LONDON – On Dec. 12, Britain holds an election. This is a political gamble by Prime Minister Boris Johnson who views it as his best chance to break the deadlock over Brexit in parliament.
The main parties are on along the campaign trail, traversing the length and breadth of the UK to drum up some support.
Following are some colourful snapshots from the election trail:
ODD CANDIDATES
It’s an eclectic mix of candidates that Boris Johnson must contest on Dec. 12 to win his own seat in parliament. One claims to be an interplanetary timelord, another a man dressed as a character from Sesame Street, and someone listed only as ‘Count Binface’.
Nominations to stand against the prime minister for his seat in west London closed on Thursday, and the final list included several unusual candidates:
Lord Buckethead, Count Binface, Bobby “Elmo” Smith, and Yace “Interplanetary Time Lord” Yogenstein.
This is a long-running British tradition of satirical candidates trying to compete with the prime minister. Such stunts inevitably result in a colourful lineup on stage in the wee hours of the morning as the results of the election are announced.
Johnson is unlikely to be fluttered by any of these independent candidates: in the last election in 2017, Bobby “Elmo” Smith, standing against the then-prime minister Theresa May, gained only 3 votes to May’s 37,718.
The prime minister may, however, be a bit more concerned about the opposition Labour Party’s Ali Milani, who is hoping to overturn the 5,000 vote majority with which Johnson had won the seat in 2017. Such an upset would make Johnson the first sitting prime minister to lose his seat in more than a century.
BROKEN GLASS
Johnson began his morning by talking about one of the key election issues- healthcare.
He was quite simply asked by a BBC breakfast chat show host: when was the last time you used the National Health Service? The question left Johnson momentarily flummoxed, who said that he had needed to go to the hospital last summer after treading on a piece of glass from a broken plunger coffee pot at a party.
FOCUS GROUPS
A key part of planning an election campaign is to know what the voters are thinking. Opinion polls are useful to work out trends and broad preferences, but some like to dig deeper into their voters’ heads. Michael Ashcroft who is a former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, is one of those politicos.
On Friday, Ashcroft published the findings of a series of focus groups – following conversations with small groups of voters – about each of the party leaders and policies, which gave a snapshot of voter sentiment.
Ashcroft’s study also offered insight into a key question: what would the party leaders do if they unexpectedly found themselves with nothing to do on a Friday night?
Some of the highlights from the voters’ answers follow:
Boris Johnson: “A bit of a messy night out. It wouldn’t be civilised. I think there would be apologies the next morning.”
Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn: “I can’t see him going out on the town.”
Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson: “Plotting how to stay in Europe.”
Brexit Party’s Nigel Farage: “In the pub with his wellies on.”
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field.