Results are to be held back until late on Sunday so that other EU nations' results are all in.
I am seething that we have been forced into this position by the wretched Westminster Parliament at a cost of £150 million.
Even so, 'Every cloud apparently has a silver lining.'
For the UK that would be a mighty victory for Farage and co. That should naturally lead onto the BP taking Peterborough in the by-election a fortnight today.
The big issue then becomes momentum and that will be incredibly difficult to maintain.
Ukip could not do it because it put out policies which alienated a significant portion of the voting public. Repeatedly.
Policies and manifesto are critical from the outset.
(Ukip had a set of winning policies but chose to ignore them in favour of launching futile attacks on Islamic headgear et al.)
1) All moral issues to go to referenda.
2) Ensure that policies are eye-catching yet can offend very few.
eg) Banning charges on hospital parking wins friends across the board whereas banning burkas wins a lot of votes but also loses a great many. Thus that is a policy to avoid like the plague. (However, may I refer the reader back to point one?)
All it takes is a bit of thought.
3) Banning live animal exports is a massive vote-winner with virtually no comebacks.
4) Refusal to endorse commitment of armed forces into any conflict which does not concern us. Massive vote winner - could even pull in some leftists.
Against that backcloth - you can bring the military up to proper strength.
5) Root and branch reform of the voting system and House of Lords. Massive support & little vote-losing potential.
6) Wasted funds from Quangos to rebuild the NHS. As Quangos are largely populated with leftists and countless of billions of annual funding ... what they think is of relatively small importance.
I could have done 30 or 40 of these and they would all win votes. That is not the question, however. The real issue is how many votes would be lost? - Very, very few!
Get enough policies that are both good and clever and it may even cancel out some of the few voters that you have still offended with one policy or another.
