UK: Small Parties' Hopes

[Peter]

I've been sniffing around trying to find out the hopes of the small parties. The candidacy declaration deadline was today: The BBC will have the website updated within a couple of days to reflect the final declarations.

You can check the status of individual constituency candidates on the BBC

UKIP - Standing in ~500 seats [no accurate figures that I can find] (from 429 in 2001) according to their website. You can find a searchable database of their candidates on their website. I don't think they've filled all the seats like they promised to, and they are concentrating on 20 seats specifically.

Greens - Standing in 202 seats (up from 141). There is a list of candidates on the Green website. They are challenging most seats in London, and a good proportion of those in other areas of the South. Watch out for Lewisham Deptford, Brighton Pavilion and Leeds West.

BNP - Standing in 119 seats (up from 33). There is a list of candidates broken down by Region on the BNP website.  35 of their candidates are in Yorkshire and the Humber, where the BNP had their best results in last years EU elections.

Veritas - Standing in 79/80 seats [conflicting sources] (didn't exist in 2001). I can't get a list of seats, though we know about a few of them, e.g. Erewash. Check for other seats on the BBC.

Respect - Standing in only 26 seats (didn't exist in 2001). You can see a list here. Their only real chance is Bethnal Green and Bow.

English Democrats Party - Standing in 32 seats (didn't exist in 2001). You can see a list here. They got 0.8% last year in the EU elections, though they probably won't do well because of lack of coverage.

Monster Raving Loony Party - 20 seats (up from 15). You can see a list here. haha.

I've contacted other parties to try to find out what they're doing.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

UKIP - Standing in ~500 seats [no accurate figures that I can find] (from 429 in 2001) according to their website. You can find a searchable database of their candidates on their website. I don't think they've filled all the seats like they promised to, and they are concentrating on 20 seats specifically.

They could cost the Tories Boston & Skegness and stop 'em from gaining Harwich. IIRC they're throwing a lot at the seat (Totnes) where Knapman is standing (if they win a seat it'll be one of those three).

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Could come second in the two inner city seats.

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Could well come second (urgh...) in Dewsbury and might stop the Tories from picking up some other textiles seats. I have a feeling they could do well in South Essex as well... maybe Yardley too.

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Only Agent Orange himself is worth watching

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There's actually a chance that they might do better in Birmingham Sparkbrook & Small Heath than Bethnal Green & Bow... the seat is the most Muslim in the U.K (I've not checked the statistics but it's close to a majority, maybe over that) the current M.P has made some... interesting... remarks about immigration and the LibDem isn't especially highprofile... but then Respect picked a female candidate. Maybe not.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

From what I read of them on their website, I think if I were in England I’d be voting English Democrat.

[Peter]

A question I'm also interested in seeking an answer to is how much do the minor parties see their vote share go up by:

In 2001, UKIP got 390,000 votes from 429 candidates. Given their recent boost in performance from the EU elections, they can expect to do much better, even with Veritas causing them some drop in vote share. They can expect to easily breach .5 million and will probably surge through 3/4 million. The big question is whether they can get the honour of being the first fourth party in British politics to get a million votes?

The Greens got about 162,000. With more candidates and an enhanced profile, they should be able to collect more votes, probably polling about 220,000, 250K if they are lucky.

The BNP will scare us and do really well this time, and they will get good vote shares in a few seats. Could easily hit 150K I fear.

Veritas' lack of candidates won't help them, and their only real hope of votes is Erewash. Expect to get about 50,000 and not much more.

Respect won't get too much with so few candidates, and will probably only get about 30,000

The EDP have even less publicity than all other minor parties. Their votes will only just make it in 5 figures I imagine.

[minionofmidas]

UKIP - Standing in ~500 seats [no accurate figures that I can find] (from 429 in 2001) according to their website. You can find a searchable database of their candidates on their website. I don't think they've filled all the seats like they promised to, and they are concentrating on 20 seats specifically.

They could cost the Tories Boston & Skegness and stop 'em from gaining Harwich. IIRC they're throwing a lot at the seat (Totnes) where Knapman is standing (if they win a seat it'll be one of those three).

