In 122 UK constituencies in the forthcoming election the ballot paper will include candidates from the cosy-sounding Social Democratic Party.

This outfit, however, is nothing like the party launched back in 1981 by the ex-Labour Gang of Four, David Owen, Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams, and Bill Owen, which merged with the Liberals in 1988 to form what we now know as the Liberal Democrats.

The present reincarnation is a right-wing, socially conservative offering formed by the remnants of the original SDP when it was finally wound up in 1990.

Now led by William Clouston (pictured), one of its candidates in July is the gob-shite right wing columnist, Rod Liddle.

Clouston got himself into a bit of bother back in 2020 when he retweeted a post of a man reading a poem called ‘The Right to Hate’ which railed against the ‘New World Order’ and the Rothschilds.

Clouston also retweeted a comment which said: “This man is absolutely nailed on with this. Some really powerful points in this.”

But more to the point: in South Yorkshire they have entered into a pact with Nigel Farage’s Reform party for this general election. The deal, announced two years ago, declared that:

“…each party stand aside for the other in six key constituencies and will also see over a dozen candidates in the South Yorkshire area standing under the joint branding of ‘Reform UK & The Social Democratic Party (SDP)’.

What has emerged is a hybrid of this arrangement: there are no candidates running under the ‘joint branding’ but in the fourteen South Yorkshire constituencies the parties are standing aside for each other, with only one appearing on each ballot form.

So, if you live in South Yorkshire beware:

Vote SDP, get Nigel Farage…