This picture sums up why the Libertarian Party stood in Devizes yesterday. A BBC interviewer asking sensible questions about what is Libertarianism, and a Libertarian answering.
The imperceptible squeak in a seat where noblesse oblige rules the local Tory Party (I have not seen characters like this since watching the last ever episode of ‘To The Manor Born’) allowed 141 voters to vote for something that they have never heard of before Nic Coome stood, let alone had the opportunity to vote for.
All of the candidates bar one made the time to come over and chat. Why is it that the Labour Party has decided that it has to act with such aloof self righteous anger in a rural seat that they had no more chance of winning than the Libertarian Party had. Their Agent at one point was getting quite abusive and redfaced to the tellers , because they were not collating the voting papers ‘properly’
Why UKIP has gained the reputation of being the only Libertarian Party I have no idea, they too were ‘angry’ very angry about Europe, yes there were very angry about that, but frankly that is as far as they had any policies or opinions on anything else.
The Green Candidate was a card, and failed to make the final line up, as somebody said to me, I think he has a glass of dandelion & burdock on the go, I could not help but laugh out loud.
Claire Perry is a ‘nice’ enough career politician, but sadly her acceptance speech was very very very thin. She thanked the Police, her party, her husband, her children and then promised to spend the taxpayers wisely !
Claire came across as a Cameroon member of the Hockey upper sixth team.
Has politics advanced in Wiltshire since the 1930’s ? yes slightly by 141 votes.
Junab Ali (Labour) - 4,711
Pat Bryant (UKIP) - 2,076
Nic Coome (Libertarian) - 141
Mark Fletcher (Green Party) - 813
Fiona Hornby (Liberal Democrat) - 12,514
Martin Houlden (Independent) - 566
Claire Perry (Conservative) - 25,519
9 comments:
I wonder if LPUK would have done better if they had stood for safe Labour seats.
Would be interested to know if any of the answers made it to air?
Well done for standing with dignity. This is a squeak and I am sure the next election will be soon and more relevent.
As for Labour, they only use Democracy, but in truth despise it.
Nic and Martin are indeed to be commended for their efforts. It is no small thing to stand for election; I hope one day to do the same.
It would be good to highlight some of the discussions that took place, perhaps by reference to the TheyWorkForYou survey results.
I suggested targeting safe Labour seats precisely because New Labour are the Great Satan. Libertarians unlucky enough to live in such places are those most in need of a voice.
The "wasted vote" effect will hurt us less in these seats than it will where the Conservatives and Lib Dems have a chance of victory.
Re Devizes, I'm interested to know more about Martin Houlden (Independent) who drew 566 votes. His answers in the TheyWorkForYou survey seem highly aligned with Nic's.
Well done Nic. I was eagerly looking at the BBC election map and waiting for your result to come in but sleep deprivation got the better of me. That's 141 people who perhaps know a little more about libertarianism.
What I think is interesting about marginal parties is that the voters clearly took the time to look into the parties and research the candidates. Perhaps we shouldn't just be seeking votes but concentrating on building up a base of active support so that the next time 10 or 20 of that 141 are encouraging others to vote.
Is it worth doing something post election to say thanks to the minority that voted for LPUK and encourage them to investigate the party further? For the three main parties the election is over but for LPUK it was only ever going to be about raising awareness. Perhaps a "post election campaign" might be an opportunity to be heard.
A simple thanks to those 141 who voted in some local papers?
Well done Nic, I was thinking that in both seats the target was 100, and clearly you passed that, so congratulations.
The above post about post-election thanks is a good one, and we also need to start thinking about local elections over the next few years as well. You should definitely stand in a local to keep up Devizes as a libertarian area (since its our stronghold now!)
Yeah, congratulations Nic, it was a well-run campaign. I'm with Kevin above in that those 141 voters will hopefully translate into 10 or 20 activists.
Any word on how many new members we got out of this?
182 votes in total is better than nothing, but I had hoped for more. Well done to Nic Coome and Martin Cullip. Shame Old Holborn only got 145 as well.
I do find it worrying though how much better the party endorsed independants did (David Kirwin got 506 and Nikki Sinclair 658). I wonder if the party's name/image put off voters?
Nikki was a high profile UKIP member and David a high profile long standing Councillor.
This is about profile. The more seats we contest in locals, the more profile we get. Once we get a Councillor, that is a basis for fighting a GE, for a councillor gets visibility and face-time with local media.
People need to know we exist and most are too busy paying taxes to seek us out. We need to get in front of them.
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