Didn't the Tories gain Harwich four years back?

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Could come second in the two inner city seats.

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Could well come second (urgh...) in Dewsbury and might stop the Tories from picking up some other textiles seats. I have a feeling they could do well in South Essex as well... maybe Yardley too.

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Only Agent Orange himself is worth watching

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There's actually a chance that they might do better in Birmingham Sparkbrook & Small Heath than Bethnal Green & Bow... the seat is the most Muslim in the U.K (I've not checked the statistics but it's close to a majority, maybe over that) the current M.P has made some... interesting... remarks about immigration and the LibDem isn't especially highprofile... but then Respect picked a female candidate. Maybe not.
[/quote]Well, she is a Muslim...
Respect are standing in Harwich, Neath, and Hove, apart from 23 more predictable seats. Oh, and apparently Hove Constituency is called Hove & Portslade now, or maybe that's just their candidate's preferred reference to the seat.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Didn't the Tories gain Harwich four years back?

Much to their suprise, they didn't.

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True... but the sort of people who vote for Respect there are the sort who vote PJP locally.

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No, it's still Hove. Respect haven't made a f*** up with a constituency's name *again* have they?

[minionofmidas]

Obviously confused it with some other place, and maybe with the fact that it was one of UKIP's few saved deposits last time.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Obviously confused it with some other place, and maybe with the fact that it was one of UKIP's few saved deposits last time.

Castle Point?

[Peter]

On their own website, Respect are down as contesting Hove & Portslade, though on the BBC website they are down as constesting Hove. I think its a tactical move somehow.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

On their own website, Respect are down as contesting Hove & Portslade, though on the BBC website they are down as constesting Hove. I think its a tactical move somehow.

Doubt it: they earlier said they were running a candidate in "Poplar and Limehouse"... a seat that will be created by boundary changes after the election (the seat is currently Poplar and Canning Town)

[Peter]

Okay, the BBC has published new figures which are probably more accurate than individual party websites because they've been going by what Returning Officers are telling them:

BBC Article

UKIP - 488 (429)
Greens - 200 (141)
BNP - 118 (33)
Veritas - 62 (0)

For some bizarre reason, they are listing Plaid as having 59 candidates - I have emailed them to correct this obvious error as there are only 40 seats in Wales and that is the only place that Plaid stand.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Apparently Plaid are trying to re-conquer the Marches!

[WMS]

What the heck is Veritas about, anyway?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

What the heck is Veritas about, anyway?

Robert Kilroy-Silk's personality cult

[WMS]

What the heck is Veritas about, anyway?

Robert Kilroy-Silk's personality cult

Wait...that name is familiar...didn't he use to be the UKIP head or something?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Wait...that name is familiar...didn't he use to be the UKIP head or something?

Yep. This is Mr Orange Face's career to date:

Labour M.P for Ormskirk in the from 1974 until 1983 when he was redistricted out to Knowlsey North (actually Kirkby). Stepped down as M.P in 1987. Became host of a dodgy daytime T.V chatshow ("Kilroy"). Shifted dramatically to the right, and made the odd bigoted remark (mostly about the Irish) but never got fired. He also had a column in a newspaper and he was eventually sacked by the BBC due to an extremely racist article about Arabs.
Joined UKIP, was a candidate in the Euro elections, did disturbingly well and became an MEP. Tried to be become leader of UKIP. Failed. Went off in a huff and founded his own party ("Veritas". which is apparently Latin for "truth"). Is running for Parliament in Erewash (a mixed suburban seat in Derbyshire). Is an egomaniac. Has disturbingly far right views (and was recently caught on camera asking an immigrant worker to "go back tomorrow"). A while back he had pig sh*t thrown on him (much to everyone's delight). Is an egomaniac. Did I mention that he's an egomaniac?

Satire:

http://eclectech.co.uk/kilroysilk.php
 http://www.vanitasparty.com/

[Peter]

What about the Liberals? Not the LibDems but the original Liberals of Michael Meadowcroft. For how many seats are they standing?

