UKIP were the success story in July, stealing votes and the show in local and European election contests.

It seemed like bad news all round, Labour lost over 400 seats in the local elections. The Tories scored 38 per cent in the council poll, a figure which if echoed in the general election would not return them to power. The Lib Dems were a happy second in the locals but had their spirits dampened by finishing fourth in the Euro elections.

Kilroy-Silk

But one party emerged as winners, the protest party, UKIP. Publicised by recently sacked chat show host and former Labour MP Robert Kilroy-Silk. UKIP’s message evidently resonated amongst parts of the electorate, the UK should pull out of Europe

Asked what he was going to do when he arrived in Brussels, Kilroy replied that he would "wreck it". The electorate was refreshed by his strange brand of clarity, and returned 12 UKIP MEPs.

EU constitution

The next week, Tony Blair signed the European Constitution. He expected some good reviews. He didn’t get many.

Most of the press disagreed with Blair’s claim that the move “didn’t alter the fundamental constitutional relationship."
They also demonstrated that the legal framework covering existing European competencies had radically changed. Constitutionally, the Daily Telegraph argued, the previous treaties and the new constitution were "chalk and cheese."

Robert Kilroy-Silk compared Blair’s action to Neville Chamberlain and his appeasement of Hitler. "There's Tony waving a piece of paper saying 'It's OK, I've only given a little bit away of our sovereignty' when in fact this is the beginning of the end of Britain as a nation state governing itself," he warned.

Shadow foreign secretary Michael Ancram accused the prime minister of "ignoring" the British people.

Referendum

Michael Howard dared the government to hold the referendum on the constitution But Blair refused, pledging to fight his pro-European corner on the basis of separating "myth and reality", promising to expose anti-European " scare stories".

He accepted that he had a "tough battle" ahead, quite rightly. Michael Heseltine and Ken Clarke, the pro-Euro Tory heavyweights, have given up on the PM and backbench rebels are joining "Labour Against the Superstate".

But Michael Howard didn’t emerge unscathed. Between Labour’s referendum pledge and UKIP’s determination to pull out of Europe altogether, the Tories were left drifting.

Backbenchers came forward with proposals but were quickly slapped down by their leader. "Frankly nobody is interested in hearing your views," he told backbenchers, vowing to maintain his well-known line on Europe. "We need self-discipline, not self-indulgence", he warned them.

Towards the end of the month, both parties tried to outdo each other with successive policy announcements. Blair was trying to make sure his party gave the impression that "we are controlling events, not events controlling us", and Howard promised a £49bn a year on public services by 2010.

Also this month, Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States, died; Gordon Brown became the longest serving chancellor since Lloyd George; the Home Office went to war with the Humberside Police Authority over the suspension of their chief constable; John Swinney resigned as leader of the SNP, and the Labour Party called two snap by-elections for July.