This will all depend on how serious the voters are when it comes time for national elections, rather than local council elections. UKIP can’t carry out much of their platform from the local council (think city or county council in the US, which is what this weeks elections were). If, and it’s a big if, they can pick up any seats in Parliament (currently UKIP hold none) they might start to have some say in EU relations, immigration, etc. It will be interesting to see what a larger national election turnout does to their chances, and if many here really want out of the eu. Currently, the free trade shengen travel (open borders for holiday and business travel) and investment into and out of the UK are more popular to Brits than a return to isolation. The Tories need to figure out a compromise to tighten immigration and keep the benefits of membership. A referendum on exitinformation the eu would fail as of today, and UKIP doesn’t offer much more than that in their talking points.
The local councils provide the opportunity for the UKIP to develop their bench that soon could run for the more national positions.
Thanks!
Local election results are good for Ukip, not so good for Labour
But double protest-vote is downright bad for the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats
Tony Travers
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/may/03/local-elections-analysis-ukip-labour
[snip] Large Conservative groups still dominate the shires, a crumb of comfort for David Cameron, including some rock-solid performances in Surrey, West Sussex and North Yorkshire.
Buckinghamshire’s fight against HS2 did not result in a Ukip landslide and the Tories remain strongly in control. The government will take note of that.
Nevertheless, the Conservatives lost control of Nottinghamshire to Labour, while losing East Sussex, Gloucestershire, the Isle of Wight, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Oxfordshire and Warwickshire to “no overall control” (NOC). The Tories’ heaviest overall seat losses occurred in Lincolnshire (-24), Norfolk (-20), Cornwall (-18), Lancashire (-16), Suffolk (-16), Staffordshire (-15) Oxfordshire (-14), and Nottinghamshire (-14). Nevertheless, against the odds the party held on in Staffordshire and managed to gain four seats in Northumberland...
Labour lost 291 seats when these elections were last contested in 2009. They had gained just 260 by late on Friday afternoon, albeit with a number of boundary changes and slightly fewer seats contested. [/snip]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_Independence_Party_representation_and_election_results
[snip] European Parliament — UKIP had 13 MEPs elected at the 2009 European elections, their highest tally to date. Following defections (one Conservative MEP defecting to UKIP; two UKIP MEPs defecting to the Conservatives; and one leaving UKIP MEP the party and later founding the We Demand a Referendum party), UKIP now has 11 MEPs in the European Parliament. Roger Helmer was elected as a Conservative MEP but defected to UKIP in March 2012. Trevor Colman is the only UKIP MEP who is not a member of the EFD grouping. [/snip]
UK is not a Schengen country...so not sure where you got that info. You have to go thru UK customs when going from EU country to the UK
Reality is people are realizing that Open Borders and Free Trade do not work....and the Brits are figuring out that there is only so much Socialism that can fix the mess caused by the EU and its failed Free Trade and soverignity robbing programs.
I'd say that "a return to isolation" is rather the overstatement.