Tories obliterated. Labour trounced. UKIP on the way.

The local elections which took place on Thursday have exposed what could be a seismic shift in UK politics.

Often enough in the past, a party, typically the Liberals in one of their various guises, have been the repository for protest votes against the sitting government of the day and against the political establishment generally. Something of the kind happened on Thursday, but it was much more than that.

UKIP, which stands on what would previously have been said to be traditional Conservative ground, has mushroomed to about a quarter of the votes cast. They are picking up votes form all sections of the electorate and they are doing this is all over the country, representing a continuation of a gradual trend. This trend has every chance of progressing on an upward curve as, after this even the BBC can no longer avoid mentioning them.

 The BBC and most other media outlets will  now of course go all out onto the attack. Muck racking, fabrication, distortion  and much else will all now be employed against a party that speaks to people in a manner that suggests they are listening at the same time. A priceless asset. But dirty tricks might not work here, people are not that stupid.

Everyman Nigel Farage having a pint with somebody. 

UKIP have a popular and charismatic leader in Nigel Farage, a man who most people it seems would be "happy to have a pint with". This is another priceless asset. Whatever his failings, this everyman quality marks Farage  out as an entirely different beast when compared to the polished mannequins who belch out the same tired cliches and pre-prepared, civil service written jargon.

Labour look to be in complete denial about what is happening. They have nothing to say, nothing at all. They appear to be waiting in hope that UKIP will hoover up enough of the Tory vote to squeeze them into No 10. They may well be right in this, as the perverted nature of boundary changes down the years means that they could win an election with only 35% of the vote, whereas the Tories will probably need closer to 42%.

It appears however, that there are more than enough people who would be sufficiently appalled at the prospect of another period of destructive Labour rule to keep them out of power, but the votes are split between the Tories and UKIP. The Tories and UKIP could probably pull in about 55% or more of the vote in any general election, but can they find a way to hold their noses and work together?

Not much chance I would have thought, especially not with David Cameron at the head of the Tory party. He seems more Eurofanatic with every month that passes. A marriage between Cameron and Farage, who are polar opposites on the matter of Europe, looks impossible.

These two men will never be able to work together  But the country badly needs such an alliance.

UK POLITICAL ESTABLISHMENT. RUNNING SCARED OF UKIP.

It looks like the Labour Party are now getting seriously worried about the emergence of UKIP as a  threat in the forthcoming by election in South Shields, and also I imagine as a serious one in next years European Elections. They have been attempting to smear the UKIP candidate in the by election, even though they are bound to win the seat, Labour having won there at every time of asking since the 1930s. So it is safe to calculate from this that they are rattled over the votes that UKIP will take from them in those European elections.

And it is little wonder. The Tories, Liberals and Labour now represent the old reactionary establishment, slow to change and completely out of touch with the British people on the single most important issue of the day; membership of the increasingly anti-democratic EU. These three parties have all had many among their number who have in the past, sometimes covertly, been keen advocates of the UK joining the Euro. This particular noise seems to have died down of course, but no admission of being wrong has been heard. 

We have even had the ridiculous Ken Clarke trotting out rubbish about anyone not agreeing with him being a racist or a xenophobe or any one of the usual cheap insults this lot come up with when the idea of a debate is too exhausting to think about.

They won't get away with this forever, and if there are any really clever politicians out there among these three parties they will seek to harness the growing tide of opinion against membership of the EU, a tide of opinion which is growing despite all the propaganda of the BBC and most of the press. 

An evisceration at Villa Park.

ASTON VILLA 6-1 SUNDERLAND

Not so much down to earth with a bump as with an almighty crash. We were roundly thrashed last night, although we gave away three , you could say four of the goals that went in on a testing night. 

Relegation is a real possibility for both clubs and also for Newcastle and Wigan. With us now losing Sessegnon probably for the rest of the season after a red card offence, (a bit harsh in my opinion), I'm afraid we are now really looking for others to fail to help us out, particularly Wigan.. 

But despite injuries and suspensions, we have two home games coming up against teams not a lot better than us, Stoke and Southampton. I would have settled for this prospect a few weeks ago when the next win just wasn't in sight. It just seems a bit more duanting right now.

Hopefully the lads can put last night's horror show behind them and find a way to get some points out of these next two games. 

Can we keep this run up?

Sunderland go to Aston Villa on Monday night.

Villa are having a hard enough time of it along with us, and are a club that some think should be nowhere near the drop zone. But we are both there, and I'd take a point now happily as I think their pace could really unsettle us.

We have four games left including tomorrow and one more win will do it I think. If we can avoid defeat at Villa we might be nearly there.

Come on lads. How about another surprise!