A TRAWL through the list of candidates for a local election is interesting enough but so is the list of those who nominate the candidate.
And it was especially interesting when we noticed that the proposer for cllr Terry Hipsey, the Labour candidate for Stanford East and Corringham Town (SECT), was cllr Colin Churchman.
Cllr Colin Churchman happens to be the Independent councillor for SECT but he was elected in 2015 as a UKIP councillor.
That was before cllr Churchman fell out with them on a matter of political principle (to do with planning).
To make matters more confusing, both councillor Churchman and councillor Hispey used to be Conservative councillors. Confused? You will be.
So we asked cllr Churchman to clear things up.
Cllr Churchman said: "Simple. Cllr Hipsey was the first person to ask me. Nominated a candidate is not an indication of voting intention. I have been nominated by people for other parties before.
"I would not read anything into it."
YT has also noticed that the UKIP candidate for Tilbury Riverside in 2015, Charlotte Compton (who only lost by five votes) has nominated the Labour candidate, cllr Lynn Worrall.
Ms Compton gave her reasons for supporting Labour: She said: ""Like lots of people I was taken in by UKIP’s simplistic solutions to every issue but the more time I spent with them, I came to see them for what they are – people who are happy to make any promise to get your vote but who really don’t care.
"By contrast Lynn Worrall really does care about Tilbury – she was born here, brought her family up here, and still lives here. I have seen Lynn, quietly, getting on with the job of helping local people day in and day out. That’s what I want from my local councillor and that’s why I am proud to have nominated her".
This, they say, is the heady world of Thurrock politics.
