EDITOR'S VIEW: Count Binface heading to Harton? Don't rubbish the idea!
With Reform UK having a wobble nationally, Gazette Editor Richard Ord wonders if the Harton by-election could produce a shock...
Do you think there’s any chance Count Binface could land in South Tyneside and liven up our election coverage?
To be fair, he may not be needed as the Harton by-election may well be a lively old affair given the events of the last few weeks.
While Reform UK as good as swept the board in the May elections, Harton voters may be feeling some buyer’s remorse after one candidate they elected turned out to be a liability.
For those with short memories, Cllr Alex Clarke got cold feet just 46 days after his election. Those feet turned even icier when comments he had made on his podcast reached the public’s ears.
Mr Clarke reckoned he was mis-sold the councillor’s role and stepped down, but not before his sexist rants about women and offensive ‘banter’ about Sir Keir Starmer were aired in public. He maintained the comments were a joke, but council leader Paul Mackings wasn’t laughing and after having had a word in his shell-like, Clarke was promptly out on his ear.
At the time of those elections, Reform UK was riding the crest of a wave in popularity, but that initial euphoria may have subsided. If the calamity of Clarke hasn’t rattled Harton voters, the subsequent question mark over Nigel Farage’s £5m gift and his own byelection ‘circus’ in Clacton may have cooled some jets. Reform fought the local election battle on a Farage v Starmer footing, but now Nigel is foundering on the national stage while Sir Keir is exiting stage, erm, left.
This time round, the focus will fall on local issues (as it should be, given it’s a local election) and South Tyneside Council’s new Reform UK leadership is currently struggling to get the public onside with the ongoing Stanley’s nursery review.
What will matter is how the candidates - the list of which has just been announced - plan to tackle real Harton issues. The Gazette went out onto the streets and asked the people of Harton what mattered most and they told us: Parking, pavements and… wait for it… bins!
Well if anyone has bins at the forefront of their mind, it’s Count Binface. Could he be engaging warp drive and heading to Harton? If he does materialise, remember you heard it here first.