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AT LEAST THE RIDICULOUS SUGGESTION that the vote should be given to 16 year olds was knocked on the head. Not by the dreadful John Bercow, however, but by his deputy. If ever there were a more shameless attempt to secure an election by the back door, it was this, and it is the usual suspect - the Labour Party. Terrified by the prospect of voter ID - clearly a wicked plot to undermine their traditional strongholds in places like Rotherham and Tower Hamlets - the Islington Intelligentia came up with a cunning plan to enfranchise not only children, but anyone from Bulgaria, Romania, and all points east, who could be  given a little sweetener, put in a minibus and driven to a polling station clutching an election leaflet which they didn't understand, but had with a  cross drawn boldly with a Sharpie marker against the "correct" candidate.


AS I WRITE the wretched beings who have paralysed parliament for the last six months are still debating the issue, but it seems it is just a matter of when, not if. Apparently, it is also a breach of our democratic rights to hold an election in December because, well, it gets a bit cold at that time of year. It's dark, too, and there are usually some pretty amazing TV programmes on in the run up to Christmas. 

I SUSPECT THAT IN THE  PRINCIPALITY OF WISBECH the general election will be something of a non event. Sitting MP Steve Barclay may not have done much for the area, apart from opening a few flower shows, but he is most people's idea of a successful politician - undoubtably clever, good looking, and ambitious. For me, he has chosen the safe path of being pro-Brexit. Not to have done so would have been political kamikaze in this most strident of anti EU constituencies.

WILL HE HAVE ANY SERIOUS OPPOSITION? Not if other parties have any sense. Labour are non-existent in Fenland, apart from a few drum-beaters on social media. UKIP are a busted flush, and in this part of Cambridgeshire, the modern Lib Dems don't have the attraction that they do in the Ethically Sourced Soy Latte belt in Cambridge and its satellite villages.

LIKE MOST OF MY FELLOW PE13 RESIDENTS I voted to kick the EU into the long grass, and while I hold my nose at the grim behaviour of some Wisbech Conservatives, I am now a card-carrying Tory, supporting the flawed but ebullient and determined Boris Johnson. I will vote Conservative in December, and will even put a poster up in my window. A Conservative working majority in the House of Commons will, after nearly four years of agonising parliamentary wrangling, deliver something of what I voted for on 23rd June 2016.




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