Corby By-Election

So, Louise Mensch is standing down as MP for Corby and clearing off to live in New York. Can't say I blame her really as she was likely to lose the seat next time around anyway. It's a marginal constituency and with the Coalition going from bad to worse to even worse even a Labour Party led by Ed Moribund is pretty sure to retake the seat.

This is a great opportunity for smaller parties to make some headway, but I can't see where there is one at the moment that can be taken seriously. Let's be straight, the Green Party managed to take Brighton in 2010 but Brighton probably has a higher percentage of weirdoes and oddballs per head of population than anywhere in the country. The rest of us aren't clear which planet they're on that they wish to save.

The BNP are a spent force and the long running sitcom that is UKIP just keeps trundling along seemingly content to have a few MEPs on the Brussels gravy train but doing little serious work in the UK. Let's face it any number of MEPs representing the UK is not going to get us out of the EU and Party Leader Nigel Farage recently declared British elections to be a waste of time. On the basis that I always checked my watch was still on my wrist when I was unfortunate enough to have to shake Farage by the hand, his statement means that UK elections are actually worth fighting, but they're happy taking the EU dosh and making a serious impact in the UK could threaten that.

The Lib Dems are likely to lose their deposit having been proved to be completely without principle or integrity since the last election, something many of us in politics have known for years but it has taken the full glare of Coalition limelight to show the average voter how bad they really are. I wouldn't have thought there would be a queue of high profile candidates wanting to be humiliated by being the Lib Dem candidate although Brian Paddick, rivalled only by Nigel Farage in the galloping ego stakes, may fancy the spotlight, after all, they are both shameless self-publicists.

So if it's worth the trouble a flutter on a Labour victory in Corby is what I'd recommend, I doubt there'll be any sort of upset.

George Galloway MP for Bradford West

Yes folks, that's right, Galloway won the Bradford West by-election yesterday. A hate filled, anti-western, political grandstander is back in the House of Commons. In case you've forgotten about him here's a reminder:

Voting Idiots

Don't assume that the great British public will do the right thing come a general election. In a council by-election in Salford, in Hazel Blears' constituency, Labour has just been re-elected.

It really is quite frightening.

Labour Win

I'm Scared!

Perhaps I'm in some weird kind of temporary parallel universe, but here is an article by Pater Tatchell on the Green Party website. What worries me is that I agree with so much of it.

There are parts with which I diasagree, such as opposing the abolition of the Human Rights Act, but overall, if I compare the Green position and that of David Davis, I would seriously have to think if I were a voter in Haltemprice and Howden, about desserting Mr Davis.

Davis called the by-election for the sole reason of using it as a referendum on the erosion of our freedoms and liberties. On reading the Green Party position I would have to say, in the rarified atmosphere of this bizarre by-election, I would quite probably vote Green on Thursday given the chance.

However, when you start to think about Peter Tatchell as a libertarian you don't have to dig deep to find that he is yet another 'when it suits me' libertarian. So just to balance the argument here is an article from the Liberarian Alliance website questioning Tatchell's libertarianism.

I do feel a bit better for that but would probably still vote Green on Thursday in Haltemprice and Howden, even if only to piss off lots of Yorkshiremen!

A Serious Question

Can anybody tell me what David Davis hopes to gain by resigning and precipitating this by-election? I absolutely agree with his position and would go further, I would like the detention limit returned to 14 days, and even that might be too long. But I am unable to fathom, and nobody else I have spoken be they left, right or centre have been able to, exactly what he hopes to gain by his resignation. Surely he would have more impact remaining on the opposition front bench then, quite probably, becoming the first Tory Home Secretary since 1997 in the next couple of years.

None of the serious parties are fighting this by-election and he really should have realised, in his contemplations before making the decision, that New Labour would simply side-step the fight thus denying him his main opponent. So he is left with fighting a fruit and veg man who supports the 42 day limit, making him his 'serious opponent', Miss Great Britain, adding glamour but nothing serious to the battle, and an anti-smoking ban campaigner also fighting against state suppression of freedom and liberty. What a strange by-election it will be.