UKIP to fight every Leicestershire County Council seat

Not content with their two recent, er, colourful recruits by defection, UKIP says it is to fight every county seat here in Leicestershire in May.

The party's 'East Midlands constituency manager' Paul Oakden told the Leicester Mercury:

"In 2009, UKIP did not stand a single candidate in Leicestershire. 

"We don't want a situation this time where people come to us after May 2 and say "I would have voted for you but you didn't have a candidate. 

"Every day, we are gaining fresh people so it is an achievable goal to have a candidate in every seat. 

"Will we take control at County Hall? Probably not, but we will take votes from the other three parties and that will play a major part in the results."

Anything that will put the wind up the Tories has to be welcomed, but I share the puzzlement of my old friend, Simon Galton, the leader of the Lib Dem group at County Hall:

"I don't understand what their appeal is for councils. 

"They want to take us out of Europe but they can't do that by winning seats at Leicestershire County Council."

And I am not convinced by the response to this:

Mr Oakden said UKIP had policies relevant to local politics, such as opposition to raising council tax and holding county-wide referenda (sic) on issues such as the hunting ban.

But what is the point of a Leicestershire referendum on hunting? It couldn't repeal the law.

I suppose you might vote to allow or ban hunting on council-owned land, but I doubt if that is what Mr Oakden has in mind.

The impression that UKIP's policy platform was drawn up by listening to a lot of angry men in pubs grows ever stronger.