if you were to ask me, personally, about the imminent by-election in Richmond this week i would, look you see, say i don't really care. whoever wins it is not going to do anything that will change government on a national level, and so i should just ignore it and let them do whatever. however, my chum Spiros does care a lot, as witnessed here, and so i do too care.
there's also some wonderful lessons being thrown up by this election. as per usual when mentioning anything with Zac Goldsmith i must be careful for he is quite happy to issue legal threats to those who write about him, but i believe i speak in the boundaries of fair comment and opinion.
this by-election has been triggered on grounds that no one particularly vocally cared about. back in 2015 Zac Goldsmith was elected Conservative MP for the constituency. buried away in all the things he promised was a pledge to resign and stand as an independent if a Conservative government voted in favour of an extra runway at Heathrow. this they did, so so that he did.
the Conservatives have responded by not fielding a candidate in this election to replace him. they are cautious of splitting the vote and letting another party win, and they are seemingly confident that a re-elected Zac Goldsmith will, no matter how "independent" he claims to be, simply support them.
all of the literature and statements coming from Mr Goldsmith substantiate this.
sorry, it seems that the above picture is most insistent on coming up the wrong way around when i upload it. being bigger, however, makes a few things clearer. doesn't it always?
i've kind of addressed point 1 above and hinted at point to. looking at point 2 in a bit more detail is worthwhile, for it underlines the idea that this whole by-election - the disruption, the cost, the quite frankly staggeringly wasteful level of leaflets printed - has come about for no good reason beyond the vanity of Mr Zac Goldsmith.
as far as i can see, he believes that resigning and standing again is making a popular stand against one decision, and he's looking to be elected as an "independent friend of the government" in order to get some sort of accolade, praise or pat on the head for the actions he has taken.
far be it for me to suggest that he would have been better off remaining part of government and carrying on the fight without this distraction. this is particularly true as there is, of course, every chance that Mr Goldsmith will lose and no longer be in Parliament to debate or fight for anything.
again with the sideways, sorry i have no idea how to just make blogger upload images the right way around. for i think we can all agree that sideways is incorrect.
the general consensus is that the election is a straight shoot-out between Mr Goldsmith and Ms Sarah Olney, the Liberal Democrats representative. the gist of Ms Olney's electioneering campaign is that she's actually done a lot of things for the area, and indeed in a stance against a new runway, rather than just offer to resign if she didn't get her way.
that's a bit off of the Labour candidate above, as well as yet more literature shoved through the door of Spiros about this election.
a great part of the English way of doing things is to knock people down if they are successful. one really does have to be careful not to do this. that said, it is hard to wish for any result in this by-election other than a Zac Goldsmith defeat. after all of the political dynamics we have experienced worldwide in the last two or so years, this idea of using elections as a personal approval mechanism has just got to stop.
yes, the above would appear to show that the Labour party are kind of backing the Liberal Democrat candidate rather than their own.
it's worth highlighting again that Zac Goldsmith wasn't considered good enough to be London Mayor, even though he was standing against a particularly inept and weak candidate. why exactly the people of Richmond and Kingston would accept an independent mayoral reject to represent them is beyond me, but we shall find out if this is to be during the week.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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