And yet, and yet... many people seem to think they should be ignored completely. After all "they have no MPs" or, until recently, "they have only one MP, and it's bloody Carswell". Also they seem to lose councillors, Welsh assembly members, leaders... at a rate which would seriously embarrass other parties.
Consider some reasons why UKIP should be covered.
- In 2015 they attracted one vote in eight (but our electoral system gave them just one MP). That level of support has held up pretty well since then despite the loss of Farage and a pantomime of leaders, "altercations" and comically unchecked blogs.
- In 2014 more people voted for them than for anybody else. They now boast more MEPs than any other UK party. And that should matter.
Yet they are the UK's most popular party when measured by representation in Brussels and Strasbourg. My concern here is that few people vote in EU elections and not many think that MEPs matter.
It was briefly exciting in 1989 when 15% of the voters turned to the Greens, though we were still using First Past The Post then, so they elected no MEPs. But a major reason for the Greens' high vote was that it was a protest. Elections to the EU parliament just didn't matter, and that's still largely true today.
Parties select candidates, a small number of voters turn out to select between them, then that's it until next time. Very few people "know who their MEP is" (we each have about half a dozen due to the regional PR system), the news never shows proceedings in the Brussels or Strasbourg parliaments (unless Farage is insulting somebody, and not even always then). The EU Parliament is just nothing to do with us.
And that, my friends, is one of the reasons we voted for Brexit.
