Well I promised a political earthquake in the UK and I believe I have delivered just that. Ukip won 24 seats, narrowly missing another two because of blatant electoral fraud. We beat the Labour party into second place and the Tories into third. To go from 13 Ukip MEPs to 24 is, I think, quite an achievement, but we shall not be resting on our laurels at all. It will be quickly back to work again.
In the last week, members of the Italian Five Star Movement voted to enter into a new political group with us. I look forward to working with the Five Star Movement very much in providing a genuine voice of opposition in the European parliament. Their decision gives a great confidence boost to those other delegation members who are coming to sign up to our common group this week. This feeds into a process of solidifying what should be a big group. Nothing is finalised yet, but on past experience, I am hopeful of success. Whatever happens, we will be the peoples' voice in the European parliament. We will be the dream team for democracy. Expect us to fight the good fight to take back control of our countries' destinies. This is exactly what the Brussels machine did not want - for Beppe Grillo's people and Ukip to get together.
"Eurosceptic parties around Europe have certainly done very well and have come back in much greater numbers"
Other groups, currently crowing loudly will not have it so smooth. Take the ECR group, for instance, which has got too big, too quick and no doubt will soon bear the consequences for creating such a politically disparate entity. I suspect it is only a matter of time before some of their new members spin off somewhere else. New member, the Danish Peoples' Party is Eurosceptic and has campaigned against the accession of Turkey, as well as the spread of Islamic culture in Europe. Yet Sajjad Karim, the ECR nomination for president of the European parliament is a former LibDem, a current member of the 'Friends of Turkey' grouping who recently called Eurosceptics 'The Taliban'. And of course the AECR Party now has the Islamic AK Party of Turkey as a member. With the Danes on board, this is not a marriage made in heaven.
The ECR recently said that it will be the anti-Russian, pro TTIP group, yet their new members, AfD from Germany want to build up good relations with Russia and are opposed to TTIP. The German Eurosceptics have entered the ECR, but almost half the group opposed their entry - not a good start in my humble opinion. And how does the Polish delegation of ECR feel about all this? We shall have to wait and see, but I think we can safely say there will be trouble ahead. And as UK Tory and Labour foreign policy involves expanding the EU as far to the east as possible, that trouble will not be confined to the chamber of the European parliament. That expansionist EU policy, so beloved of federalist fanatic Herman Van Rompuy, is already helping cause violence and loss of life in eastern Ukraine.
"Whoever is appointed to the post, the commission president will be facing a very different terrain within the European parliament and a much more Eurosceptic population across the continent"
Eurosceptic parties around Europe have certainly done very well and have come back in much greater numbers. I hope this means we will be able to exert more political pressure for change in parliament, but I think it depends on Eurosceptics from across the political spectrum - from Left, Right and Libertarian voting in the same way.
Seeing the waste of time and money the European parliament spent on promoting candidates for the post of commission president, I thought it was all a bit rash. Things are still up in the air at this point, but the process did illustrate the lack of voter engagement and interest in the EU as a whole. So I suppose that was good.
The European council may still nominate its own candidate, as it is entitled to do under the Lisbon treaty. But whoever is appointed to the post, the commission president will be facing a very different terrain within the European parliament and a much more Eurosceptic population across the continent. Only time will tell, if they choose to change course or continue to plough on regardless with their former failed policies. What is the commission going to do this time? I suspect it will fail again, fail better, fail bigger.