My questions about the Rochester and Strood by-election and other thoughts.

Readers, I would first of all like to thank everyone who came to today's Free Education Demo in London, especially those of you from the Green Party, and in particular the Young Greens, who helped get the march organised. I am sorry I could not be there, but I am glad that so many came. After all, many countries in Europe have free higher education, so we can, and we should also have it for both undergraduate and postgraduate education (particularly important to me since I want to become a psychologist one day).

Secondly, polling day for the Rochester & Strood by-election is tomorrow and it has been a rather interesting campaign. I am hoping Clive Gregory will have done well enough to save his deposit in the end (since he has not got a realistic chance of winning this by-election, unfortunately), especially with a YouGov poll showing the Green Party as high as 8%. There has undoubtedly been some campaigning from the eight 'minor candidates' (all candidates except Labour's Naushabah Khan, our Clive Gregory, the Liberal Democrats' Geoff Juby, Mark Reckless for UKIP and the Conservatives' Kelly Tolhurst) but sadly the media sometimes just has not enough time (or enough fairness in the BBC's case) to hear them all in equal measure to the Greens, the Lib Dems., Labour, UKIP and the Conservatives.

It appears that a UKIP win is now a given in this by-election, even though it was not from the start; Kelly's abrasive, argumentative and rude manner will undoubtedly play a major factor in the Conservatives' defeat here, and also how much of a swing to UKIP they take when the results come through. However, what happens regarding how well the other eleven candidates do is still debatable at this point.

My five by-election questions for Rochester & Strood are:

1. If Mark Reckless wins, how much will he win by?
2. Can Labour push the Conservatives into third place, given that there is more potential for them here than there was in Clacton?
3. Will the Green Party's Clive Gregory get his deposit returned, and will he beat the Liberal Democrats' Geoff Juby?
4. Will the turnout in this by-election remain more buoyant than that of Clacton?
5. How well, or not, will the four independent candidates and the four minor party candidates poll in this by-election, and who will take the (metaphorical) wooden spoon?

Please feel free to give your own answers to my five questions :)

Regards, Alan.

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