I've tried to get hold of this info, but I've had little luck. I'll keep searching. They ususally stand for a few seats, last time it was 14. Their best result is I think in Liverpool West Derby where they come second on 15 points, but they'll never be able to break through again I don't think.

EDIT: Okay, I've gotten hold of the info, and they are standing 14 candidates once again, including Liverpool West Derby

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Is it Cllr Radford in L'Pool West Derby by any chance?
I think an Oborski is running down in Wyre Forest

[Peter]

Liberal Party list of candidates

I also harassed the Alliance for Green Socialism who are apparently standing under the Socialist Green Unity Coalition banner. Total of 27 candidates.

The Scottish Socialist Party will be standing in 58 out of the 59 Scottish seats. Candidate list

[minionofmidas]

The Scottish Socialist Party will be standing in 58 out of the 59 Scottish seats. Candidate list

Question for anyone with more patience than me: Which one are they not standing in?

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

The Scottish Socialist Party will be standing in 58 out of the 59 Scottish seats. Candidate list

Question for anyone with more patience than me: Which one are they not standing in?

If you had just followwed the link, it tells you that they aren't standing for the seat of East Kilbride, Strathhaven & Lesmahagow and gives a link to the press release explaining why.

[minionofmidas]

The Scottish Socialist Party will be standing in 58 out of the 59 Scottish seats. Candidate list

Question for anyone with more patience than me: Which one are they not standing in?

East Kilbride Strathaven & Lesmahagow. Which sort of surprised me as East Kilbride shouldn't make one of their worse recruiting grounds.

Anyways, candidate totals for parties in Scotland:
Labour - 59
SNP - 59
LD - 58
Tories - 58 (LD and Tories follow tradition not to stand against the Speaker. SNP and SSP do not.)
SSP - 58. About a third of the seats in Scotland have that exact fivesome of parties on the ballot.
UKIP - 22
Scottish Green Party - 19. Is the Scottish Green Party organizationally independents of the Greens South of the border?
Socialist Labour Party - 10
Operation Christian Vote - 10
Free Scotland Party - 3
British National Party - 2. Running against Speaker Martin and against Scotland's only Muslim MP Mohammed Sarwar.
(self-proclaimed) independents - 12, from 10 different constituencies.
In addition, there are 11 parties running only one candidate each. Many of them - but not all - should probably be considered independents. In alphabetical order:
Communist Party Britain
Death Dungeons & Taxes
Independent Green Voice
Legalize Cannabis Alliance
Liberal Party
Pensioners Party Scotland
Pride in Paisley Party
Publican Party - Freedom to Smoke
Scottish Independence Party
Scottish Senior Citizens Unity Party
Scottish Unionist Party

Similar data on Wales, Northern Ireland and the English regions to follow.

Re: Ernest. I did follow the link but obviously didn't scroll very far down.

[minionofmidas]

Wales
Labour - 40
LD - 40
Tories - 40
PC - 40
UKIP - an impressive 30
Green - 11
Legalize Cannabis Alliance - 7
Forward Wales - 6
Socialist Labour Party - 6
BNP - 2
Communist Party of Britain - 2
Respect - 2
Socialist Alternative - 2
Liberal Party - 1
Veritas - 1
New Millenium Bean Party - 1
independents 12 in 12 different seats
oh, and...
Vote for Yourself - Rainbow Dream Ticket...four constituencies (all the Cardiff ones), but a single candidate.

[Peter]

Wales
UKIP - an impressive 30

Not really if you consider that they are contesting 3/4 of the seats nationwide, and that they beat the Lib Dems here last year.

Scottish Green Party - 19. Is the Scottish Green Party organizationally independents of the Greens South of the border?

I would doubt it. All the parties put "Scottish" before the party name on the ballot north of the border.

I forgot about the Legalize Cannabis Alliance when I went searching for numbers - they've got a total of 21 candidates

[minionofmidas]

I forgot about the Legalize Cannabis Alliance when I went searching for numbers - they've got a total of 21 candidates

And a third of that in Wales? Odd...