29/09/2014
While Mr Carswell might have the approval of his voters,
it seems that Mr Reckless isn't getting the same treatment. Instead, he has been forced to abandon plans for a walkabout in Rochester with Farage, after facing a hostile reception from local media and angry Tory activists, then having
to escape through the side door of a pub.
He also got a rough ride from Tory chairman Grant Shapps. In Birmingham, Shapps told the Conference, "We have been betrayed. Every Conservative in this hall, and everyone you represent: We all know individual MPs don't succeed on their own. They do so by standing on the shoulders of others. Your shoulders".
Shapps added: "People who volunteered for Mr Reckless, they supported him as a Conservative. People who pounded the streets, they supported him as a Conservative. People who donated money from their own pockets, who worked tirelessly for him, they supported him as a Conservative. They did so in good faith".
However, the former Tory MP insists he was trying to "keep faith with my constituents and keep my promises to them", but his experience raises the interesting possibility that he won't get re-elected, making his gesture a career-ending move.
This is not a prediction, by the way â just an observation. We have yet to see any local opinion polls, and it is always possible that Mr Reckless is wildly popular and will romp home under his new colours.
But there is also the possibility that defections cut short promising careers. This might dampen the ardour of potential copycats, and stem what some hope is becoming a major political realignment.
Instead, we might be looking at a high water mark, making Mr Carswell a very lonely man in Parliament, and cutting short a political revolution. And, in a topsy-turvy world, we could even have
David Cameron campaigning for Britain to leave the EU â or not.
Whichever way the dice falls, though, politics just got a little bit more interesting.
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