ANOTHER CANDIDATE DECLARES FOR THE GENERAL ELECTION IN PARTYPOOL

[clavering codhead]

I'll bet wrighty is over the moon, he knows this bloke wont stand a chance, once the main party's announce their candidates and another couple of indies join in it will split the vote in his favour.

The best thing to happen would be a straight fight with Wrighty and one other candidate, someone who maybe's runs a successful business in the town and employs locals who would be willing to take him on.

[DRiddle]

I agree that overall the general school of thought is the more candidates there are, the more likely it is Wright will win.

However, there does seem to be an enormous amount of people in Hartlepool who a looking for a 'vehicle' to use to vent their frustration at Wright.

Many of them appear very reluctant to make that vehicle UKIP. (If the response from the 400 strong crowd at the town hall to Mr Broughton was anything to go by).

So people are looking for someone to vote for to act as two fingers to Wright and none of the people likely to be put up by the other national parties appear to be floating peoples boat locally.

The interesting thing about Mr Picton, if you read the several hundred comments on his facebook since he made the announcement, is that he appears likely to pull votes from two interesting demographics.

(1) Angry people who would normally under 99.9% of circumstances vote Labour.
(2) People who usually do not vote at all.

Both of those demographics in Hartlepool are very difficult to draw votes from. But as I say, if you look at the initial response from the public to this fella, there seems to be a lot of positive noise from demographics (1) and (2) above.

Obviously I'm not saying that means he'll win, but he could be more of a thorn in Wrights side than people realise if he pulls 3 or 4 thousand votes away from Wright and/or attracts people to the ballot box who otherwise wouldn't even have bothered voting at all.

UKIP voters will still vote UKIP.

Mr Picton is likely to just pinch a chunk of votes from Wright reducing his overall total. Voters who otherwise would have muttered and moaned about Wright, but begrudgingly still voted for him as the lesser of a few evils.

If this fella only succeeds in reducing Wrights total, that's hardly 'good' for Labour.

[Jim Gillespie]

If Mr Brash stands will that be as:

1. An independent

2. Independent Labour (personally I think that doesn't exist)

3. A PHF coalition candidate

4. Monster Raving Loony Party

[Land Phil]

Is it allowed to have more than one looney stand in the election ?

[fred c]

Is it allowed to have more than one looney stand in the election ?

Will the voters of Hartlepool finally realise that getting rid of Wright should be the main aim in the coming GE, with that in mind......

I would prefer a Looney to the flaccid "Member"

[Land Phil]

Fred, with your political awareness I would have thought your good self a more challenging candidate to Wright than Joe Le Taxi ?


I also can't believe that the Labour Party think Wright is doing a good job.
I would have thought if they wanted a better chance of victory they would have given us an alternative candidate.

Lets hope Hartlepool wakes up and doesn't let him win by default through a split vote or apathy.

[TSteels]

I rather think Mr Brash has better things to do, plus the common sense not to bother.

Why don't you stand Jim? 

[DRiddle]

Richard Royal is the hartlepool Tory candidate I'm told. Not sure what happened regarding Shane.

[TSteels]

Can't say I'm surprised - Shane made the calamitous error of making it known that he couldn't stand the sight of Ray, but not actually taking a stand on the issue. Hence it's easy to quietly dispense with him. If he'd been leading a real conservative charge over the last year, he'd have made his candidacy inevitable.

[fred c]

I had time for Shane, we probably didn`t agree on many subjects but I believe he always wanted the best for Hartlepool & not himself & being a decent bloke probably doesn`t get you very far in politics.

Even with the newly parachuted in PPC the Tories are a poisoned challace in Hartlepool thanks to the voting record of Wells, Morris & Loynes.

There have been some absolute beauties over the years, but the humdinger in my mind was when the 3 of them voted for the Council Tax Payers to continue paying for a Full Time Union Official in HBC.

Tories............. My A**e

[Copper Pipe]

Just enjoying the chitter chatter of the Mail and those that are putting names farward, out of Town Tory Richard Royal, looked at his facebook page and hes employed a photograher to take pics of him all over town at various locations wearing the same clothers mind you, scruffy gett!

Then there is local taxi lad and Welshman "Taffy" Stephen Picton, born where exactly? mind you he has a bit of a following on facebook, take a look. Out of the two that have came out in the Mail so far hes my favorite, hes as whacky as Timmy Mallet on the Gin, as funny as Frank Spencer on roller skates, a happy biffo the clown type of character that has raised as much for charity throughout his life as a taxi driver as the Joke of a Mayor did in his first year!

I have been through the Mail website but cant seen to find the story on "Taxi Taffy" Stephen Picton, I wonder why the Mail have removed all trace of the story? probably just temporarily.

[mk1]

http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/local/hartlepool-taxi-driver-hopes-to-become-town-s-mp-1-7043583

[steveL]

A bit cynical, methinks. Apparently, the Tories now see Hartlepool as little more than a training ground for future candidates. If the guy puts up a half decent fight then maybe he will win the chance of contending a 'real' constituency; one in which the Tories believe they actually have a chance of winning.

Mind you, he looks the part. A typical Tory candidate straight out of Binns windows as they used to say (when we had a Binns, that is).

But look at poor George. He looks as though Wells has finally cut one of the strings that he normally uses to manipulate him.

[The Great Dictator]

Do you think Ray will vote for him ?

[Inspector Knacker]

The usual scenario....... candidate shipped in........ end of story for UKIP and Tories for me.
That said,  if the devil himself stood against Wrighty in a straight run off I'd go for the Brimstone and Fire candidate every time.