I'm not as smart as Dominic Cummings

My cynicism was firmly misplaced. I very much doubted that this parliament would vote for an election, but it seems we've now got one nailed on for December. Cummings has delivered a whopping poll lead for Boris and now has brought to pass the wanted general election. Very impressive stuff!

(Think I might try to knock up a Halloween image in his honour - his head is very pumpkin shaped).

The election is now another Rubik's Cube to crack, what with all the potentially vote splitting candidates standing. The big thing is now to see how the Brexit Party position themselves. I really hope common sense prevails and the Brexit Party and the Conservatives mutually reinforce each other instead of going head to head.

My constituency of Middlesbrough..

My biggest problem now is deciding how I will vote. I thought it would be a simple choice between Labour and the Brexit Party. With BP getting my X in the box. However, we now have an independent candidate on the block. One Antony High. The mayor's deputy.

(Antony High for Independent)

Normally it would be easy to dismiss an independent candidate. However, this seems very much different. The current mayor is very popular in the area. Has a very strong presence on social media locally, and absolutely smashed the vote in the mayoral elections in May.

The position of mayor was previously held by Labour, but this time round they got obliterated.

The Labour candidate pulled in only 6,692 votes. The newly elected Andy Preston an enormous 17,418. So quite a landslide.

(The full results

..might have to click to enlarge that image)

I'm imagining the campaign to get Antony High elected will be equally well ran, and no doubt he'll have the open support of the mayor himself.

So the big question; where does he stand on Brexit?

On Facebook he stated;

*BREXIT matters - and so should the referendum Vote! Let me clearly set my stance on the nations biggest political issue - Middlesbrough and the UK voted to leave!

So he seems to respect the outcome of the vote and accept the general direction of travel. How brexity he is though is difficult to ascertain. The mayor campaigned to remain in the EU in 2016, but since then has took a neutral stance and generally focuses on local issues.

Obviously the danger of having two candidates two choose from means there's a real danger the vote will be split. Consequently I may end up just having to go with the flow of the town. It'll be interesting to see what happens next. No doubt things will move pretty quickly now.