Thirsk and Malton poll - general election finalisation

Thirsk and Malton (yes, back to the good old name) is a constituency that finds itself holding an election for a member of parliament at a peculiar time. Harold Wilson said a week in politics was a long time. The month of May 2010 will be a whole history lesson for these Yorkshire voters. Had John Boakes, the UKIP candidate, not died we would not be thinking too much of the result here. However, all has changed. We have a new government, a coalition. The voters know this. Who do they choose? If they vote Conservative, they get an MP supporting the government. But they do that if they vote LibDem. Will Anne McIntosh, the Conservative candidate, be nice to Howard Keal (not Howard Keel!), the Liberal Democrat candidate? And vice versa? How confrontational will they get? "I'm with Anne on this!" - "I'm with Howard on that!". Cosy, or what? New politics, that's for sure.

And what about the others? This could be an opportunity for LibDem supporters to vote differently. Should they vote for Labour, or abstain? It is a rare opportunity for the Liberal Party. What a gift! Of the four seats they contested, one of them is this one. Will they do well out of the new situation? By bet is that if the poll had been on May 6th, John Clark would have come flat bottom of the poll. Now he has media attention to promote the Liberals (old ones unreconstructed but slightly nuanced) and attract disgruntled LibDem activists. UKIP can muster all for a final bit of publicity. Nigel Farage strutting his stuff as a death-defying man of the people on walkabouts only. This could be a contest worth watching. And it's not a by-election, it's a postponed poll from the general election.

One thing caught my interest. The returning officer stated that only the UKIP candidate could be replaced. No other candidates could enter or be substituted. Have they changed the law? When a similar event happened last time in South Staffs a couple of new candidates popped up. It seems returning officers don't all sing from the same hymnsheets. If they did, then the voting chaos we witnessed on election night would have been dealt with on a consistent basis.