Old Bexley and Sidcup by-election results- the lessons to be learned

Old Bexley and Sidcup by-election results- the lessons to be learned

 

The results of this by-election held on Thursday 2^nd December were not declared until the early hours of the next day:

2021 Old Bexley and Sidcup by-election[15]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Louie French	11,189	51.5	-13.0
	Labour	Daniel Francis	6,711	30.9	+7.4
	Reform UK	Richard Tice	1,432	6.6	N/A
	Green	Jonathan Rooks	830	3.8	+0.6
	Liberal Democrats	Simone Reynolds	647	3.0	-5.3
	English Democrat	Elaine Cheeseman	271	1.3	N/A
	UKIP	John Poynton	184	0.8	N/A
	Rejoin EU	Richard Hewison	151	0.7	N/A
	Heritage	David Kurten	116	0.5	N/A
	CPA	Carol Valinejad	108	0.5	±0.0
	Monster Raving Loony	Mad Mike Young	94	0.4	N/A
Majority			4,478	20.6	-20.5
Turnout			21,733	33.5	-36.3
Registered electors			64,831
	Conservative hold		Swing	-10.2

The results are a disappointment to those who are seriously concerned about government lockdowns and all that has gone with them, covid vaccine coercions, mandates, passports, and many restrictions on freedoms and liberties.

The eleven candidates were sent out a questionnaire on these issues, so that the electorate could be made aware of their views on the many issues involved.

The results revealed a lack of courtesy which we need so much to have back in British politics.

Only five of the candidates responded, although one, the Green party, did at least respond, but after the extended deadline.

The summary is in the attached article:

https://unitynewsnetwork.co.uk/just-5-out-of-11-candidates-in-by-election-respond-to-questions-on-lockdowns/

So effectively the major party political candidates showed by not completing the questionnaire, that they seemed uncaring of the disrespect shown by such behaviour.

They were helped in this by the conduct of the local and national media, all of which no platformed this questionnaire on the subject of covid issues.

To understand why this happened, it is important to bear in mind that the authorities want no debate on covid issues. They know that if there was open two sided debate, the whole sham of needlessly putting the nation through so much hardship would be exposed.

This was reflected in the election campaign of the mainstream parties, which went out of their way to avoid the covid issues.

All credit to those who responded fully, the English Democrats, the Heritage party,  the Christian People’s party and UKIP, and to the Reform party for responding partly.

If the results are examined for those candidates fighting for freedom against lockdowns, the Reform party’s leader, Richard Tice, outperformed the others and saved his deposit. It is both encouraging and disappointing. The positives are that after some poor by-election performances, the Reform party has finally achieved a credible result to ensure they are a leading alternative party to vote for. This was because of putting fresh ideas and full professional effort into the campaign, by both the party and Richard Tice himself.

The negatives are that Reform’s political platform is still seen as not broad enough, not strong enough on lockdowns/restrictions issues, and too much seen as an alternative conservative party.

To put this into perspective, there are many by-election results to compare with, but the following one is an interesting example:

If the results are compared with those of UKIP at the February 2013 Eastleigh by-election ( then seen as the alternative political party), their candidate Diane James came a close second with 27.8% of the vote.

This was with a turnout of 52.8% ( down 16.5% on the General Election).

However, with the Old Bexley and Sidcup by-election, the turnout was down to 33.5% a  massive drop of 36.5% compared with the General Election’s 69.8%.

Therefore, what are the reasons for the voter apathy in this constituency ?

Clearly there was a lot of voter disillusionment with the mainstream political parties and huge numbers decided their best form of protest was not to turn out.

Amongst those would undoubtedly have been thousands who are in favour of freedom from lockdowns, but thought their vote would be wasted in such electoral circumstances.

The fact that six of the alternative candidates had broadly freedom from lockdowns views, meant that the potential vote support base was divided, and more to the point, demoralised by the failure to have a unity type candidate.

It was very difficult to put the lockdowns/restrictions issues into the voters’ perspective, because the mainstream media and the mainstream candidates conspired to take them off this by election political agenda. Amazing that the most important political issue becomes a non- issue, but we live in amazingly bizarre times !

Thus the challenge for the freedom from lockdowns/restrictions candidates is to find clever ways of ensuring all the covid issues are at the top of any election agenda. If they don’t then the results will continue as they have been, and that cannot be allowed to happen.

One way of ensuring covid issues are prominent in the political agenda is to sign the Petition for a Referendum on the Coronavirus Act. If such a Referendum takes place, then it definitely is at the top of the political agenda.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/597665

The next by-election is North Shropshire and the fourteen candidates there have been sent a covid views questionnaire.

There continues to be the problem of a number of freedom from lockdowns candidates effectively fighting each other. However, more of these parties are saying they would like to have electoral cooperation in the future, so that is an encouraging sign.

Meanwhile, all those who have put their names forward to stand in these by-elections, all credit to them, for putting their names forward.

Anthony Webber

Independent Political Commentator

Joint Founder, National Alliance for freedom from lockdowns, UK

( nationwide non- party political organisation )

anthonywebber@cwgsy.net