Tendring Topics…….on line
The Scottish Referendum
When
I switched on the tv to hear the news last Friday (19th September) I
was just a little disappointed, but not really surprised, to learn that the No votes
had outnumbered the Yes ones in the Scottish referendum that had taken place the
previous day. Faced with a decision in
these precarious days we all tend to think better
the devil we know than the devil we don’t.
The not-quite-decided voter
in the voting booth is likely to think; Times
are hard but my family and I are managing to survive under the present regime.
Who knows whether we would under a different one?’ He or she would be likely to go on to
reflect that the old regime was now offering many of the same benefits as those
that the new regime was promising. It is
hardly surprising that several thousand of them, who possibly had thought
seriously of voting Yes, changed their minds and voted No!
There
will be bitter disappointment today among those who had fought so hard, so
long, and so hopefully for Scottish independence. As I pointed out last week, the result of losing
that referendum is unlikely to be as awful as they probably fear. Some of those who
fought hard for rejection of Scottish Independence are already finding that
victory has brought its problems. How is
the UK Government to fulfil those promises of greater autonomy for the Scots –
and answer a demand for similar autonomy for the English?
I
don’t know. Why is it, I wonder, that
nationalism seems to come in an uglier form in England
than in Scotland ? Our fervent nationalists seem to be full of
hate for ‘the others’. I don’t believe
that the Scots were, or are, like that.
This morning on tv a black couple, who had lived in Scotland for many years, spoke of their love for
Scotland
and their sadness – but not bitterness – at the NO campaign's triumph. I can’t imagine any black couple
in England
having any feelings for the BNP and the English Defence League other than dislike and fear.
I
believe that the best course of action for the present Government would be to
practise some of the ‘localism’ that they continually preach. They should
restore to local authorities, whose election is every bit as democratic as that
of the House of Commons, some of the
powers and authority (to run schools and colleges, to build homes for letting
at reasonable rents and to let them to those in need, and to be adequately
funded to provide local services) that they enjoyed in the 1930s, but of which
they have been systematically robbed by governments of both main parties since
the end o World War II.
And, finally, I have to say that I shall miss Alex Salmond from the political scene. He was one
of the few politicians (perhaps indeed the only politician) to whom I could
listen on the radio or tv without feeling a compelling urge to reach for the
‘off switch’!
Eight Hopefuls
The
Scottish referendum may have made some of us forget that we in the
Clacton-on-Sea area of North-East Essex have
our own by-election on 9th October, less than three weeks away. There are no less than eight candidates from
which we are invited to choose our parliamentary representative – for seven
months only. A general election is to
be held in May 2015 in which we will choose our MP for the next five
years. By deciding to defect from the
Conservative Party to Ukip, and to resign his membership of the House of
Commons, now – rather than postpone that decision until the General Election -
our former MP has given us all the
hassle of a parliamentary by-election at an estimated cost of £100,000. Value for money?
We
now know that on 9th October there will be no less than eight
candidates hoping that we will vote for them, though there is little doubt that
for four – possibly five – of them it will be a pretty forlorn hope. In fact I think that the most they can hope
for is that they won’t lose their deposits! They
are, in alphabetical order:
Douglas Carswell, Ukip Andrew Graham Liberal-Democrat
Alan Howlin ‘Laud’ Hope, Monster
Raving Loony Party,
Charlotte Rose, Independent,
Bruce Sizer, Independent
Chris Southall, Green
Party, Giles Watling, Conservative
Tim Young, Labour
I
think it very probable that Alan Howlin ‘Laud’ Hope, Charlotte Rose, Bruce
Sizer, and Chris Southall will be heavily defeated and will probably lose their
deposits. I am sorry that the
representative of the Green Party is almost certainly doomed to disappointment
because that is the one national political party having a policy that I can endorse. I fear though
that in this constituency and in a first-past-the-post election their candidate
hasn’t a hope of being elected at present.
I know little about the Independent candidates except that, according to
the Clacton Gazette, Charlotte Rose
describes herself as a high class courtesan, and is endeavouring to give us all
‘sexual freedom’ and protect and improve the status of ‘sex workers’. I would hardly have thought that an area like
ours, sometimes unkindly described as ‘Costa
Geriatrica’ was very promising ground for such a campaign!
This
by-election surely highlights the deficiencies of the ‘deposit’ system. Until 2005, candidates for Parliamentary
elections had to pay a deposit of £150 which was refunded to those who secured
five percent or more of the total votes cast.
This was raised to £500 in 2005 with the intention of deterring
frivolous, time-and-money wasting candidates.
It is clear that this only deters frivolous candidates of limited
means. Those who can lose £500 and just
shrug their shoulders at the loss (and there are quite a few of those nowadays)
aren’t in the least deterred.
It
would surely be more effective to abolish the deposit altogether and require
that all candidates should be sponsored by say fifty registered electors of the
constituency in which the election is to be held. This would prevent truly frivolous candidatures while not deterring serious but not necessarily wealthy groups (supporters of
the Green Party for instance) from competing.
I
think it likely that in our forthcoming election in the Clacton
area, both independent candidates, the monster raving loony candidate, and
probably the Green candidate will lose their deposits, and the Lib. Dem.
candidate will be heavily defeated but will possibly not lose his. Serious contenders will be the Labour
Candidate Tim Young, our defecting MP Douglas Carswell now standing as a Ukip
candidate, and the newly selected Conservative candidate, Giles Watling.
Both
Giles Watling and Tim Young are local men (one of Tim’s uncles was a colleague
of mine in Clacton ’s Housing Department way
back in the early ‘70s). I think though that in a constituency that includes
Frinton-on-Sea and where Douglas Carswell, as a Conservative Candidate, was elected with
a majority of over 12,000, the real contest will be between Douglas Carswell
and Giles Watling. The candidate for whom I'd like to vote, Chris Southall the Green Party Candidate, really hasn’t a
chance. I’m sorry to say that, in this by-election a vote for him would be a vote wasted.
I
shall therefore vote for Giles Watling, not because I want him in the House of
Commons but because he offers the best chance of keeping Douglas Carswell from
becoming Ukip’s first British M.P.
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