Suppose They Held a By-election and Nobody Came

9th July 2026 The Farage stunt by-election in constitutional context * “Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came” – a 1960s slogan and a title of a 1970 film * The current leader of the Reform Party has resigned his parliamentary seat so as to force a by-election in his Clacton constituency, in which he will stand for re-election. This is, of course, a stunt. * For a few wonderful hours yesterday it seemed we might have had the constitutional excitement of this by-election either being delayed or denied. This is because – somewhat oddly – a Member of Parliament cannot directly resign their seat. This is a constitutional fiction – a daft piece of political-legal make-believe. The notion is that – like, say, with jury service – being summoned to attend parliament is a civic duty. Indeed, in the past it was a onerous duty which the knights of the shires and the burgers from the boroughs would often not like to do – and would get out from doing if they could. And so if you were selected…