Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me. Yes, the voters of Clacton have been fooled again!

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202608/medium-93u8pl-screenshot-2026-08-16-at-10-17-25.png https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202608/medium-5vyk52-screenshot-2026-08-16-at-10-18-26.png

Except those who need to claim disability benefits.

Clacton has the highest number of PIP claimants in Essex placing it in the top 20 nationwide. 18% (9,627) working age people claim it.

Reform announces its plans to abolish PIP the day after Farage is re-elected in Clacton.

BBC report online says some Clacton folk are pleased with Farage's win.
One young Binface fan feels that the publicity around the Count could bring in much needed tourism.
Non Farage fans are pleased that the money investigation is back on
Lots of winning.

Oreo

You’ve been outgunned Dickens…. It’s a fast moving situation
😂

... looks like it - but let my ousting be a warning... watch out for those medieval huddles in corners and corridors which are subdued into silence as you walk past...

However, what I truly dislike is when people choose to express their opinions as hard facts, even when others have clearly given evidence, stats, credible sources proving that “facts” presented are simply an opinion.

Yes, Cossy - you've summed it up in a nutshell.

Or there's the selective presentation of facts, missing out those that crucially might change the whole picture. I think both the 'Left' and 'Right' can be guilty of this.

And just to muddy the waters further, we have situations where everyone is aware of the same facts - but they are minimal, because there's things going on behind-the scenes to which none of us are privy, and are therefore open to interpretation - and that interpretation might be presented as fact too...

You’ve been outgunned Dickens…. It’s a fast moving situation
😂

Galaxy

Ok oreo we need a new dictatorship anyway, dickens is suggesting we shoot people

Well that coup didn't last long did it...

!!

butterandjam

@ Petra "*Rather a stupid place to come ashore if you’re illegal.There are a hundred and one places where they could have been dropped off and nobody would have seen hide nor hair of them.*"

But arrivals planning to claim asylum in UK, seek an instant introduction to TPTB. The very last thing they want is to disappear without a trace.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czjekx34d70o

I don’t think for one moment these people were going to claim asylum.
You will notice that an Albanian was arrested. The Albanians have a big recruiting drive going on at the moment Re their drug industry.
They want these people where and when they need them. Migrants who claim asylum are no good to them in a hotel/hostal/ hmo.
They are still bringing migrants across the Chanel in Lorrie’s and private cars.

I thought the main reason there was an ageing population was that like many seaside towns, people move there to retire petra? Older people are more likely to vote for Reform or the Tories.

winterwhite

All many of us had to go on for this by-election was snap interviews with Clacton residents for television news.

When asked what they thought of Farage’s alleged financial misdoings they frequently said that he was ‘no different from all the others’ and ‘they’re all the same’. Those are foolish things to say, and I assume that this is what Reform is feeding its supporters nationwide.

Clacton has one of the highest aging populations in the country. I would suggest that the reason people commented
they are all the same and he was no different to all the others was because they have memories.
There’s also the fact that when you have nothing and successive governments have ignored you and then someone comes along and tells you they can fix everything, you believe them, why wouldn’t you, you’ve got nothing to loose because when you’ve got nothing you’ve got nothing to loose.
So no, it wasn’t a foolish thing to say.

@ Petra "*Rather a stupid place to come ashore if you’re illegal.There are a hundred and one places where they could have been dropped off and nobody would have seen hide nor hair of them.*"

But arrivals planning to claim asylum in UK, seek an instant introduction to TPTB. The very last thing they want is to disappear without a trace.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czjekx34d70o

I feel sorry for voters of Clacton.
They are being vilified.

Not all voted for Farage.

All many of us had to go on for this by-election was snap interviews with Clacton residents for television news.

When asked what they thought of Farage’s alleged financial misdoings they frequently said that he was ‘no different from all the others’ and ‘they’re all the same’. Those are foolish things to say, and I assume that this is what Reform is feeding its supporters nationwide.

Ok oreo we need a new dictatorship anyway, dickens is suggesting we shoot people

Galaxy

I think if only me and you could vote things would work out fine Dickens , we could i suppose let a few others join our dictatorship.

Oh go on lemme in! 😄

Dickens

I think there's three issues going on here.

On the one hand, there's opinion and feelings - and everyone's entitled to those regardless of any objections to them.

On the other hand, there are facts - and verifiable data to support them.

Then there is the phenomenon of opinions and feelings which don't change when presented with facts that academically don't 'justify' those feeling or opinions.

That, for me anyway, is the crucial bit - because I believe posters are still entitled to hold those very same opinions and feelings even if the facts appear not to justify them.

What I personally find unacceptable though is not the latter - it is using misinformation, or downright lies, in attempt to prove that they are justified.

In other words - we are allowed to hold a bias - Left or Right (in simplistic terms). What I'm trying to say is that you cannot tell someone "you can't feel this way or have that opinion because the facts don't support your feelings".... because politics isn't a maths equation, it's lived experience. When someone holds a strong political view, I believe it's rarely based on a single issue but by a lifetime of personal pressures. You can prove their specific data point wrong, but you haven't disproven their underlying reality. So unless we address the hidden pressures driving these opinions, fact-checking people's feelings will never work. Is what I'm trying to say.

