Oh dear, it all seemed to be going so well for the ‘Northern Independence Party’, a Corbynite breakaway outfit standing in the Hartlepool by-election. Despite appearing to think that Norwich is a northern city, and the pretty embarrassing use of a whippet on its logo, the party had managed to field a former Labour MP in Hartlepool and was receiving some favourable coverage in the left-wing and national media.

Unfortunately though there seems to be trouble at t’mill. Last night, the party announced that because it had failed to file the correct forms with the Electoral Commission on time, it would not be on the ballot paper in Hartlepool. Instead, its candidate Thelma Walker (who used to represent Colne Valley, a mere 100 miles from Hartlepool) will be forced to stand as an independent. It’s not exactly a reassuring start for a party hoping to form a breakaway northern republic.

🚨🚨 BREAKING: The Rules of the Game (1/2)

🟨🟥 The EC will not be registering our party in time for the election. Disappointing, but the system can often feel difficult for outsiders.

🟨🟥 So, whatever, we’ll just stand our candidates as NIP Independents.

— Northern Independence Party 🟨🟥 (@FreeNorthNow) April 8, 2021

Still, at least it managed to file its excuses on time. According to the party, led by an international development lecturer at Sussex university, the obsession of the ‘managerial classes’ with ‘legal obstacles and paperwork’ is to blame for the group’s incompetence. It then went on to suggest – in an apparent bid to power the north using Harold Wilson’s spinning grave – that its party of ‘ordinary northerners’ were incapable of filling out the forms correctly.

Mr S has to congratulate the party on one thing at least. It takes a special kind of gift to combine Jeremy Corbyn’s drive for democratic socialism with an even greater administrative incompetence than his Labour Party…<//>