Wessex Regionalists

The Wessex Regionalists is a minor English regionalist political party in the United Kingdom. It seeks a degree of legislative and administrative home rule for Wessex, an area in the south and south-west of England loosely based on the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the same name.

The party has contested a small number of Wessex-area parliamentary constituencies in most elections since it was established, but without success.

History

Speaking at a tourism industry conference in 1969, the then Viscount Weymouth suggested Wessex as a regional identity for tourism purposes. He later objected to the press over Wessex not being given the same opportunities as Scotland or Wales in the Kilbrandon Report. Lord Weymouth subsequently stood as the first Wessex Regionalist parliamentary candidate in Westbury in the February 1974 United Kingdom general election, coming last with 521 votes.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The party was formally constituted in 1981. It initially used Thomas Hardy's definition of Wessex as Berkshire, Hampshire, Wiltshire, Somerset, Dorset and Devon; but later added Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.<ref name="BarberisMcHugh2000">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It pulled out of the 1987 general election and advocated that its supporters voted for the Liberal/SDP Alliance on the basis that they were a close second in many Wessex seats and were the most supportive of regional government.<ref>"Regionalists pull out", Reading Evening Post page 5, 28 May 1987</ref>

Lord Weymouth (who succeeded as The 7th Marquess of Bath in June 1992) was the first president of the party, later defecting to the Liberal Democrats<ref name="auto"/> although in 1999 he was "still in touch" with the Wessex Regionalists.<ref>Daily Express page 29, 23 June 1999</ref> Subsequent presidents have included the activist John Banks and the former architect Colin Bex.<ref name="auto1">Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2013, Dorset County Councillor David C Fox switched his party allegiance from Liberal Democrat to Wessex Regionalist for his final few days in office.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

During the 2015 general election, Bex cast doubt on the official version of events of the 2001 September 11 attacks.<ref name="auto1"/> During the UK's 2016 referendum on membership of the European Union, the then-president Bex campaigned to leave.<ref name="politico.eu">Template:Cite web</ref> He described immigration as a "peaceful invasion", describing "people from all over the world" as "infiltrating" national institutions.<ref name="politico.eu"/> Devizes candidate and party leader Jim Gunter, at a hustings shortly before the 2017 general election, advocated a second referendum and, if that were not possible, the "Norway option" of remaining in the single market.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Ideology

Wessex as defined by the Wessex Regionalists

The party has been described as ethnoterritorial,<ref>Meguid, Bonnie M., Institutional Change as Strategy: The Role of Decentralization in Party Competition (2009). APSA 2009 Toronto Meeting Paper. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1450911</ref> though an earlier study of regionalist and nationalist parties in Britain reached the opposite conclusion, saying that "For regionalism, the legitimacy of the state as a whole is not usually in question; the challenge is to its territorial organisation. This is in contrast to ethnic nationalism (for example, that advocated for Wales), which suggests that the state is not legitimate because it contains different nations."<ref>Bennett, RJ, 'Regional movements in Britain: a review of aims and status', Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, Volume 3, Issue 1, pp 75-96 (1985)</ref> Its platform is based on the creation of a devolved assembly for the region it defines as Wessex.<ref name="auto"/> The party defines the counties of Berkshire, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Oxfordshire, Somerset, and Wiltshire as being part of Wessex. Whilst this roughly corresponds to the South West Region, it also includes the Western counties of the South East Region, and excludes Cornwall, which it describes as being "the last of the Celtic areas to be incorporated into Wessex", and retaining its own identity, as well as a nationalist party, Mebyon Kernow.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The assembly has variously been described as having a rotating location in the style of the Anglo-Saxon Witenagemot and as being based in Winchester, which had been the capital of the ancient kingdom of Wessex.<ref name="dailyecho.co.uk">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="dailyecho.co.uk1">Template:Cite web</ref> The assembly would take power from Parliament in Westminster rather than from local authorities.<ref name="dailyecho.co.uk1"/>

In light of UK government recognition of the Cornish people as a national minority under a European treaty, the party called for greater protection of local produce and what it described as the "Wessex dialect".<ref name="dailyecho.co.uk"/> The party believes that the Wessex region has a distinct cultural identity, which it seeks to promote.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It defines this culture as including morris dancing, cider, and the works of various local writers.<ref name="auto"/> The party was described in The Guardian as having a "nostalgia for pre–industrial revolution England".<ref name="auto"/>

In 2010, party leader Colin Bex advocated a 100% tax rate on the top 10% of earners, with the revenue passed to parish councils.<ref name="auto"/>

Electoral performance

Westminster elections

Election	Candidate	Constituency	Votes<ref name="Banks">Banks (1986)</ref>	%
1974 (February)	Viscount Weymouth	Westbury	521	0.8
1979	Colin Bex	Windsor & Maidenhead	251	0.4
	Henrietta Rous	Devon North	50	0.1
	Gwendoline Ewen	Dorset West	192	0.4
	Michael Mahoney	Winchester	392	0.6
	Viscount Weymouth	Wells	155	0.3
	Anthony Mockler	Devizes	142	0.2
	Tom Thatcher	Westbury	1,905	3.0
1983	Anthony Mockler	Wantage	183	0.4
	Colin Bex	Windsor & Maidenhead	68	0.1
	Henrietta Rous	Devon West & Torridge	113	0.2
	David Fox	Dorset North	294	0.6
	Simon Winkworth	Winchester	155	0.3
	Adam Stout	Wansdyke	213	0.4
	David Robins	Woodspring	177	0.3
	Gwendoline Ewen	Devizes	234	0.4
	Maya Kemp	Salisbury	182	0.3
	John Banks	Westbury	131	0.8
1997	Colin Bex	Portsmouth North	72	0.2
2001	Colin Bex	Wells	167	0.3
	Henrietta Rous	Winchester	66	0.1
2005	Colin Bex	Dorset South	83	0.2
2010	Colin Bex	Witney	62	0.1
2013(b)	Colin Bex	Eastleigh	30	0.1
2015	Colin Bex	Witney	110	0.2
2017	Jim Gunter	Devizes	223	0.4

European Parliament elections

Election	Candidate	Constituency	Votes	%
1979	Viscount Weymouth	Wessex	1,706	0.8
1984	Henrietta Rous	Devon	659	0.3
1989	Gwendoline Ewen	Bristol	1,017	0.5
	Henrietta Rous	Devon	385	0.2
	Anthony Mockler	Somerset and Dorset West	930	0.4

Sources

• Template:Cite journal
• Template:Cite book

External links

• Template:Official website
• Wessex Regionalists Party papers 1975–1996 Template:Webarchive University of Bristol Library Special Collections