The Votes Are In

The results of the voting should be taken very seriously by the government.

Despite being ridiculed in the media and generally being treated as nothing more than a set of overexposed tits with no real substance, the country has shown a real appetite to support the outsider with backing being won in the North, the South and the Midlands.

So congratulations to Helen Flanagan on being voted the sexiest woman in the UK.

The UKIP Donation Ruling.

The treatment of UKIP by the Electoral Commission and the courts is so perverse and unlike the treatment of other parties that it is hard to believe that it isn't malicious. Even the BBC's Michael Crick, who I think it is fair to say is unlikely to be a UKIP sympathiser, finds the difference between how UKIP are being treated and how the Lib Dems were treated for a seemingly much more serious offence to be staggering.

The facts of UKIP's offence appears to be:

1. A UK citizen and resident, Alan Brown, gave them money.
   
2. They accepted his donation.
3. It later emerged that the local authority had omitted him from the electoral register a few months prior to the donation.
4. When he found out about his omission he re registered.
5. This meant that the donation was made while he wasn't on the electoral register.

In the circumstances it might seem logical that UKIP would have to repay the donor (who would presumably give the money back to UKIP now he is on the register), however they have been ordered to pay the money to the Treasury, meaning that both UKIP and Alan Brown lose out even though neither of them have attempted at any time to circumvent the law.

Incidentally the amount of the donation is roughly the equivalent to the deposits required to stand in every seat in the UK at the next election.

Note I'm not a member of UKIP and won't be voting for them at the next election, but even so this is an absolutely scandalous decision and hopefully it will be overturned at some point if the Electoral Commission is to retain any integrity.

UKIP

There's an interview with UKIP's leader Nigel Farage over at A Tangled Web. Personally I agree with a lot of their policies, but outside of the European elections a vote for them is a wasted vote, until such time as an alternative to the first past the post system is implemented. DSD who conducted the interview did ask one question which I had submitted, namely why do UKIP put candidates up against genuinely eurosceptic MPs such as Bill Cash. I wasn't impressed with his answer which seemed to be putting ideological purity ahead of achieving anything. Even if UKIP don't endorse the views of Eurosceptic Tories it is obvious to me that from the point of view of the typical UKIP supporter they are clearly preferable to Eurofanatic alternatives.