BASILDON BOY

During the Henley bye-election UKIP spent £17,056 and got just 843 votes for our candidate Chris Adams. This works out UKIP spent £20.23 for every vote received. Was this value for money?

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Mike Nattrass MEP is HOT HOT HOT!!!

BASILDON BOY

Full expenditure for all candidates:-

John Howell (Con) - 19,796 (£98,016.82)
Stephen Kearney (Lib Dem) - 9,680 (£95,237.36)
Mark Stevenson (Green) - 1,321 (£1,055.75)
Timothy Rait (BNP) - 1,243 (£4,744.06)
Richard McKenzie (Lab) - 1,066 (£14,121.42)
Chris Adams (UKIP) - 843 (£17,056.00)
Bananaman Owen (Loony) - 242 (nil)
Derek Allpass (Eng Dem) - 157 (£2,095.00)
Amanda Harrington (Miss GB) - 128 (£9,327.36)
Dick Rodgers (Common Good) - 121 (£447.41)
Louise Cole (Miss GB) - 91 (£7,690.59)
Harry Bear (Fur Play) - 73 (Return not submitted)

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Mike Nattrass MEP is HOT HOT HOT!!!

Millennium3

I think that Bananaman [Loony], who got 35% of UKIP's vote with no expenditure at all had the most impressive result, but the Greens, with 1321 votes at 80p each, show that they are most likely to be the next party to challenge the big three.

Interesting to see that Labour spent less than UKIP.

Sciurus

Does UKIP have statistics on how much was spent in total, or per vote, during the 2005 General Election campaign? It would be interesting to make the comparison.

kernow

Speculate to accumulate, doesn't always work, OK!

Raymond Finch

So what price would you put on freedom?

Any party should put whatever funds it can raise to gain voter awareness. The fact that we got a lower share than we wanted was down to the fact that lots of voters supported the Tories in order to give Labour (Gordon Brown) a kicking combined with the fact that Labour voters, knowing they had no chance, felt they could, with impunity, lend their votes to the Greens and the BNP (depending on their preference) with the added bonus of telling Labour what they thought of deserting their core voters.

Essentially UKIP got electorally squeezed while our ideological opponents were given a free run. This happens. It was in no way a comment on our campaigning or our (excellent) candidate who, if he had stood in the Euro elections would have been near the top of my list.

mrabody

I have to disagree with you. I don't think it is a case that we got "squeezed". Presumably the Greens got "squeezed" by the Lib Dems, yet the Green candidate still managed to come third and spent a small fraction of what we did.

I happen to think that we pursued the wrong strategy in our by-election campaign. We tried to target the entire constituency, something that Labour also tried to do. It's clear from the accounts that they presented, that the Greens and the BNP each targetted a small, local area (from what I have heard, the Green candidate targeted the area in which he lives and where he has previously stood in local elections) and worked those areas very hard, thereby achieving a high percentage of that vote in a small area. The rest of the constituency would have been covered by the election address. We on the other hand spread ourselves thin by trying to leaflet the entire constituency. If we had spent perhaps £2000 and directed all our efforts into a couple of target wards (I think it is fair to say that we have more resources than either the Greens or the BNP and therefore could spend more and target a slightly larger area) and left most of the constituency to be covered by the election address, we could have likely saved our deposit and come a strong third.

The fact is, we simply aren't strong enough to fight an election like the three establishment parties. We need to use our resources wisely and to the greatest effect. From what I have seen, where we are active we can count on a baseline of support of about 5% in local elections, which translates to about 2.5% in a general election when turnout doubles (assuming that none of the non-voters in the local election will vote UKIP at the general election). Where we have been inactive (as in Henley) the baseline is about 1.5%. Simply dropping leaflets through doors in every part of such a constituency won't be enough to raise our vote signicantly. But lots of canvassing, leafleting and general "presence" in a particular area can.

Unfortunately, UKIP seems to prefer to run big flashy campaigns like the three establishment parties even though to do so effectively is beyond our capabilities, rather than trying to get the maximum "bang for it's buck" (please forgive the North Americanism).


Drew Belobaba,
UKIP PPC for Lewes
Wannabe Southeast MEP candidate

Raymond Finch

Regarding Greens/ LibDems.
I understood the LD vote dropped.
Even if it rose. Some of those voters would have been from Labour.
We were in a no-win situation with that election. Given the recent seismic shift in UK politics I believe we need to start targeting Labour voters. The Labour Party has now deserted the employed Working Class voters that it won back after Thatcher and we need to show them that our low-tax, freedom loving, socially serious policies are the ones they are looking for rather than Blair-lite Cameron or the racist ideology of the BNP.

mrabody

The Lib Dem vote did rise. I happen to agree that we can appeal to Labour voters. We can also appeal to Tory voters, but this appeal is lessened by the present popularity of the Tories. Unfortunately we didn't run our campaign in such a way as to appeal to either Labour or Tory voters. The fact is that with the Lib Dems and Tories pouring lots of resources into the cosntituency, everyone else was in danger of getting squeezed. The fact that the BNP and the Greens were able to beat UKIP and Labour despite using a fraction of the resources expended by the latter two parties suggests that our poor showing was the result of a failed strategy.

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Drew Belobaba,
UKIP PPC for Lewes
Almost as unelectable as Raymond Finch!

Aardvark

Read the following if you have time:

http://www.jrrt.org.uk/Purity%20of%2...20the%20UK.pdf

I read it in order to apply for a contract looking at electoral reform. If you haven't got time go to the analysis of spending in Merseyside by the various parties. The Tories have abandoned central Liverpool and the industrial heartlands and are pouring massive amounts of money into the constituency parties in the seats they seek to regain/gain. It is a strategy designed to ensure that the leafy suburbs return Tory MPs. The Tories are not embarrassed about having a stategy to win seats. The Tories from central Liverpool will rely on one posted leaflet and will catch the bus to the suburbs to campaign. Watch the results on election night and see how targetting works.

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When in Woking do as the Wokes do.

"I do not wish to form my opinions by thoughtlessly quoting others; I wish others to support their opinions by sensibly quoting me." Paul Wesson (Aardvark) 13th April 2008