Recent media coverage

The Election Editor of the East Anglian Daily Times considers that

THE UK Independence Party pulled off a massive coup in Suffolk when national leader Lord Pearson came to support residents of a market town in their fight to prevent a Tesco super store being built.

Lord Pearson was launching the UKIP campaign in East Anglia and supporting the Suffolk South Parliamentary candidate, David Campbell Bannerman.

In the Observer, which cannot have many Conservative voters among its readers, there is a passionate plea from Jonathan Isaby, co-editor of Conservative Home, not to vote UKIP to the Conservative Party's detriment. That will deliver exactly the opposite result to the one wished for by UKIP, that is a more euro-federalist government. Since the result UKIP wishes is an exit from the European Union, Mr Isaby's argument falls somewhat short of the mark.

His argument that

The Conservatives, on the other hand, are fighting this election with a clear policy of not only seeking repatriation of certain powers and making any future transfer of power always subject to a referendum – but also pledging to pass a Sovereignty Bill, making it clear authority remains at Westminster.

merely shows that he still does not understand what being a member of the European Union means. The Conservatives do not, indeed, cannot explain how they are going to repatriate certain powers without opening up treaty negotiations. Furthermore, authority has not been at Westminster for several decades.

Melissa Kite's interview with Lord Pearson, published in the Sunday Telegraph, appeared on the web twice in slightly different formats. On Saturday evening she explained that Lord Pearson had "admitted" that UKIP was campaigning for a hung parliament. This has never been denied before and neither has UKIP's and Lord Pearson's opinion that things would have been very different if David Cameron had not reneged on his "cast-iron guarantee" to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.

"If Ukip can do well enough, say a couple of million votes, then we will be in a position to show David Cameron and the failed old parties that they can't form a government unless they give the British people the referendum, in or out of the EU," Lord Pearson said.

Mr Cameron has now promised to introduce a Bill to ensure that no further powers can be transferred to Brussels without a referendum. Lord Pearson said that was "useless" because the important powers have been transferred.

On Sunday morning the interview is in more detail, including a discussion about seats where UKIP candidates have stood aside to give real eurosceptics a free run and those where the strategy did not work out.

Lord Pearson also gives amusing insights into arguments his erstwhile party colleagues have been using.