I was very pleased to see that the MP for my parent's constituency returned to the Tories at the election. A month ago I remarked on the way that the Tory candidate had done his best to take the UKIP slogans about Europe for himself even though the official Tory policy was rather less direct. Unfortunately though while the Tory chap won, despite facing a respectable challenge from UKIP, the real news it seems to me was the swing to the Lib Dems who, as a result, let the conserative candidate win as even the combined Tory+UKIP vote was less than 50%.
In other constituencies the UKIP effect was bigger - Corby being perhaps the most dramatic - but even so the Tory plus UKIP vote is not big enough (yet) to claim a clear majority of the population of England, let alone the rest of the UK. MY back of the envelope sum indicates that there are 528 seats in England and the conservatives won just under 200 of them. Even if you add in the ones where UKIP took Tory votes you are still looking at only about 225 seats where the combination UKIP + Tory would lead to a majority which is not enough to claim a mandate YET.
If Europe is to be an real electoral issue next time we need to spend the next four years getting the message across. Undoubtedly the EUnuchs and EUrocrats will help but we need a way to make the EU something that people care enough about that they actually make it clear in focus groups and polls that Europe is a problem. The constitutional referendum will help but we need a solid four year plan not just something put together in six months.