Jeez, I was a student journo at the Elephant during the campaign and I remember having to do vox-pops around the area - I couldn't get over the amount of hostility shown towards Tatchell. It was a really nasty homophobic campaign - which made it weird that they voted for another gay.
Farage...
That's nowhere near true: the biggest by election swing was 44% in Bermondsey in 1983 - there have been 15 by election swings bigger than 21% in fact.
UKIP should have this on toast. They have all the factors in their favour: a long history of by election protest votes; a marginal seat that has...
For once I'm in full agreement with HB&B: this is a massive by-election. We can take it for granted that UKIP will win but the party really has to record a huge victory - anything else would mean talk of holding balance of power as meaningless. And Tories have to hang on to second, anything else...