UKIP seems to have got past the 'First they ignore you' stage

The slow but steady rise of UKIP in the polls over the last few months went almost unheralded until the weekend before last when in what still looks like an outlier poll, the Mail on Sunday put UKIP as equal
to the Lib/Dems on 11%. Since then there were a couple of days where, due to statistical anomaly YouGov put us above them.

This has brought forth a small deluge of mostly hostile commentary in the press, some from commentators, others from largely Conservative politicians. The insults have flown "Swivel eyed" etc, the condescension dripped. "'UKIP were relevant 15 years ago", said George Eustice MP on Newsnight, "But now we have a robust Eurosceptic as Prime Minister they are irrelevant".

None of this has made a blind piece of difference. Indeed the combined attempt to insult and belittle us has driven even more towards us.

So the game hots up. The first result of this is an attack piece in the Guardian, reprsing this in the HuffPo.

Slightly amused by the shock horror breaking news story about something that happened in 2004/5 and involves as one of its protagonists someone who died in December.

So I wonder what could it be about the rising in the polls, causing real headaches to the mainstream parties UKIP that caused this story to appear now?

Now I am not saying that Msrs. Clark and Booth did not break the funding rules of the European Parliament. They used their staffing allowance in a way that was not allowed. They used it to do what they could to strengthen the cause of Euroscepticism in Britain, by funding UKIP staff rather than personal patronage. At no point did they gain from this personally. In fact the opposite as they initially forewent money that would help them in their own regions, and secondly when they were penalised they lost the money again, this time from their own pockets. But rules are rules.

However I am certain that this will not be the last story of its sort. Birds have told me that an edict has gone out from the coalition headquarters to friendly editors that UKIP must be hit hard. So I expect that in the next couple of weeks we will see a few more stories like this, dredged up, polished and presented to the public.

UKIP must be seen as bad as the rest. It must be undermined, damage must be done before the elections.

So for those of you who are standing for UKIP in the coming elections I have a message.

Thanks for getting us to the stage that they feel they have to attack us. Without you they would just be ignoring us. This article, and the ones to come are a testament to your hard work. To the way that through you and others we are beginning to threaten the vested interests.

Oh and if you have any particularly juicy skeletons in your closet, either come clean yourselves, or nail those closets shut.