Eastleigh By Election Working Up Steam

Among the flurry of news today, the business of the Eastleigh By Election to elect a Member of Parliament in place of Chris Huhne next Thursday has been put on the back burner.  If there are other important matters in train for the next few days there is a risk we might forget about it altogether.

Whether the By Election will be a major event, or a minor event, or just something of a shambles is not clear.  The signs are not good.  There are fourteen candidates, none a clear favourite and anything could happen.

If it is similar to other such by elections we could have a reduced turn out of voters, who are unbalanced by age and a candidate elected without either a convincing share of the vote or any coherent policy.  That is if one of the major party candidates succeeds.

Around some of the media and blogosphere there is a hankering for a real upset, in that one of the “other” eleven beyond the Liberal Democrat, Labour or Conservatives will command enough votes to overturn all the assumptions that have been made.

The obvious one is UKIP as either a real shift in patterns or a protest vote.  But there is one that caught the eye, Colin Bex of the Wessex Regionalist Party.  Their web site is below:

http://wessexregionalists.blogspot.co.uk/

If this one could put together enough votes to either disrupt the other parties or to make a strong point it could be interesting.  If they were actually to sneak enough votes to scrape a win where the other votes were scattered it would at least make a change.

Eastleigh once had a major railway works where some of the old Southern Railways, later Region’s finest steam locomotives were constructed.  Perhaps a success for the Regionalists might work up a head of steam for fundamental reforms.

Is it time to blow the whistle on the major parties?