I really hope the people of Clacton tell Farage to get fucked. Not only because he's a contemptible racist and public school bully, cosplaying as a man of the people to get his rich sponsors an in to the legal and administrative powers in the country. But also because he isn't even doing his fucking job.
Like, I loathe the Tories from the depths of my soul, but even they - when they're professional politicians - probably sometimes do something useful by simply turning up to their constituency, listening to the people who voted them in, and nudging the wheels of bureaucracy to turn a little faster in the right direction.
All Farage did was parade around with his big bus of lies, scam his way into the job, and then fuck off to the US to go suck Donald's toes or whatever it is he's doing out there. He's barely appeared in his constituency, and he's never held a surgery (basically a chance for voters to meet their MP 1:1 and air any problems, more info here).
I know from personal experience how much difference a local MP can make. When my dad was leaving a job that included live-in housing (he was a park keeper in a wood), the local council wanted to house our family - two adults and two nearly-teens - in a two-room flat in Tottenham, and said we had to take it or become "intentionally homeless". My mum went to our local MP (Bernie Grant, leftwing hero), and he helped us get a decent house (with a garden!) that was our family home for the next 20-something years. And when my dad retired, he put in for a swap to a smaller home in Oxford, but the council here was being useless and dragging their heels, and the whole thing was about to fall through - so he went to his local MP, things got restarted, and now he lives down the road from me and I can keep an eye on him. I've written to my own MP several times about issues I want to highlight, like the shameful way trans people in this country are treated. And this is just me and my family.
So the fact that Farage did it purely as a grift, that he lied to the people of Clacton to get himself and his mates a seat at the table, really grinds my gears. Do your FUCKING JOB, Farage. You owe it to the people who voted for you, however bad a choice I believe that to be.
And this whole nonsensical by-election! Listen, if I was doing so badly at my job that I was under investigation for fraud, and if my response was to resign and declare that I was going to apply for the vacancy I'd just created, to somehow prove that I had a mandate and they should all stop investigating me... at best, they might let me go without referring me to the police. I certainly wouldn't get invited to interview, and as for being rehired...!
