EACH WEEKDAY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you a comprehensive guide to what’s happening in the political world.

Everyone’s talking about…

UKIP’s big breakthrough in Westminster.

The anti-EU party’s resounding by-election victory is likely to rattle David Cameron’s Conservative-led government, seven months from a general election.

Douglas Carswell, who defected to UKIP from Cameron’s party in August, was elected with 60 percent of the vote in Clacton-on-Sea, in a development that could signal a sea change in British politics.

The eurosceptic party also came within 617 votes of unseating the Labour party in its northern English stronghold of Heywood and Middleton in a second by-election yesterday, piling more pressure on Labour leader Ed Miliband.

PA Wire / Press Association Images ... Douglas Carswell and Nigel Farage PA Wire / Press Association Images ... Douglas Carswell and Nigel Farage / Press Association Images ... Douglas Carswell and Nigel Farage

The agenda… 

• Polling is under way in the two Dáil by-elections, in Dublin South West and Roscommon-South Leitrim. 
• Meanwhile polling closes in the controversial Seanad vote. Will John McNulty win the seat? We’ll know by lunchtime. 
• The Cabinet meets today to discuss the Budget (and the international Ebola crisis).

John McNulty.

What the others are saying…

• An extra ten cents on the pint? That’s what’s on the way in next Tuesday’s Budget, according to the front page of today’s Sun. 
• Voters would prefer tax cuts to improvements in public services, according to poll findings published in The Irish Times this morning. 
• And John McNulty has agreed to step down from the Seanad if he wins today’s by-election vote, according to the Herald. 

In case you missed it… 

• Did you hear what Joan Burton had to say about water protesters? She’s wondering why they’re so intent on filming “every single second” of their actions. 

• There were more hints about about a lowering of the top tax rate from Enda Kenny in a speech last night. 
• And, should Lotto winnings be taxed to pay for more teachers? That’s what one Independent TD is proposing. 

On the Twitter machine… 

The Donald, folks.

[Includes reporting from AFP]

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