Up until this weekend experts had doubted Ukip's ability to establish itself as more than a protest party, and believed that it would fade at the 2015 general election, as it had in 2010. But those experts are changing their tune. Tony Travers, of the London School of Economics, said: "I am normally cautious but I do think the tectonic plates are shifting. There is definitely a change going on. The share of the vote of the main two parties has been declining since the 1950s. But it is now even lower than it was at the height of the scandal over MPs expenses in 2009. You can half imagine David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg having to have a meeting to think what to do as Ukip is hurting them all."