If there was no internet and the only journalism in the country was limited to the broadcast media and front pages of our newspapers, one might be inclined to believe that UKIP had arrived to become the third party in British Politics with a national spread that challenges even the two largest parties for depth as well as breadth.

The impact of adding 139 Council Seats to a previous tally of 8 is clearly a significant result and it would churlish to not applaud the impact of people who have been ‘making plans for Nigel’. Well done UKIP on a great result. However by any reasonable measure Nigel Farage has for a number of years received a hugely disproportionate amount of public media attention, even for a colourful, eccentric, ex-public school boy and career politician. Although UKIP have previously held a few Council seats, their one area of success is in terms of seats held in the European Parliament. In this context UKIP retains 11 of the 78 seats and this places them as the fourth largest party in the UK narrowly behind the Lib Dems, who they would share 3rd place with if people like Robert Kilroy Silk did not have a tendency to get thrown out of the party. However Labour currently has 19 MEPs and the Conservatives have 27!

So last weeks elections have moved UKIP from being a small time actor on one political stage to becoming a bit player on a second. The party now has 147 seats and for a few days the sun shone on the country and everything seemed to be in good order. However just as the rain is now falling on our gardens again (although thankfully no snow), let us pour some tepid water onto the rather shameful exaggeration of last week.

UKIP have now overtaken the Greens as the fourth party of English Politics in terms of County Council seats, the same position they hold in the UK’s seats in Europe. However there are no UKIP MPs, unlike the Greens who have one seat. Nigel is claiming that in June 2014 they will overtake the other parties in the European elections and become the largest party at this level and then move on to became a force in the Westminster Parliament. This would require a huge effort and depends on finding another 20 plus people whose lives do stand up to reasonable scrutiny, even assuming that the electors want to give the party their support. Based on the disclosures in the few days before this months election, that could provide us all with some interesting interviews! It is hardly surprising that the media friendly Mr Farage has not yet named his Parliamentary seat!

The accounts of UKIPs success which were the only stories that emerged from the election are only part of the real story of the local elections in May 2013. The Greens too increased the number of seats they hold and so did the Independent Councillors. Unlike UKIP and the Greens the Independents do at least have true national spread (although being Independent there has been no calculated strategy, there is no central funding or fundraising and there is no agreed policy). In fact the number of Independents which rose from 160 to 187 exceeds the number of Nigel’s pals by a small margin. UKIP have a large support base from wealthy indviduals so the contest is not an easy one to read. There have been a small number of Independent MPs elected over the last couple of decades (aside from the mavericks from different parties who like Nadine Dorries have been booted out from time to time) and of course we saw a significant number of Independent Police & Crime Commissioners elected in 2012 (no sign of even a close call from UKIP!). There was also a very respectable showing by Siobhan Benita in the London Mayoral elections in May 2012.

Looking ahead it seems inevitable that there will continue to be some growth in the UKIP fortunes, at least for as long as the media love-in with Nigel lasts. I suspect that the Greens will also continue to grow in influence although a great deal probably depends on the ability of the Green Council in Brighton & Hove to show that they can make a positive difference to the lives of the residents in the city and that is far from a proven case at present. The Greens more generally have also done very well as far as media interest is concerned. However if media exposure is based in part on electoral success, what is missing from our media discourse is the recognition that a number of electors would like to be represented by people who don’t wear any party colours. Let us hope that we do not need to find someone who can match the strange antics of UKIPs Dulwich College old boy.