mostly david ephgrave

I suspect the man wearing a purple and yellow-striped tie on the platform of Hitchin Station the other day voted for UKIP. If he didn’t, he clearly hadn’t considered the colour scheme. Either that, or he’d bought it before the party came into existence (or chose their branding) and wasn’t prepared to send his neckwear out to pasture. That’s fair enough; why retire a tie-able tie? (…easy for me to say.) Even bearing this in mind, it’s still a brave choice. I’d made this political association within seconds, and all I did was write a short blog about it. Other commuters may have not have been so kind. Maybe he was off on a UK Independence Party day trip to Clacton. I hope he didn’t buy a return ticket. I see UKIP as a bunch of leery, casually racist uncles with funding – and a worrying propensity for mustard-coloured trousers.

How often will UKIP dismiss a comment as "not reflecting the view of the party" before they've run out of members who could have a different view? The latest blunder is Enfield UKIP candidate William Henwood’s ignorant and thinly-veiled racist tweet about Lenny Henry. Prior to that, we had Oxfordshire councilor David Silvester blaming the recent flooding in the UK on the Government’s decision to legalise gay marriage. Then there was Geoffrey Bloom’s awful comments on "Bongo-Bongo Land" and the apparent inferiority of women in the workplace. The list keeps growing. Thankfully, UKIP saw sense and had both Bloom and Silvester suspended. Unfortunately, not from a great height. UKIP's mistakes have become frequent enough for future generations of the party to be born with their head in their hands. Give a UKIP member enough rope and they’ll hang themselves, provided the rope was sourced in Britain and didn’t come into con...

The other day when she was on her way home from work, my girlfriend spotted this: It’s quite appropriate really, as that’s probably the best place in which to cast your UKIP vote. I’m surprised that the owner wasn’t struck by the irony of scrawling ‘VOTE UKIP’ on the side of their dustbin; I can think of more appropriate places to declare political affiliations. I know all publicity is supposed to be good publicity – but it’s probably best to not concentrate your campaign on an object most associated with rubbish. Maybe it was meant as a metaphor for the state the UK will be in if we remain a part of Europe? If so, that's not the way it comes across. At least they chose the bin that matches the party's favoured colour scheme the most. If nothing else, it's good to have a place to file your UKIP propaganda.