After the melodrama of Milf-gate and the shenanigans of Richard Tice, Mr S was not sure how much farce was left in the Hartlepool by-election. Thankfully, a whole new comedy of errors has now arrived in the form of the recently launched Northern Independence party. In its bid to break the mould of British politics, the party has (naturally) turned to a failed former Labour MP Thelma Walker, a one-time wonder who lost her Colne Valley seat in 2019. A natural choice for Hartlepool then, a mere 90 miles away.
The new party was founded in October by Philip Proudfoot, an international development studies lecturer at Sussex University with the goal of making the North of England an independent state under the name Northumbria, with borders based on the historic region. It boasts a three-point manifesto: a ‘better, fairer and freer North for all,’ ‘a referendum on the independence of the North’ and the obligatory ‘green industrial rebirth.’
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