Polls apart
When was the last time an upstart party not represented by George Galloway won a UK by-election?
– In November 2014 Ukip won by-elections in both Clacton and Rochester and Strood. In each case the winner was the sitting MP: Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless, who had defected from the Conservatives.
– A more obscure party was Blaenau Gwent People’s Voice in June 2006. The Blaenau Gwent seat had been won at the 2005 general election by Peter Law, a former Labour councillor who had resigned from the party in protest at women-only shortlists and stood as an independent. A year later he died of a brain tumour and the new party was formed to back Law’s agent Dai Davies in the by-election, which Davies won (although he didn’t use the People’s Voice name on the ballot).
Waste of electricity
The government started consulting on a ‘toaster tax’ which could oblige retailers to take back electrical goods no longer wanted by customers – even when the retailers didn’t sell the items in the first place.
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