When you look at the results from this week it’s clear that with or without postal voting, UKIP would have come second in Oldham West and Royton. But the margin would, without a doubt, have been much slimmer. What we as a party need to look at now are both what messages worked with the electorate in Oldham West, and how we communicated with them. But also where Labour has a monopoly amongst postal voters, and what UKIP needs to do to right that imbalance. For years we haven’t played the postal vote game. We don’t believe in it. We simply don’t like the idea of sending our activists onto the doorsteps and act in desperate or intimidatory ways in order to get elected. It’s just not who we are. We believe in fair play. And for those who think we’re blaming the pitch, we’re not. We’re trying to learn the lessons that have been pointed out not just by UKIP supporters, but by electoral experts, and judges — about how our postal voting system is broken. That’s not to say we believe, or are alleging any impropriety on Labour’s part. In fact what they do in most cases in