Farage's Latest Antic

There is precious little to admire about Nigel Farage. However, his ability to grab the news agenda is undeniable - an announcement that he was going to make a statement at 2pm yesterday proceeded to dominate the agenda for the next several hours. Apparently, he's been suffering terrible unfairnesses and so has decided to resign and trigger a byelection.

A few things about this:

• Apparently, MPs can't actually resign directly - they get elected to serve a fixed term, with the expectation that they serve that term, unless they die. There are two sinecures in place that exist as an exception to this - they have no salary and no duties, but they have a rule that the person holding those posts cannot also be an MP. So the MP who wants to 'resign' applies for one of those posts, and is thus disqualified, and a byelection has to occur. However, I think this gives Rachel Reeves the opportunity for top quality trolling - those two sinecures are (officially at least) in the gift of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, so she could always decline to offer them to Farage.
• That said, all of that is horribly archaic nonsense. Frankly, those two roles should be abolished, with MPs instead being allowed to resign (with a proper notice period)... but barred from standing in the byelection that results. (Because what Farage is doing, like what David Davis did a few years ago, is a pointless and expensive gimmick that really shouldn't be tolerated.)
• The other funniest thing that can happen, of course, is that Farage fails to get re-elected. Apparently, the other parties have declined to stand, in order to take the interest out of this election, so the only other candidate (so far) is Count Binface. Farage took 46% of the vote last time, which is huge in a multi-party contest but not in a two-way race.

But...

• In all of this a few things seem to have been lost, which was probably Farage's intent. The thing is, for all his talk about having done nothing wrong, Farage was under investigation concerning a sizeable donation. Now, it may be that that donation was entirely legitimate. But it may also be the case that he should have declared it and failed to do so. Finally, it's also possible that the investigation itself is politically motivated - that he's being targeted because he's a threat to the establishment. The truth of this, whichever way it lies, matters significantly. If Farage broke the rules, he should face the appropriate sanction, and a byelection win shouldn't allow him to weasel out of that. Conversely, if he is being targeted unfairly, that too is a big problem and needs to be dealt with - while I have no sympathy with Farage, and no agreement with his party or policies, the rules have to be fair for everyone including those we most dislike.
• In his diatribe Farage also made a number of serious allegations about democratic issues - that the rules for the upcoming election for the new Manchester mayor were being changed specifically to disadvantage Reform, that votes were being extended to 16 year olds for specifically party-political reasons, and that the rules for political donations were likewise being changed specifically to harm Reform. Again, the truth of these things matters. And, again, the rules have to be fair for everyone.

Now, that said, I'm of the view that votes for 16 year olds is long overdue... and indeed that Labour are probably slightly too late to gain the benefit that the expect, as the Greens will capitalise instead. And the rules on donating to political parties in this country are not as they should be, especially as regards foreign donors. I do, however, have much more concern about the changes to the rules for the election of the mayor - I find it remarkable that the government of the day just happens to put in place the system that they think will give them the very best outcome, and indeed that they are permitted to do so. These things really should be administered by an independent body.

But all of that is an aside. More important than the specific set of rules is that a fair set of rules is put in place and then applied equally to all, without fear or favour.

Also: Vote Binface!