to the UKs. They have been disciplined and kept public spending under control. Sweden returned from economic crisis by being disciplined and cutting their deficit come what may. Unsurprisingly, there was initial resistance from the idiots on the left but the medicine has worked big time.

With their tax & NI receipts, it's a lot simpler to keep public spending under control, especially when you also factor in not wishing to act as the world's policeman

1) Yes, they are demonised. By assorted rags that have sought to create an idea that anyone who is in receipt of any form of benefit (apart from ones such as child allowance or pensions, which the middle classes receive too) are scroungers and are living a life of off the backs of "we" hardworking taxpayers. Even a fleeting look at the comments sections of much of the media reveals that this has been incredibly successful.

So successful has it been that there are reports of increases in the amount of abuse that disabled people are suffering. Why else would there be an increase in such abuse?

2) "Feed themselves"? Will that explain the rising number of foodbanks in the UK? Foodbanks that serve, in many, many cases, people who work, but who have a low enough income that they are increasingly finding themselves faced with a choice between food or heat?

You see, that's the sort of thing that personally, I find obscenely wrong. Just as I find it obscenely wrong that "we", those taxpayers who are doing a bit better, are subsiding the profits of very large and very successful companies that refuse to pay their workforce a decent, living wage – something that would actually help the economy as a whole.

And, as has been said already, why not look at Scandinavia instead of North Korea, since absolutely nobody here is talking about anything even close to the latter.