Why is this debate even taking place? Typical mid term protest vote, come the election it'll be business as usual.
Doesn't anyone else remember the BNP having a good mid-term some years back, and it being hailed as the start of the rise of the far right? You remember, the mid terms before they swept into power.

Oh, hang on...

I'll take UKIP seriously when Westminster burns to the ground and the left get blamed for it.

Interesting to note that Labour did not lose one single seat to UKIP, right across the country

That's because Labour doesn't count that many racists and xenophobes amongst its supporters.

You will have noted that Labour's percentage of the vote was down more than even the Tories compared with last time.

Labour WILL NOT win an overall majority in a general election with E Milliband in charge. Not now. Not ever, unless the Tories panic and put someone less user friendly than Cameron in charge.

I don't remember the BNP getting a quarter of the votes or over 140 council seats. That is more than a protest vote IMHO.

The scale has differed, but UKIP have a hel of a long way to go before they can convince anyone - particularly the majority of their vote this time - that they are a serious political force.
As soon as they get the established parties asking questions at a national level about their policies on anything that shows their duomania for what it is, they're going to collapse. There will always be those who think that immigration/Europe is the only issue that matters, but most people are aware that the budget, defence, the NHS and unemployment matter more, and that just going "stop foreigners coming here and get out of Europe (unless it suits us)" isn't going to cut it. They need to portray a much greater depth than they are currently showing.

I agree with most if that but I just think that folks ignore UKIP at their peril and comparing them to what the BNP did previously is missing the point as UKIP is a different animal IMHO.

A little perspective is needed here.

Out of a total of 20,000-ish local election seats, UKIP have managed to secure 142. A whopping 0.7% of the total.

Or looking just at the seats being fought for 12.5% of the total seats the Tories won, 25% of the seats Labour won and 38% of the seats the Lib-Dems won.
They won 5% of all the seats available and got 25% of all the votes.

May I quickly point out that I am no UKIP voter but I just think dismissing them as another BNP is a huge mistake.
They have someone in charge who has a clue, knows his soundbites and has gone after a subject that matters to a fair few members of the population. He mentions the billions we give Europe but just fails to mention what we get back.

As minty said UKIP are getting more press coverage then they should which is far more than the BNP got.
The sheep in this country will watch the news but probably wont watch programs like newsnight or daily politics so they are only getting the positive soundbites.

Like I said a totally different animal to the BNP.

UKIP: fascists who shop at M&S and John Lewis

I'm not racist, I just vote UKIP.

maybe "I'm not racist but..." will be the new "I've never voted Tory before but..." campaign