By John Pickard
Visiting Clacton, twelve days before the by-election, it would be hard to imagine that there was an election at all. Granted, this was in only one part of the town, in the small market square just before you get to the Clacton Pier. It was a thoroughfare for dozens of parents with kids taking their buckets and spades to the beach. But still…no noise, no political hubbub, no posters.
There were, however, two groups giving out leaflets against Nigel Farage, ‘Stand up to Racism’ and ‘Unity in the Community’ neither of which received anything like the expected hostility you might have imagined. The latter organisation is a local group that has been campaigning for a long time, and their leaflet is worth quoting, because is shows what a complete con-man Nigel Farage is.
Their leaflet lists Farage’s record in numbers:
- 0 constituency surgeries in two years as MP
- 77 consecutive votes missed in Parliament
- £2m in outside earnings while MP
- £5m gift from crypto-billiionaire Christopher Harborne not explained
- £2m in expenses claimed from taxpayer while an MEP
- 1 meeting in 42 attended while MEP for British Fisheries
On the odd occasions when Farage isn’t out making money for himself and he deigns to go to Westminster, he doesn’t support ordinary working people. As the leaflet explains, he voted to continue zero hours contracts and against improving sick pay and parental leave. His past record shows that he is in famour of privatising the NHS and having a US-style private insurance system for health.
Farage has shown little interest in local issues and seems to have visited the USA more often than he has been to Clacton. Unity in the Community point out that he has not attended a single meeting of the Clacton Town Board, a body that overseas a £20m regeneration budget for the town.
One in five to vote Binface
In the absence of all of the main opposition parties, the latest polls show that the main joke candidate, Count Binface, will get around 20% of the vote, compared to Farage’s 73%.
But that will be on a very low turnout. “Along all the main roads in the more affuent areas of Clacton, nearly every front garden had a Reform signpost in 2024”, one Unity in the Community activist said, “…Now, you’d be hard-pressed to find any…”
If one in every five voters are prepared to vote for someone who is not serious at all about their politics, it is an indication that the sleaze around Niger Farage’s millions and the dubious financial backers of Reform are beginning to get through to voters. A bin, paradoxically, is seen as cleaner than Farage.
It is more likely that many thousands who voted in 2024, will just not bother to turn out at all. So the snake-oil salesman will win, but on a lower turnout, and with an absolute majority lower than two years ago. Against a bin.
Strictly speaking, Farage is not just up against a bin, but an array of bins. This by-election is a British record for the total number of candidates, at 34. The ballot paper, nearly three foot long, is proving to be a logistical nightmare for the staff trying to arrange postal ballots (giant envelopes?) and even ballot boxes (post-box sized?).
Three of these no-hopers turned up in the market place on Saturday, but there wasn’t a leaflet, a megophone or a placard between them. One of the three had been a Labour member until she decided to stand. As well as some loony right-wingers, there are at least three other ‘joke’ candidates, all standing for the ‘Monster Raving Loony Party’. Perhap if there was a Jokers’ United Front, Binface might get 25%.
