By Mathew Carr
August 8, 2026– The Clacton by-election is “an affront” to the community, said Matthew Simpkins, the priest at the Church of England’s St James outpost in the coastal township.
Simpkins was declining to speak with me during the campaign (possibly because I’m an independent candidate and he didn’t want to be seen to endorse me). Yet he did say the situation with the by election was an affront.
“I’m not going to engage with you about something that’s an affront to this community,” he said Aug. 1 while inside the church helping to pack up after an event.
I had previously repeatedly asked if he might advise how to get Christian values /family values back into politics….which are toxic in many countries across the world right now. I’m a reporter as well as a budding politician.
I should point out that I was in a Church of England choir growing up, and I ended up being choir master, briefly …before heading to university. This was in Dorrigo, Northern New South Wales, Australia, a small country town of about 1,300 people. I don’t regularly attend church anymore and I believe god — or at least some type of universal spirit — is within everyone.
Some people seem to suppress him/her/them.
Father Simpkins said he would speak to me after the election.
I didn’t really get the chance to ask him about what he meant by “an affront” to the community. The word is defined as a deliberate, direct, and openly disrespectful action or remark that insults someone’s dignity, pride, or values.
Here are some ideas:
The main concerns about the by-election are:
–The circumstances that triggered the election. Nigel Farage resigned as Clacton’s MP and immediately sought to be re-elected, after controversy surrounding an alleged/undeclared £5 million gift and scrutiny of his finances. Critics have characterised the election as an attempt to distract from the existing controversy about Mr Farage’s dodgy finances by unnecessarily seeking a fresh mandate. To be clear, it’s not the job of ordinary folks to prosecute alleged lawbreakers. We have police and prosecutors for that.
–The extraordinary number of candidates. There are 34 candidates, believed to be a record for a UK parliamentary election. That makes the ballot paper exceptionally unwieldy and has raised questions about whether the contest is being treated seriously. Farage and Count Binface are getting the majority of news coverage…especially by Ofcom-regulated broadcasters..
–The press focus during the election on migration is warped, as small boats are not generally a problem here. Still, there is a housing crisis nationally and four people familiar tell me the council struggles to find houses for those in need, partly due to increased inward migration into the country.
–The absence of the major established parties. Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Green candidates are not contesting the seat, leaving Farage facing a field dominated by independents, minor parties and novelty candidates. That is highly unusual for a Westminster by-election and means many Clacton voters don’t have the conventional party choices they would normally expect.
–The parties effectively abandoned the Clacton people to Farage’s antics.
–Media bias against most candidates is appalling. BBC misspelled my name and misspoke about what I’m about (more to come).
–The lack of conventional campaigning and scrutiny. Reporting from Clacton indicates Farage has largely avoided local hustings, while independent candidates have been holding their own public events. The Guardian reported that some candidates believe the contest is being trivialised and that voters deserve more direct engagement.
Nomination document was warped and hustings sabotaged by council overseeing the vote:
–The danger that the election becomes primarily about Farage rather than Clacton. Survation found that 45% of voters spontaneously mentioned Farage personally when asked what the election was about, rising to 54% when procedural references to him were included. That suggests the by-election is functioning substantially as a referendum on one politician rather than a conventional contest about local representation and policy.
(More to come)
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I asked chatGPT how the by election was appalling?
It said in part: One important qualification: “appalling” is a value judgement, and some of the features listed above can be interpreted differently, it said.
For example, 34 candidates could equally be viewed as an unusually broad exercise of the right to stand for Parliament, while Farage’s decision to resign and recontest the seat can be viewed either as cynical or as seeking a renewed democratic mandate.
CarrZee and Clacton