The Thirsk man

I mean no disrespect to Howard Keal, who for all I know is a great guy possessed of myriad virtues, but he may now be the most pointless man in Britain.

The Thirsk and Malton election was postponed after the death of the UKIP candidate, and is now due on 27 May. It’s a new seat, but notionally it’s a pretty safe Tory one, with Labour in second. The Lib Dems, represented by Mr Keal, are third.

Now that the Tories and Lib Dems have a joint programme for government and have each jettisoned parts of their manifestos, I’m not sure what platform he’ll be standing on. A similar difficulty attaches to Anne McIntosh, the Tory candidate, but she has the advantage of being the favourite to win.

This is just the first oddity of coalition politics. There’ll be many more, large and small, to come.