I Suppose That We Are Going To Have To

Wholly uncritical saturation coverage works. Who knew?

But UKIP is not the real story. Nigel Farage is never going to be Prime Minister. No one will remember him in 15 years' time.

Everyone knew that the Conservatives were going to drop from first to third in Wales, in Yorkshire and the Humber, and in the North West. They did.

But they also dropped from first to third in the West Midlands. And they failed to top the poll in a single region. Not one.

The Conservatives could not even carry the East of England, which has little of the metopolitianisation of the South East, and little memory of a Radical tradition which in any case was never that of the South West.

Here in the North East, their Leader lost his seat. He had kept it throughout the Blair years. His party is now even less popular here than it was in 1999.

Nor was he only just beaten. Labour's lead was huge, but UKIP's over the Conservatives was a remarkable 69,927. Well over one tenth of the total votes cast were the margin by which UKIP beat the Conservatives.

Still, being the second party of the North does mean nothing more than coming second in safe Labour seats.

Whereas the Conservatives will still always have 200 seats at any given time, unlike UKIP's none.

David Cameron's weird "renegotiation" scheme derives entirely from decades-long trends within his party, and has never had anything to do with UKIP.

And if Ed Miliband did move, from his In-Out referendum (the only promise of one; Cameron is only promising a referendum on any outcome of his weird "renegotiation" scheme) in the event of any proposed transfer of powers that Ed Balls has already ruled out, to an In-Out referendum in any case, then that, too, would derive entirely from decades-long trends within his party, and would never have had anything to do with UKIP.

That party won at least one seat in every mainland region, unlike the Conservatives. It beat the Conservatives into their first ever third place in a national election.

Apart from that, if there was a really big story, then it was the replacement of the Lib Dems by and with the Green Party. That one really is worth watching. UKIP simply is not.