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Kilroy The Messenger

by | 14th, June 2004

‘THE future really is orange, as the advert said it would be.

Brown is this year’s red, blue, yellow…

Although written before all the results from the European elections were in, the papers are all of a mind that Robert Kilroy-Silk’s UK Independence Party has done rather well.

Campaigning on a ticket of free sun-beds for all, the United’s Kingdom’s withdrawal from Europe and the restoration of Kilroy-Silk to the daytime TV schedules (right after Joan Collins’ Dynasty omnibus and Make-Up Masterclass), the orangey-tans made remarkable gains.

We now know that around 39% of us went to the polls and how the UKIP is on course to capture 12% of the popular vote, with the Conservatives and Labour on 25% and 17% respectively.

Besides meaning meltdown for Labour and the Tories over Europe, it gives the Guardian’s readers a chance to see how valid a YouGov poll is.

Such a poll, carried out on polling day last Thursday and now produced by the paper, suggests that Labour and the Tories will tie in first place on 22% of the vote apiece, followed by the UKIP on 20%, ahead of the Lib-Dems on 14%.

Although not bad, those results point to a significant margin of error. However, one thing the poll did get right is that when the percentage points are totted up the big two parties’ share of the vote is well under 50%.

This, the Guardian says, might well have something to do with “voter backlash” against the Government.

And it might well be a wake-up call to the Opposition, what the Eurosceptic former Tory party chairman Norman Tebbit tells the Telegraph is “a way if firing a shot across the bows” of the Conservatives.

But it might just be a sign of support for Kilroy-Silk in his own right.

And right on cue, here is the perma-tanned political tyro telling the Telegraph that, if Tony Blair signs up to the EU constitution in the face of so much hostility, “he would be treating the electorate with contempt”.

And whether you believe the electorate deserves to be treated so, such a move would do little to enhance Blair’s waning popularity.

And possibly propel Kilroy-Silk even further up the political tree. Do not doubt his ambition – as the Independent says, the UKIP plans to stand in every seat at the next General Election.

What price Prime Minister Kilroy-Silk and First Lady Collins? It’s a new political dynasty. And it’s wearing an all-over tan.’



Posted: 14th, June 2004 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink