Possibly not the best result for a sitting government.
(That’s how British people do understatement, right?)
It also shows at least one of the perils of writing headlines. UKIP did well in 2004, so this result gains them one additional seat in the European Parliament. The Conservatives, who placed first, also gained only one seat, as did the Liberal Democrats. The British National Party gained two, the biggest seat gain of any UK party. Labour lost five seats on a decline of 7 percent in votes.
I’m originally English but I’ve lived in the US for most of my life. I’m frankly disgusted with my countrymen.
We’ve essentially sent a white supremacist to continent-wide office.
Well done the BNP and UKIP. Third world immigration is destroying the UK and needs to be stopped.
The result for labour in Southern England was even worse: they came fifth.
Janice, it’s not “third world immigration” that’s destroying Britain – it’s our excessive debt and racist bigots such as yourself… stop blaming others and find a way to contribute to the economy.
Thomas: the BNP actually got LESS votes than the last election, but so many people are utterly disgusted at labour that they simply didn’t bother to vote, and since there was a lower turnout, the BNP got a higher percentage of the vote despite the overall number actually being lower.
The BNP gained two seats but actually polled fewer votes than in 2004. It really was all in the turnout.
Oh yes, and an interesting fact; the BNP vote fell steeply everywhere they have been in office.
Did other parties gain votes in absolute terms? And does it matter? Is the result different from estimates for national elections?
And the big story in Scotland, resolutely ignored by the London media, is that the Scottish National Party easily won the top share of the Scottish vote for the first time ever in any UK-wide poll (29.1% SNP, 20.8% Labour, full Scottish results (BBC). Here UKIP only managed sixth place and the BNP seventh; they’re both viewed here as being essentially English nationalists. It’s easy to miss the significance of this, particularly since the number of MEPs returned from each party didn’t change from last time. That is, except for the decrease from seven MEPs to six. This in a place that habitually thinks of itself as a country, and which has a larger population than Denmark, but is allowed less than half the number of MEPs – 6 as against 13. (I find this disparity unjust and irritating, can you tell?)