26/05/2014 Midlands Today

to change? Will they? Can they? Thank you. That is all from us for

Good evening. this evening. It

UKIP has emerged as the biggest party in the European elections,

gaining three of the seven seats contested in the West Midlands.

The Conservatives lost one seat, ending with two.

Labour gained a seat and now have two MEPs in the region.

But it was a miserable night for the Liberal Democrats,

As the piles of ballot papers rose, so too did the confidence

Very happy. Ecstatic. Confident? Very confident.

But for others it was a painful night at Birmingham's

I am not feeling confident but we fought a very hard campaign.

The Liberal Democrats left empty`handed as UKIP won three

seats, coming top in 20 of the West Midland's 30 local authorities.

We will not be swayed by money, political posturing, faceless

committees and quangos. Our only desire is to be made redundant by

She was heckled loudly by both Conservatives and Labour activists

We are happy to double the number of our MEPs in the West Midlands. It is

a good result. Of course we wanted to be first. An interesting figure

is if you look at the British National Party last time, they lost

100,000 votes. Those 100,000 went to UKIP. That saddens me greatly.

Two former UKIP MEPs who stood on their own independent anti`EU

Is your political career over or are you planning on coming around? It is

too early to say. I am 46 years old and in the second half of my life is

half as eventful as the first, have got a lot to!

More than four million people are eligible to vote in the

The political and media obsession with Europe isn't one that's shared,

But nothing dampened the celebrations, with UKIP describing

their victory as a turning point in British political history.

Cath Mackie, BBC Midlands Today, Birmingham.

I'm joined now by our political editor, Patrick Burns.

It could be. We will only know in a year's time, after the general

election. Five years ago, UKIP polled well enough to gain two seats

in the West Midlands in the European Parliament. One year later, in the

general election, the sheer shrank back to 4%. This time, it is

different. It is three seats and that makes them the undisputed

winners in the West Midlands. I was talking to a senior politician the

other day and he said he had been talking to people on the doorstep

and many of them say that they were pro`European and yet still on the

board UKIP because they are sick and tired of machine politics. Moving

away from UKIP and we have to say the other main parties, what will

they take away from last night? Labour gained a seat at the polled

strongly in the population centres. The Conservatives were not as far

behind the labour 's share of the vote as some observers have

suggested that both of the biggest parties will take something out of

these as the build`up to the general election. For the Liberal

Democrats, there is no disguising how serious the situation is, which

is why the Liberal Democrat MP for Yardley is taking soundings among

his activists about what the future support for Nick Clegg. At the local

level, news for a challenge in Birmingham City Council? Labour

Party rules allow challenge every year but he has lived for 15 years.

Two leading experience councillors think that is quite long enough.

They are challenging for a leadership and deputy leadership,

respectively, because they say that there are such big challenges that

you need fresh leadership. The owners of Birmingham City

Football club suspended An announcement was made by the

Hong Kong stock exchange. The Championship club has been

in talks with a number The suspension

of trading means confirmation Thousands of Burton Albion fans are

travelling back from Wembley The Brewers were beaten 1`0

by Fleetwood Town in the League Two Burton had

their chances didn't they? They certainly did. Winning

promotion through the play`offs is the best. It is like winning a cup

final and you get to go to a higher division. The flip side is what

Burton says this evening. The whole season boils down to one match and

it can be defined by one mistake. With 15 minutes to go, that is what

happened. The goalkeeper misjudged a free kick and that was the only goal

of the game. Burton did not respond. The goalkeeper was very upset at the

time but the manager defended him afterwards, saying he is the on and

has played well until man and that is football. It looks pretty wet and

miserable. Anything positive for plans to takeaway? You would be

surprised. He was miserable that it was miserable for the match and the

fans looked downbeat about the mood was upbeat. They said that they were

a small club and there was always next season.

But it was a shame we didn't get the win today.

It is just a silly goal but there you go.

They have been a great team, played well this season.

They played well and let's see what they do next year.

So the message is let's not be downbeat. Let's get promoted next

season and make sure we do it automatically so we do not need the

play`offs. Absolutely.

Birmingham City Council has signed a multimillion pound deal

to increase outdoor activities in the city's parks.

The new investment will help extend the Active Parks scheme

And not just fun but part of a multimillion pound scheme to

get more of us to get fit by using parks.

Coca Cola has chosen Birmingham as one of three cities in

We could all do with moving about more and having a bit more activity

in our lives. It is all about making it fun, more accessible. All of

these activities are free. Local also. It is literally right on the

It follows on from Birmingham's Active Parks scheme,

which began last year, from rowing at Edgbaston Reservoir or immaculate

and maintained paths for running in Handsworth Park, the new investment

Funding is very tight. We are having to look at different ways of working

in partnership and different ways of drawing money in and getting

The initiative will take in 50 parks in the city.

It is hoped the events planned will appeal to all ages and

New research shows that just a third of people in Birmingham get involved

in activities outside. 40% of the West Midlands is made up of green

and open spaces. I think it is a good thing they get some more money

for a park so that local people can enjoy it. If we get more plays for

playing football and playing with balls or cricket, that is good. It

is hoped that the event will appeal to all ages.

Thousands of people turned out in Gloucestershire today

for the annual cheese rolling competition.

This year, real cheese was back on the menu ` after it was banned last

Instead of a plastic substitute, the fearless runners from all over

the world chased some Dutch Gouda down the famous Coopers Hill.

The winner of the race does not like cheese. You could not make it up!

The band of rain stalls but nevertheless it is not going to get

any better as we head into tomorrow. It is a cold day with plenty of

cloud and unfortunately we have some rain. That is slowly working at the

way up from the side. It will clear away for a time tonight. Behind

that, we have more are waiting in the wings. That cloud and rain will

help to keep our temperatures relatively high. Quite a mild night.

We start tomorrow with the stream. There will be some heavy pulsars,

particularly in the North Midlands. That really sticks with us

throughout the day. Underneath that, winds are picking up and it will

feel rather chilly. Where we get some value spells we might do a

little better. That rain continues right through the night into

Wednesday morning. It is looking rather unsettled for the next few

days. As we head into the end of the week.

I'll be back with your next news at 10:30.

Good evening. If I were to conduct a straw poll about the weather events

today, I suspect we would get a split decision. There were

significant differences around, we have sunshine and some warmth, but

also this cloud and rain coming up through the Channel into the north

of England. On top of that, some showers in the north-west, some of

them thundery from Northern Ireland and Scotland, so a real eclectic

mix. This will drift away over the next few hours, we will keep the

cloud overnight, and we will see more significant rain pushing in off

the north sea. There is