The shiny new Brexit party.

[Workingman]

It has launched today and has immediately gained seven MEPs, all defectors from UKIP, but how will both perform in the upcoming EU elections?

Commentators are saying that because voters from both sides of the Brexit argument are so cheesed off with proceedings the Tories and Labour will be decimated. I am not so sure.

In the EU elections the UK uses the closed party-list of proportional representation. We effectively vote for a party and that party then chooses which individual will represent it / us. We tend to vote tribally and most of us will continue to do so. Yes there will be shifts, but most Labour voters will not vote for Brexit / UKIP parties and most Tories will not vote Lib Dem or Change.UK parties. The pack will get shuffled, but talk of the Tories or Labour being wiped out is premature.

The same is true with the daydream that we can replace all the duplicitous members in the HoC with saintly and public spirited upstanding members of the public at the next GE. We can't and we won't. The parties will put up the same old faces and we will do our duty and shuffle down to the polling station to vote them in again. The only real protest we have is to place NOTA ( None Of The Above) on our ballot papers as those 'votes' are counted. Not voting only serves to continue the status quo.

[cromwell]

The same is true with the daydream that we can replace all the duplicitous members in the HoC with saintly and public spirited upstanding members of the public at the next GE. We can't and we won't. The parties will put up the same old faces and we will do our duty and shuffle down to the polling station to vote them in again. The only real protest we have is to place NOTA ( None Of The Above) on our ballot papers as those 'votes' are counted. Not voting only serves to continue the status quo.

We can only vote for what's put in front of us. Over the last twenty years both Labour and Conservative have centralised power in London. The party tends to choose which candidate the local parties are allowed to field in elections. So we have ended up with "local" MPs like Yvette Cooper,Mary Creagh, Hilary Benn, Ed Miliband, etc etc all of whom are members of the North London political set, who all live and work in London. Wakefield doesn't have a representative in the Commons so much as the Labour party has a representative in Wakefield. On the Tory side a London banker called Rishi Sunak sits for Richmondshire, a rural farming seat in North Yorkshire. Nick Boles, yet another Oxbridge PPE graduate, sits for a seat in rural Lincolnshire.

And as local Tories have found, it's difficult to get shut of these people. Local Tories have tried to de-select Grieve but they haven't managed it yet.

As for the Brexit party we'll see. They do have Farage though, who has proved himself to be an effective campaigner in the past.

[Workingman]

Cromwell, you have put flesh on the bones of my OP.

The central offices of the main parties all decide on their candidates and the locals, generally, have to put up and shut up. A few places have put up a fight, but most of them roll over for a tummy tickle.

With the Brexit party Farage has made a statement saying that it will fight in all areas. If that is the case will it not be splitting its and UKIP's votes? I think that a better strategy is for them not to go head-to-head. At the end of the day they both want the same thing and will be in the same grouping in the EU parliament.

[Kaz]

Rees-Mogg's sister helping out! How very egalitarian of her!

[TheOstrich]

The UKIP / Brexit Party conundrum - folk will identify with Nigel Farage, not with UKIP. Gerard Batten is a relative nonentity in comparison and the media have done enough to associate Tommy Robinson to UKIP to make it toxic. Unfortunately the Brexit party has come into being too late to fight the local council elections; it's UKIP that are standing, but even though there's a general mind-set to punish the Tories at the booths, I don't expect UKIP will be a beneficiary - I suspect the winners will be the LibDems and Labour, in that order.

You might say that Apathy might beat the LibDems and Labour, and you may well be right - but I will certainly be interested to see the results here in Dorset, because judging by social media and local politics, there's definitely a will to oust a few Tories. I don't think it'll happen; they're too entrenched, but I think they'll get a mighty big scare. Here in Gillingham, we're electing 3 county councillors, and each of the big 3 parties and UKIP are putting up three candidates.

A pragmatic tactical Dorset voter might therefore consider favouring the LibDems …….

[Workingman]

I am not sure about the name of the new party, Brexit, as it instantly marks it out as a one-trick party. It is a shame because there appears to be a genuine appetite amongst the electorate for new alternatives to the main players and also for hung parliaments.

I would like to vote in a party that cherry picks the best parts of the near left and near right of centre politics. What I am likely to get is Lib Dem or Change.UK, but what I would most like is the introduction of proper PR. If the Brexit party and Change can help to kick start the process then I will tag along for the ride.

[saundra]

Got to laugh had a letter today from a local candidate for the local elections
What a waste of a stamp it's gone in the bin with the junk mail
Still it keeps the postman employed