Shoot me if you like - I'm just thinking out loud though...

I entirely agree.

I don’t even get upset or feel riled when people are presented with hard facts, but still keep their own opinions, because I believe it’s their right to think what they think and to express it.

However, what I truly dislike is when people choose to express their opinions as hard facts, even when others have clearly given evidence, stats, credible sources proving that “facts” presented are simply an opinion.

Sometimes, there’s a grey area or a fine line, sometimes it’s misinformation, sometimes it’s a deliberate attempt to mislead.

Correction, in the interests of accuracy, there were 34 candidates.

The Clacton by-election was just a farce. There were no meaningful choices on the ballot paper as the main parties stayed well away. The choice was between an extreme right-wing candidate and an unknown quantity who was possibly a left-wing Labour supporter, who knows. With 32 candidates, all unknown quantities except one, the majority, over 55%, stayed away from the ballot box.
The people of Clacton surely deserve better than this.

Galaxy

And who decides who is informed enough. Should we ban the labour voters who thought the appointment of mandelsson was wise.

No one decides who is "informed enough." Our responsibility is to build a society in which people are as capable as possible of making their choice thoughtfully.

An informed electorate isn't one where everyone reaches the same conclusion; it's one where people have the capacity to ask “why do I believe this?” and investigate the answer for themselves.

Critical thinking has to apply most rigorously to the beliefs we really don't want challenged. The answer isn't to decide who is informed enough but to provide the people the intellectual tools to resist manipulation.

Yes that was a good explanation of 'tribal' thinking ( I am not using tribal in a derogatory way).
I keep banging on about class but it is something to do with that as well.
It is easy if you are comfortably off to say for example ' we shouldn't be worrying about benefit claimants, we should be looking at amazon's tax avoidance'. If you are getting up at 5.30 to do a physically hard minimum wage job and see Billy next door claiming for anxiety ( I am not minimising anxiety) and earning more than you, your feelings about who is to blame may be very different.

Very well put Dickens

I think there's three issues going on here.

On the one hand, there's opinion and feelings - and everyone's entitled to those regardless of any objections to them.

On the other hand, there are facts - and verifiable data to support them.

Then there is the phenomenon of opinions and feelings which don't change when presented with facts that academically don't 'justify' those feeling or opinions.

That, for me anyway, is the crucial bit - because I believe posters are still entitled to hold those very same opinions and feelings even if the facts appear not to justify them.

What I personally find unacceptable though is not the latter - it is using misinformation, or downright lies, in attempt to prove that they are justified.

In other words - we are allowed to hold a bias - Left or Right (in simplistic terms). What I'm trying to say is that you cannot tell someone "you can't feel this way or have that opinion because the facts don't support your feelings".... because politics isn't a maths equation, it's lived experience. When someone holds a strong political view, I believe it's rarely based on a single issue but by a lifetime of personal pressures. You can prove their specific data point wrong, but you haven't disproven their underlying reality. So unless we address the hidden pressures driving these opinions, fact-checking people's feelings will never work. Is what I'm trying to say.

Shoot me if you like - I'm just thinking out loud though...

I think if only me and you could vote things would work out fine Dickens , we could i suppose let a few others join our dictatorship.

Oreo

I don’t think it matters where the small/ enormous boatloads of asylum seekers enter the UK, it’s the fact that they keep on coming surely?

It’s significant both that the boats are larger, and that they are not taking the shortest route, because it indicates that the challenge of preventing them is morphing as it gets harder for them to get here an easier way. We need to be ahead of that.

Dickens

MT62

AGAA4

The people of Clacton voted Farage as there really was no credible alternative. I think they know he hasn't done anything for them but it can be a case of 'better the devil you know'.
How long will Farage last now the enquiries into the 5 million donation have resumed.
I hope the people of Clacton don't have to face another by-election.

Some people being interviewed say he’s not done anything for Clacton, but voted for him anyway because they believe he may solve the migrant boat crisis.

Some people being interviewed say he’s not done anything for Clacton, but voted for him anyway because they believe he may solve the migrant boat crisis.

The first-ever recorded instance of small boat migrants being detained off the Essex coast occurred on 1 July 2026, when a single boat dropped off six migrants at Holland-on-Sea.
The authorities responded instantly. The six migrants were quickly detained by Immigration Enforcement, and the National Crime Agency (NCA) arrested and charged the European smugglers orchestrating the crossing.
While the event was heavily publicised by Nigel Farage as proof that "nowhere is safe," it remains an isolated event for the constituency.
(source: GOOGLE)

As far as I know - and I haven't bothered to check so you might want to, but it makes sense, the small boats arrive at the narrowest part of the Channel - Kent.

Rather a stupid place to come ashore if you’re illegal.
There are a hundred and one places where they could have been dropped off and nobody would have seen hide nor hair of them.

I don’t think it matters where the small/ enormous boatloads of asylum seekers enter the UK, it’s the fact that they keep on coming surely?