Tories have their work cut out for them

According to the opposition Tory leader in Cannock Chase, Paul Snape, he and MP Aidan Burley have not spoken since February 3.

This was two days before he announced he would not be contesting the seat again in 2015, following a series of highly critical national newspaper stories about his involvement in a stag party where he got the groom to wear a Nazi uniform.

Mr Burley denies the suggestion that they have had no contact and says he remains in regular contact with Tories.

Things got very awkward for the Tories after the elections.

It started with Mr Burley and his fiancee, Rawnsley councillor Jodie Jones, being noticeably absent from the election count.

Then, as UKIP made enough gains to get level pegging with the Conservatives, leader Paul Snape began to contemplate horse trading over who should be the official opposition.

Miss Jones made the decision for him, resigning from the group to serve as an independent and plunging the Tories into third place.

Councillor Snape, meanwhile, is now preparing his group to choose a new Parliamentary candidate to replace Mr Burley.

With all not well between the Tories, the candidate who wins that selection will have one of the least enviable tasks in politics.

Firstly, they have to try to hold on to the seat that produced the biggest swing to the Tories in 2010. That will be no easy job given how Labour have not only made gains on the council but also made a huge deal of the whole unfortunate Nazi business.

Secondly, he or she will have to be able to liaise with Aidan Burley.

If he's not talking to his group's local leader, but he's still operating under the banner of the Conservatives, that opens up the potential for a lot of mixed messages to the electorate.

Thirdly, he or she will have to be nice about Aidan Burley in the face of what will be inevitable criticism and ridicule about said stag do.

Already some ridiculous reports have come out speculating the new Tory will be someone in the public eye - Apprentice star Karren Brady, the cricketer Darren Gough and even the Squire of Knotty Ash himself, Ken Dodd.

Whoever it is will have to put up with the inevitable disappointment that they are not a celebrity and the problem of representing a party which is now in third place on the council behind UKIP.

For the Tories in Cannock Chase, this election is going to be as gruelling as sitting through to the end of one of Ken Dodd's shows.

Bill Etheridge has had a good week. Having spent years trying to get elected, including a fourth place position in the Police and Crime Commissioner vote, he's now not only a UKIP councillor in Dudley but one of three of its West Midlands MEPs.

He's adamant that he'll do both jobs. But Labour councillor Pete Lowe thinks it isn't possible. He asks: "How can he do pot holes from Strasbourg?"

Maybe he'll have time to do council business while on the monthly trip all MEPs have to make between Brussels and Strasbourg to satisfy the absurd and costly wish of the Eurocrats to have the Parliament sit in two countries.

UKIP's election victory won't make a scrap of difference to whether we are in or out of the EU.

But at least now, with seats on local councils, they can finally be put to the test where we can see if they can achieve anything more than a protest against the so-called mainstream.