Swivel Eyed Fanatic

Lets just change the name to UKPIP......the additional P making us the UK Parochial Independence Party.......or it could be for Pathetic.....

Jean Pool

Pretty pointless UKIP and BNP standing against each other, really.

However distasteful some of you may find it, there is a core of voters who find a tangible link between the two parties.

Thanks for the clear run on this occasion.

Percentage

Er...wasn't that Steve Allisons portfolio or was that just for the far-north?

This is poor,if East & West Bournmouth cant comunicate in what should be UKIP's "heartlands",its yellow faces all around & the famous yellow buses are on the road to Pressure Group County! :wink:

mkpdavies

I wouldn't expect one branch to know and tell the other branch.

All I am concerned with is

a) Why didn't East Bournmouth know about this? The local branch has to look at itself and ask why it failed to spot this opportunity. Local branches have to take responsibility for themselves.

b) Our central organisation should also be taking an interest in this. 1) Helping alert if possible, but at least helping the local branches find out for themselves.

Amateurish in the extreme. More annoying to me, than hearing that the branch just can't be bothered.

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Independence Now!

There is but they shouldn't make that connection. The BNP is a GENUINE patriotic/nationalist party that has policies to deal with ALL the issues and not just the EU which at local level is pretty irrelevant. UKIP are just a Tory pressure-group on the EU and indeed are even more liberal than the Tories on many subjects. What UKIP don't realise but should is that the issue of EU withdrawal can be incorporated INTO phpbb_the policies of many different parties from the Left to the Right. UKIP's problem is that it lacks a clear political identity rather like the Lib Dems and this is a major handicap. Unless their leadership has the bravery to give them this clear identity and produce coherent policies on more subjects, which will inevibitably upset and antagonise one or more sections of the parties' members (who are only really agreed on the need for EU withdrawal) then they will continue to have major problems in elections.

Aardvark

There are set procedures for calling a by-election. The authority concerned has to notify the vacancy and then there is a very tight period for nominations.

The vacancy is notified by a Notice of Election displayed in the town, parish, district etc. In our town we use the public notice board. Presumably in Bournemouth there is a board at the entrance of the Town Hall. Nobody ever seems to read these things and many parish and town council by-elections have lone candidates as a result. The system is to a certain extent self-perpetuating since the local councillors of the other parties do keep an eye out for such notices and in any event are immediately aware when a councillor pops his clogs. The Notice of Election is displayed for 21 days for parish/town elections.

If there is a vacancy at parish/town level then people self-nominate and the councillors elect the new member unless 10 members of the electorate call for a by-election. At District level and above I think an election is called automatically. There is still a Notice of Election, but it displays a date for close of nominations. If there is only one nominee then he is returned unnopposed. Nominations require 10 signatures of electors in the ward concerned for all elections other than parish/town which require only 2.

Close of nominations in the General Election was Tuesday 19th April for an election on 5th May. There really isn't a lot of time if people aren't paying attention. Occasionally the big parties miss the deadline, but usually they have a designated constituency agent who has the job of keeping an eye out for these things.

The local council offices can keep people up to date with the regulations and it is worth being aware that there are such rules.

One strange custom is that the party of the deceased/resigned member gets to declare the vacancy and can leave a seat empty, if they so desire, until it was due to fall vacant. This happens if a seat falls vacant close to the due election date since few parties want to fight a campaign to win a seat that will only be held for a few weeks.

claire stone

This is not BNP terrority! You will be wasting your time here.

Swivel Eyed Fanatic

In defence of Steve Allison he was appointed to look after Westminster Parliamentary by-elections.......local elections are someone else…….I thought Jonathan Arnott but he is apparently just local policy and literature, another REMF rather than a frontline soldier.

Jean Pool

I disagree. Of course, no one is expecting a fantastic result but it is imperative to lay foundations when given the opportunity.

Doing the opposite achieves absolutely nothing whatsoever in trying to build party momentum.

To "Independence Now" - I am fully aware of how many voters perceive UKIP (one issue pressure group). And although the BNP manifesto is very wide ranging, most folk who vote BNP primarily do it on an "anti-immigration" tip.

Please, let's not kid ourselves here.

Jonathan Arnott

I am employed for one day a week on local elections, which includes policy and literature. This simply does not leave time for me to identify every single council by-election in the UK and mobilise local branches.

The party are aware of this. Someone is to be appointed in the near future to take charge of local by-elections. This should hopefully resolve the issue.