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UKIP, the party which Ken Clarke described as “clowns”, took 24% of the South Shields by-election and, of the council seats declared so far, have taken about 25% of the vote. Back in 1989, Mr Clarke dismissed the Green Party as “an overnight party” after the Greens won 15% in elections to the European Parliament.

Today’s Budget was interesting not so much for the measures it contained – which were never going to set the world on fire – but the picture it painted of what life could be like in the run up to the next General Election in 2015...

The Eastleigh by-election saw UKIP mature to become the new party of protest in British politics. That in itself will have an impact on all the three main political parties – but especially the Conservatives...

Although we’re only half way through this Parliament, it looks as if there is no end to the economic winter.

As the party conference caravan lumbers off over the horizon, each party leader can take some comfort from his party’s performance...

Prime Ministers hold reshuffles for a number of reasons: to signal a fresh start; to back...

The Deputy Prime Minister has certainly not made any new friends among the Parliamentary press lobby...

So ends the third of three rather flat party conferences. Once again, the delight of a party back in power was dampened by the economic situation it has inherited, and the annual Tory gathering was overshadowed by events offstage. George Osborne left Manchester for the real scene of the action – the meeting of European finance ministers in Luxembourg – and the Prime Minister rose to speak just hours after the latest growth figures were downgraded.

Party conferences are meant to give political parties a boost. Not so with Labour’s conference this week. Most pundits viewed the Conference as flat and Ed Miliband’s speech as even flatter...

If the Lib Dem conference is a mark of things to come, this is set to prove one of the most downbeat conference seasons in years...