BNP fails to put up anyone to defend its last remaining council seat
As the numbers get crunched and the trends analysed now that nominations for May’s local elections are closed, one piece of news is already very clear. And it’s really good news.
The far-right BNP has not even been able to put up a candidate to defend its last remaining council seat:
And… the BNP have lost its last councillor – no candidate up to defend the seat. https://t.co/00pOjcTNzQ
— Ben Walker (@spreadsheetben) April 7, 2018
The BNP may have risen from legal extinction, but the party’s decline continues.
On a related but different point. UKIP is not fielding a single candidate in the city most associated with Brexit in the the European referendum vote: Sunderland. How are the mighty fallen.
But why do they need to when UKIPTory has assumed the mantle?
As Farridge said of the Maybot, he could scarcely believe his luck that she had taken onboard pretty much his entire policy platform. This also reminds me of the comment almost spat at me outside the Wembley Arena prior to the BBC’s EU Referendum debate back in June16. Seeing that I was very clearly pro-Remain, I was surrounded by some very hostile Brextremists (I simply am not fazed by such behaviour – particularly when there were scores of the Met Police in the vicinity) and one Toryboy (I use the term advisedly) told me that “All it will take is ONE vote and then …we’ll simply take back the UKIP vote”.
I have taken to referring to UKIPTory on all occasions and in my election literature: call it for what it is!
That is good news.
Now perhaps we can use this election to take the evidence for the need for electoral reform.. We need to demonstrate how those seats where the winner gets less than 50% of the vote is not democratically elected, and show how STV may have produced a different result from the votes cast, or even if just a second preference vote had been available.
I have seen lots of anecdotal evidence of Liberal Democrat full slates …. have we a total? or does that come after 4pm tomorrow Monday?