Wessex Regionalist Party
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Wessex Regionalists
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| Leader | Colin Bex |
| Founded | 1974 |
| Headquarters | 55 Brookside Wokingham Berkshire |
| Youth wing | None |
| Ideology |
Wessex regionalism Wessex devolution Civic nationalism Social democracy Green politics Agrarianism Localism |
| Political position | Centre-left |
| European affiliation | None |
| International affiliation | None |
| Colours | Green, Red and Gold |
| Wessex Councils |
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| Website | |
| wessexregionalists |
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The Wessex Regionalist Party is a minor political party in the United Kingdom, that 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 that name. It is also known, less formally, as the Wessex Regionalists, the name under which it usually campaigns.
The party has contested Wessex-area constituencies in most elections since it was established, but with little success. In the 2015 general election, the party contested one seat, Witney, and received 110 votes. It has, however, secured representation at parish council level.
According to its Electoral Commission records, it had income of £100 (including £95 subscriptions), and expenditure of £35.52, for the year 2004, in which it contested no elections. In the year 2008, it had an income of £153, and an expenditure of £25.
The party was formed by Alexander Thynn, then styled Viscount Weymouth in 1974 in response to growing demands for home rule in both Scotland and Wales. After a number of years' informal existence, the party organisation was constituted in 1981. The first President (party leader) was Weymouth; subsequent Presidents have included Anthony Mockler and John Banks. The current President is Colin Bex.
The party's archives for the 1970s and 1980s are deposited at the University of Bristol.
The party originally used Thomas Hardy's definition of Wessex as consisting of the ancient counties of Berkshire, Devon, Dorset, Hampshire (which includes the Isle of Wight), Somerset and Wiltshire, but recently accepted a proposal to add Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire to this list, bringing their definition into line with that used by the Wessex Constitutional Convention and the Wessex Society. The areas now constituting Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire did not form part of the kingdom of the West Saxons, but were for a time ruled by that entity under its earlier name of the Gewisse. Subsequently, the areas came under Mercian control and today they are claimed by movements for autonomy in both Wessex and Mercia.
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