I am about to embark on another of my ***watch series and this one is to share my thoughts concerning the British General Election to be held 12^th December 2019. I have already written three articles on the subject, the contents of which elaborate on what is asked or stated in the title. And I don’t intend to go over old ground.

1. Should Nigel stand aside for the Tories?
2. Personal thoughts influencing my voting on 12th December
3. Who should Christians vote for on December 12th?

With the deadline for becoming a a candidate last Thursday, we now know who will be standing in the two Southend constituencies. But let me first make some general observations. We see here clear evidence of the two pacts: Remain and Leave. Remain is a two sided pact and the absence of Green Party candidates, while no doubt disappointing local Green activists, will at least give the LibDems, who usually do a lot better than the Greens, a better chance of winning, which I reckon is still a remote one. The East LibDem candidate is new to standing and the West candidate stood in 1992 and 1997, but as they are new to me it is difficult to comment. The Leave pact is one sided and as expected the two sitting Conservative MPs are unopposed by candidates from the Brexit Party. Giving the one-sided nature of the Leave pact, we know the Brexit Party will contest all seats not currently held by the Conservatives. I think Boris has missed a trick. He is wrong and foolish not to do a deal with the Brexit Party as certain marginal seats he may have hoped to gain he may not do so due to a split Leave vote. The final other general observation is there are Independent candidates in each of the Southend constituencies. I know nothing about either of them and don’t expect them to make much impact, so will say no more.

I know nothing of the Southend West Labour candidate and sadly remember my friend Julian Ware-Lane who stood last time round, but who died last year. It is difficult to conceive of the large majority David Amess had last time round being overturned, and because I think he has been a good MP and given my views expressed in my earlier articles, if I were a resident I would likely vote for him. Southend East is going to be interesting with Labour’s Ashley Dalton up against Conservative’s James Duddridge, although going on past form and current climate it is difficult to conceive of James losing. But I am still not convinced by either, and seeing the final name to be named: Jason Pilley of the Psychedelic Future Party (to my surprise) standing, I could even vote for him. Watch this space.