The EU elections were a complete disaster for Labour. Their vote share fell by 7% and they have lost 5 MEPs – and UKIP beat them into third place overall, both on share of the popular vote and on number of MEPs elected.

The Lib Dems didn’t do well either, with their vote share dropping by 1.1% – even though through the quirks of the electoral system they gained an MEP.

The only main party to increase its share of the vote and its MEP representation is the Conservative party, who got a 1.2% vote share increase and one extra MEP. They also came top in all but one English region, and came top in Wales.

The biggest vote share increase for a single party, however, went to the Greens, who gained an extra 2.5% – but no extra MEPs. But the party which gained the most MEPs was the BNP, who won their first two seats in the European Parliament, and their first ever representation on a national vote, despite only a 1.4% increase in their vote. Maybe PR isn’t all good, hmmm?

***

And why does it take so long for us to get the EU elevtion results? We voted on Thursday, so why are results still not completed on Monday morning? Why did we have to wait until late Sunday to know how we voted? I can understand not publishing EU results until the other EU countries have voted themselves (even though I’m sure it would make absolutely no difference – EU votes are really cast on national, not European, issues) why cannot we count the votes earlier?

It takes hours for the count to be completed, why cannot we simply start early enough so that results should not pretty much ready to publish by the time polls across the EU close?