Westcountryman

Elections are on the basis of the candidate. It's not like it's done on Party lists.

You vote for the man, not the Party. The fact that people place relevance on the latter is inconsequential, because that's not how the system works.

At the end of the day if the people of Castle Point don't like it, they vote him out come the next election.

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Porthemmet Beach

tito

If they voted for the party, then why did they elect someone who doesn't hold Tory policies?

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The Bear

And the candidate is chosen by the local party. He / she represents the party, they do not represent him.

That may well be not the way the system works in theory but it certainly is how the system works in practice.

That's the point. They shouldn't NEED to wait. He has decided to no longer be the Conservative MP that the locals decided that they wanted to represent their wish to be represented by a conservative in the House. They now find themselves represented by a man who is (presumably) supporting a very different manifesto.

That is wrong wrong wrong.

If Spink decided for whatever reasons that he no longer wanted to take the Conservative “pay and rations”, he should not only have left the party, he should have vacated the seat that the locals wanted filled BY a Conservative.

That would have been the honorable course of action to take.

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The Bear

They didn't.

They voted for a man who CLAIMED to support Conservative policies by virtue of the Conservative manifesto and so was standing on the Conservative "ticket".

This isn't an "I hate Bob Spink" thing, I actually rather like what I know about the man, It's about the rights and wrongs of "Crossing The Floor".

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mkpdavies

There is no honour in politics. Any situation will be spun.

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Mikeuk

Care to give us any instance of an MP switching party, resigning and restanding in a by-election (a huge waste of public funds)

The majority of electors who voted in Castle Point did not vote Conservative at all but they have Spink as their MP and he is obliged to serve the interests of all of them, which I have no doubt he does very well.

In this country we vote for indivduals, not party lists. It is merely a system by which a sensible choice is made when there is more than one candidate for a particular seat.

Spink, of course, was and remains a Conservative, just as I do. It is Cameron and his pack of shysters who have walked away from us not we from them.

The Bear

That is precisely what is wrong with our electoral system based on a simple majority as it presently is.

The selection of a candidate is done by the local party selection committee except where a candidate is parachuted in. That candidate is then supported by efforts and funds by the local party workers.

To think for a moment that Joe Public votes for the man and not the party is away with the faries stuff.

Bob Spink may (and probably does) agree with many Conservative party policies, as would most people with more brain cells than teeth, but he is now NOT a Conservative MP with the Conservative Whip and all that entails, he is now a UKIP MP with the UKIP Whip.

Consequently the people of Castle Point who WANTED a Conservative party MP who took the Conservative Party Whip and voted accordingly have been in effect disenfranchised until the next time the seat comes up for election.

If the people of Castle Point feel that the Conservative Party no longer represent their wants then come the next election a Conservative candidate will fail to get elected.

The REAL danger of course is that the Conservative vote will be split and a party that most people in Castle Point would agree they do NOT want be returned.

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Mikeuk

I agree. But until the facts on the ground are addressed by introducing some form of PR, that remains the case.

Precisely. The people who will be foaming at the mouth will not be the ordinary electors (who probably couldn't care less) but the few score rather unpleasant anoraks who make up what's left of the local Conservative Party.

It couldn't happen to a nicer bunch and believe me they will be extremely upset, whatever some Tory 'sources' are feeding to the papers.

They have an MP and they are no more 'disenfranchised' than those local people who did not vote for Spink but need the assistance of an MP.

When I lived in Portsmouth I was Vice-Chairman of the South Conservative Association. That didn't stop me seeking and receiving assistance from our excellent LibDem MP Michael Hancock. I was certainly not 'disenfranchised', and nor was any other elector.

My only concern for the people of Castle Point is that they have an MP to represent their interests in Parliament. They have that. Which party he represents is neither here nor there.

That is an entirely different matter, but why should anybody be concerned if as a result of the perceived 'split' the detestable Tory Party fail to hold the seat at a future election?

kernow

I don't think so! In my opinion by the end of the next 10 years, we'll either be, (a) completely and openly governed by Brussels with the people of this Island accepting that Westminster is the EU administration point for the running of the Country, or (b) The EU will have either imploded or Britain will have withdrawn from the EU. In either case the old cycle of Tory /Labour party's will be over! If Britain does remove the EU Yoke, then I think the people will want and get a new style of politics with the old style party politics dead in the water. People will want and get it's politicians to once again be servants of the people and not their Masters!

mattyr2k8

all i know is that blue labour will win, and then in another 12 years (if the eu doesnt abolish the UK parliament before then) people will still be fooled into thinking switching from one identical party to another helps, and will replace them with nulabour - and repeat until the eu abolishes the UK parliament.