So it is less than 24 hours until the polling booths open and I need to decide who I am going to vote for.
In my ward I have 6 candidates each of who I would like to think should be canvassing me for my vote, they have all allegedly put themselves forward because they want to do the best for the community they live in. So let’s look at what I have had in the way of election leaflets from each of the parties.
- Community Voice – 4 leaflets all black and white with 1 addressed and posted
- Conservatives – Nothing
- England First – Nothing
- Labour – 5 leaflets 1 glossy, 4 colour printed with 2 of them addressed and posted
- Liberal Democrats – Nothing
- TUSC – Nothing
I have had no knock on the door from any candidate, I have been on annual leave for the previous 2 weeks and someone has been in the house each and every day.
Mike Barnes from Community Voice has obviously been out ‘doorstepping’ he even tweeted about it a few days back.
For some reason Mike has deleted this tweet, blocked a load of his twitter followers and protected his @potteye account so that only people who he ‘authorises’ can see his tweets. I find this a bit strange from a person who has never been afraid of self publicity. It has to be said I think there is a bit more to this story with ‘Lil and Sue’ than meets the eye, this will come out after the count tomorrow I’m sure.
Mike was even trying to take £10,000 bets on him still being a councilor on May 6,
I should point out that win or lose Barnes, who also said he will get more votes than all the other candidates put together, will be a councillor until 9 May as this is the day that the winning candidates are sworn in to office.
So back to who should I vote for?
I vote differently in General Elections than I do in Local Elections, in a General Election it is about the party who I think will do the best (or least damage) for the country, locally it is the person who I think will do the best for me and my community, but how do I make a decision on who is going to be best for me and my ward if the candidates generally don’t tell me about what they are going to do when they become my elected representative?
4 of the 6 candidates in this ward have taken up on the offer of a 500 word article on my other website Pits n Pots and while they are getting between 16 & 20,000 visitors a day, publishing something on-line either on Pits n Pots or on your own website is not an alternative to traditional canvassing. I am under no illusions that people still want bits of paper through the door and want to look at the candidate in the eyes to see what makes them tick.
I want the candidates to knock on my door on the run up to an election, even if I set the dogs on them I want the choice on whether I speak to them or not, I don’t want to be ignored.
After every election there is a big hoo-ha made about what the % turn out was and why is it so low, maybe all parties need to look at actually engaging with the electorate on the run up to the election rather than just sticking a name on the nomination from so they can say the party fielded a candidate in the ward.
We deserve better from the people who hope to represent us.
Who am I going to vote for? that is between me and the ballot box but I can assure you that 3 of the 6 in my ward are not in the running straight away.
