Now is not the time to refuse

With the main parties refusing to stand candidates in Clacton and Nigel Farage's main rival is refuse container who is never seen there.  I sould suspect he clicked the refuse publicity box if he wasn't on all the media rounds elsewhere including Newsnight wheere he said he would not do any door to door campainging as it is too hot.  Kemi Badenoch has written to everyone in Claton to explain why she's not fielding a candiate.  

Maybe she's trying to find someone less right wing than Joshua Bonehill-Paine ...a has-been neonazi most famous for writing the Daily Bale.... 

Of course one reason the main parties don't want to campaign is the cost.  The short campaing limit is ~£20.000 (see here).  Paying this twice over when another by-election is called might seem a duplication of costs.  

However, allowing Nigel to run virtually unopposed also allows him to flood the constituence with self publicitiy twice over.  He can effectively spend £40.000 and remain within the rules.  It seems like Nigel's strategy is to wear the main parties down financally.

Of course finding £20000 is no mean feat even for Nigel which is why he's in such a pickle at the moment trying to explain where his funding comes from and why it appears not to be declared.  However, it does seem to me that not fighting displays an element of cowardice.  Firstly the message it sends to the people of Clacton is they're not worth the money and despair and a seeming lack of inward investment are exactly the kind of thing Nigel and Reform feed off.  

The Conservative Party was created by Robert Peel rebranding the Tories and the Liberal Democrats were a rebrad of the Liberals after they merged with the SDP ...who were previously the Whigs and Peelites but uniquely the Labour Party which was the brainchild of Trade Unionist Thomas R. Steels and first Leader Keir Hardy and was specifically and explicitly set up almost entirely for the purpose of standing Parliamentary Candidates.  So if it isn't stnading candidates in a by-election that does raise an extential question - what is the party for?

Count Binface claimed the by-election will cost approximately £200,000 - although there are 34 mainly no hoper candidates inlcuding three self-declared loonies so I expect the council will get £15,000 back in lost deposits.  That will pay for some refuse collections... 

All political careers end in failure: for dust thou art, and unto dustcart shalt thou return.