Thursday 28th August

I am writing this later than usual on Thursday itself; big party last night.  And waking up to the news that Douglas Carswell the M.P. for Clacton (and Walton) has defected to UKIP.  Not only that he is forcing a bi-election, which should be interesting.  You have to hand it to Nigel Farage, he is very good at keeping UKIP in the news.  There was a danger that the UKIP vote would fade away without the lifeblood of publicity, and the polls have certainly reflected that.  Now a bi-election with a defecting and quite popular Tory switching to UKIP means the news and press will be all over them.

I will of course be voting for Labour, where if (and a big if) there vote holds up they could slip in between a man and his former party.  I expect Carswell to win for UKIP, because the public love this sort of thing, and the Tories will be spitting feathers.  Just thinking , wouldn’t it be a hoot if Boris stood for the Tories.  He really has very little to lose.  And hooray, this news item has knocked the boring Scottish Debate form the headlines.  You cannot say that politics is dull for long.