The recent 2013 local elections have given UKIP some local council seats and have made David Cameron's life harder. Full results are here, and analysis from the BBC's Nick Robinson is here.
Arguably UKIP's success has underlined the fact that the UK is now a 4-party system, rather than the two or three-party system of recently.
Good arguments to make when contemplating whether the UK should reform its democratic system or not.
Also - a good time to reflect that UKIP started life as a pressure group.
A recent example of a pressure group is Migration Watch which campaigns for greater control of immigration. At the end of April it reacted to news that up to 35000 Bulgarians may enter the UK when border restrictions are lifted at the end of this year. Migration Watch says the actual number may be double that. Their web-site has a press release, published yesterday, which says that 100,000 dependants of EU nationals entered the UK getting full access to UK benefits. The press release can be found here.
Immigration is a complex issue, but certainly contributed to the rise of UKIP's vote in the 2013 local council elections.
Another news story that caught my eye this morning was this news that a privately-run prison in London (Thameside Jail) has terrible conditions. The campaign group the Howard League for Penal Reform (i.e. prison reform) responded to this news here on their web-site, and took the opportunity to criticise government policy, especially the recent call for prisoners to do more productive activities while in jail in return for privileges like television.
Press releases like this add to a story, help journalists to put the news into context and help to put pressure on a government to react. The question is how much impact these individual actions have. Probably not much by themselves, but they help the democratic process by increasing pluralism.
[Picture Credits - Nigel Farage (top), HMP Thamesside (bottom)]
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