Vectis National Party
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox political party The Vectis National Party was a minor political party operating on the Isle of Wight in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s. Formed in 1967,<ref name="Adam">Adam Grydehøj and Philip Hayward, "Autonomy Initiatives and Quintessential Englishness on the Isle of Wight" Template:Webarchive, Island Studies Journal, Vol. 6, No. 2, 2011, p.185</ref> the party sought Crown dependency status for the Isle of Wight, on a similar model to certain other islands including the Isle of Man. They were motivated by a belief that the sale of the Isle of Wight to the English crown in 1293 was unconstitutional.<ref>orchardcroft.co.uk Template:Webarchive</ref><ref name="Boothroyd"/>
The party contested the Isle of Wight constituency in the 1970 general election when candidate R. W. J. Cawdell, a councillor for Ryde,<ref>The Isle of Wight Festivals, 1968-70</ref> polled 1,607 votes (2.8% of the Wight vote).<ref name="Adam"/> The party led it to undertake symbolic direct action, such as an intra-island postal service during the 1971 postal strike.<ref name="Adam"/><ref>Brasher, S. (2011) 'The Returning Officer: Regionalists', New Statesman, 14 February</ref> That year it narrowly lost a local government election.<ref name="Boothroyd"/> It also led campaigns for the establishment of an Isle of Wight specific radio service (which eventually came into being in 1990) and for a regional television service.<ref name="Boothroyd">David Boothroyd, The History of British Political Parties, Politico's, 2001, p. 333</ref> The party's failure to convince the electorate to break from the traditional parties however led to disillusionment amongst members and by the mid 1970s the party had been wound up.<ref name="Boothroyd"/>
In 2006, Ray Stokes attempted to revive the VNP, emphasizing two aspects: an economically opportunistic deployment of islandness and a conservative, nostalgic impulse. The party was opposed to housing development that would lead to increased migration to the island, and to a fixed link to the island of Great Britain.<ref>Adam Grydehøj and Philip Hayward, op. cit., p.186</ref> The revived party did not contest any election.