BNP councillor elected unopposed in South West
This is a very good argument for always having “Re-Open Nominations” (rather than “None of the Above”) as a candidate. Essentially, Corsham Town Council in Wiltshire is made up of people who don’t stand on party political platforms, in the main. There is a ward with one councillor and one Michael Simpkins has been elected to that ward; he did not declare that he was a BNP member.
The system of banning party politics in the council chamber means that Simpkins’ membership of the BNP. Fortunately, he is only one person elected by chance, but allowing the BNP to get a toe-hold is bad enough.
The full story is on the BBC News website.
xD.
December 22nd, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Actually I did declare I was a BNP member on all my nomination forms. Just thought I’d put the record straight. Thanks.
December 30th, 2008 at 11:52 pm
Thankyou for that correction. That does nothing to change the fact that a RON option is necessary to stop situations like this from happening. In my experience, people will turn out to vote for RON both because the candidate, like yourself, represents an extremist point of view out of kilter with the bulk of the electorate and because it draws attention to the problem.
November 2nd, 2009 at 10:58 am
[...] the advantages. People can express discontent with all the available options and, in instances where there’s only one candidate, means that they’re not elected by default. It’s slightly different to ‘none of [...]