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Friday 4 February 2022

Not so secret ballot



Southend West by-election: Anna Firth wins seat for Tories

The Conservatives have retained the seat of Southend West in a parliamentary by-election prompted by the fatal stabbing of MP Sir David Amess.

Anna Firth won with 12,792 votes in a contest that saw a low turnout of 24%...

The PA Media news agency said it had seen a number of the spoilt ballot papers containing messages directed against Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

One featured the comment "Boris do a Brexit - get out", while another member of the electorate scrawled "Get Boris out".

5 comments:

Sam Vega said...

What's British English for "Let's go, Brandon!"?

DiscoveredJoys said...

Despite the trumpeting about spoilt papers 'containing messages directed against Prime Minister Boris Johnson' you could also have published a different article trumpeting that 86.10% of the electorate voted Conservative.

While I appreciate that the other main political parties did not field a candidate it suggests that the 'Downing Street parties during lockdown' have not cut through with the natural supporters, only extended false hope to those who hate Boris Johnson anyway.

A K Haart said...

Sam - I think it's so well known that it's over here too.

DJ - it feels like an establishment anti-Boris move to me. As if he has become a threat to something they value. Could be a number of things including a move to roll back Brexit, but it does feel artificial.

dearieme said...

@AKH: one of the columnists in the Mail pointed out that the party photos were leaked only after Boris decided against more lockdowns. While he was pro-lockdown the photos remained a secret. An interesting point, I thought.

Maybe adding the weight of Covid Bedwetters to Brexit Quislings has been enough to get him into trouble.

I'd like to see the back of him anyway because of his fondness for Ecofascism. But will any replacement be any better?

A K Haart said...

dearieme - it is an interesting point. I don't like his fondness for Ecofascism either but a more sceptical replacement would probably attract even more attacks. Almost as if he's green because he thinks he can only fight so many battles and fend off so much subversion.