Tendring District Council:
“A date has been set for a Parliamentary by-election in Clacton.
Following receipt of the Writ from the Clerk of the Crown in Chancery by the Acting Returning Officer this morning (Friday, 10 July), the timetable is now set for the election – with polling day on Thursday, 13 August.
The poll was triggered by the resignation of the sitting MP, and the publication of the Notice of Election will take place on Monday (13 July).
Potential candidates will then have four days, from Tuesday 14 July to Friday 17 July at 4pm, to submit their nominations.
Residents not already on the electoral register have until 28 July to apply to vote in time for the by-election, and until 5pm the following day (29 July) to apply for a postal or postal proxy vote.”
Reform had initially claimed the by-election would be on the previous Thursday 6th. Not so…
Farage was asked if he expected all the other parties to boycott the election, saying: “No, of course not. Why would they [not contest]? It’s a real election.” Reform has to decide on a new comms strategy for this one…
Statement by Paul Dacre, Editor-in-Chief of Associated Newspapers Limited, following Harry’s loss in court today:
“Prince Harry wrote a sad book which boasted about his killing of 25 Taliban, his drug-taking and, in cringe-making detail, how he lost his virginity. There isn’t a laundry in the cosmos big enough to wash all the dirty linen he has aired about his own family. For him, to complain about HIS privacy being invaded takes, not just the biscuit, but the whole tin. Poor Harry. I feel sorry for the way a confused and angry young man has been drawn into this case. The bitter irony is that his mother, Diana, liked the Mail. We were her paper. We took her side in her acrimonious break up with Charles. She and I would speak and meet. The Mail’s superb royal reporter was her friend and confidante. The truth is that this trumped-up action – which has cost well over £50 million and wasted a huge amount of valuable court time – should never have been brought to trial. That it did, raises profoundly disturbing questions about the conduct of elements of the legal profession. Today’s verdict is not just a victory for Associated’s magnificent journalists – several of whom have had a terrible toll imposed on their health and lives – but a free press generally. Make no mistake. This was a conspiracy, supported by Hacked Off, to destroy a paper. Financed by the orgy-loving, racist Max Mosley and involving the actor Hugh Grant, it was also a sinister bid to resuscitate Leveson Two and impose statutory regulation on the press which, even now, is rearing its ugly head in Labour’s Media Green Paper.”