Dave Must Be Spitting Feathers

[alluvial]

Tory defects to UKIP

Should be interesting in he by-election.

[barrydidit]

Interesting move. He didn't need to resign as MP, could have just changed party. Seems a reasonable thing to do though, under the circumstances.

Got a majority of 12000 according to his wikipedia page.

[moggy]

majority or not it is a tory safe seat not a vote for Douglas Carswell i'd imagine.

..a slap in the face for Dave though

[darmstadt]

Another side to it: Can I have my free golliwog now? asks Carswell

[Gittins Gal]

Fantastic news!!

[Flashman]

A politician resigns on principle and is prepared to put it to the voters.

A wonderful contrast to the appalling set in Rotherham.

Salute Mr Carswell!

[kal]

A re-election should be mandatory when changing parties, you have to applaud him for doing so. 'Call me Dave' must be bricking it

[malvolio]

A re-election should be mandatory when changing parties, you have to applaud him for doing so. 'Call me Dave' must be bricking it

Don't see why. The whole point of Parliamentary Democracy is that you elect your preferred representative, not the party they belong to. OK, Joe Public is way too uneducated to understand that, and the parties aren't about to tell them, but a mandatory re-election won't happen.

I have a different take: the guy is too minor to make a difference by himself and lacks the balls to stand up and say he disagrees with the Cabinet, so let's change hats and make sure everyone knows who I am. Unless he is an exceptional constituency MP - and most of his constituents won't know who the hell he is - he'll get smacked by the safe seat vote and disappear. If that happens, and it's the way to bet, Dave will be delighted that UKIP are having another egg-on-face moment.

[northernladuk]

Joe Public is way too uneducated to understand that, and the parties aren't about to tell them, but a mandatory re-election won't happen..

Absolutely. That's why you should be allocated a number of votes depending on how much tax you pay... Oh.. Hang on, that's not going to work is it

[ZARDOZ]

I had a bit of banter with Carswell on Twitter and he spat the dummy when I accused his government of being spineless perhaps he was really feeling the same thing, hence the over-reaction.