No Candidate Deserves My Vote!

The “No Candidate Deserves My Vote!” party has one aim and that is to introduce a bill to Parliament to have a “None of the above” option added to every local and general election ballot paper of the future. That way you can exercise your democratic right to vote to say that none of the parties currently make the grade for you. It will also encourage your democratic responsibility to turn out to vote.

For everything else Steve of Stevenage will act as an Independent so don’t ask me about health, education, defence or the economy... come and tell me!!!



Tuesday 4 May 2010

Get out of my shop, I want to vote you all out!

That was as far as I got in one newsagent in Stevenage. The shopkeeper would not even give me the time to tell her that was exactly what I was campaigning to allow her to do. However, this shows the sentiment in Britain today, the demand for "none of the above" is high and rising, if only people could realise that you need to vote in someone to champion the cause first. In this campaign I am fighting for people who don't want to vote for any of the parties...  but if you don't vote I will not be able to fight for you!

Tuesday 27 April 2010

Election of the "Little People" by the "Little People"

By "Little People" I am referring to the majority of people in Britain who are largely ignored because they are not recognised as "somebody" in society. I am one of them and am accompanied by about 90% of the voting public. We are the ones who the political parties don't think are worth bothering about, the mamas and papas as the Americans would say as well as the small traders and all young people aged 18 to 24. However, rumbling under the radar is a revolution about to explode on the political scene. The "Little People" are marching as if to war and no-one, especially our media, are watching because they are too obsessed with following just the three main parties. I do not think anyone has quite grasped the scale of anger that the "Little People" have for politicians and their behaviour right now?

If I am right then welcome to the new MP for Stevenage. If not then I will never darken your door again...

Friday 23 April 2010

I want to see you as MP of Stevenage just so you can afford a decent rosette

This is what one man said to me after taking the mick out of my blank rosette with a sticky label on it. This may not be the best way of chosing your next MP but it certainly indicates the sheer frustration that the electorate has with politics and politicians. So far, with less than 2 weeks to go before the election, only 1% of all the people I have met so far have made up their mind who to vote for! My campaign is receiving overwhelming support far exceeding even my optimistic expectations! This election, in Stevenage at least, is all set to be very interesting indeed!

Monday 19 April 2010

Why it makes sense to vote for an Independent?

Ok, firstly I have to clarify that I am not 100% Independent but almost. My party has just one electoral reform policy, but for everything else I stand as an Independent.  What this means is that I take the majority view of the Stevenage constituents rather than any party political view. That way I represent my constituents not my party.

The question stands then; how do I get Stevenage constituents to tell me what they want? Traditionally MP's have used "surgery" days where constituents come to their MP and tell them about issues.  The trouble with that is that there is only one of me and probably time for only 1 or 2 surgeries per week so not exactly an efficient process for mass information transfer. To solve this problem I propose to set up a dynamic website modified only by Stevenage constituents using the electoral register as the registered user database. On this site I will put all of the issues currently under discussion in Parliament and all of the laws and bills being proposed.  Each constituent will be able to login using their electoral registration number and a password and tell me how they want me to vote. The aggregated information will be calculated and sent to my mobile phone while I am in Parliament. I will then be able to use this information to instruct me how to vote.

If you are wondering how I will get the funds to develop such a beast, well I will be writing most of it myself as that is what I used to do before entering Politics.

Saturday 17 April 2010

What to do when a volcano stops your campaign?

As daft as it sounds the volcanic eruption in Iceland nearly put an end to my campaign. The nomination papers for every candidate in Stevenage have to be with the returning officer by Tuesday April 20th 2010 at 4:00pm at the latest. To stand as a candidate for a political party you have to be authorised by the official nominating officer of that political party. My nominating officer and party leader, Mandy Ringwood, is stuck in Spain.  She was due back today but has been told that she cannot get back until Friday, well after the final date for nominations. No other party officer can sign the form!

So, having gone through a variety of ideas like driving my Yamaha R1 motorcycle all the way down to Spain, or challenging the Top Gear team to see who could get there first given any form of transport other than aircraft or contacting the SUN newspaper to rescue Mandy like they did for the donkey, my more sensible wife suggested we ask the Electoral Commission to change their rules owing to unprecedented "act of GOD". So with help from the superb Electoral Services team at Stevenage Borough Council they did!

Mandy was allowed to send a signed fax delegating over her powers of signing to Bob Goodall the party treasurer who, happily, is in this country at least! and we have made election history for the first delegation of signing power due to an "act of GOD".

As a Christian that reason means a whole lot more to me than just insurance terminology!

Wednesday 14 April 2010

Just who is going to vote exactly?

Although I started my road campaign a week later than everyone else, I have only met 4 people so far who have firmly decided who they are going to vote for and I have handed out around 400 leaflets. That is just 1% of all the people canvassed in Stevenage, with just 3 weeks before a general election, who have any idea of who they want to vote for! 50% of the rest wont even spend any time considering the election and the other 49% are considering voting for me. At that rate I will win with a landslide. The caveat however; is that the people who like my idea are the ones who are wavering on the edge of not voting at all, even for me. However, if only half of those who have expressed an interest, actually do vote for me then I will still win! Roll on Steve of Stevenage...

Saturday 3 April 2010

Manifesto of an Independent

The "No Candidate Deserves My Vote!" party has just one policy on electoral reform but people are now asking for my views on all the other issues. I have stated that I act as an Independent for all other issues and that I could simply respond by saying as an Independent I am free of party whip so you can tell me what the policies need to be. However, people still want to hear what my ideas are so I have compiled a manifesto. It needs to be stated that this manifesto is the sole work of Steve of Stevenage and is not endorsed in any way by the party or any of is officers (except me, of course). You can download a copy to read from here: http://www.steveofstevenage.org.uk/questions/manifesto.htm

Tuesday 30 March 2010

2-Tier Democracy strikes again!

Remember I told you that the Comet were only going to invite the Con, Lab and Lib Dem candidates to their hustings?  Well, the Churches are at it now too. Churches Together in Stevenage (CTIS) are also holding a hustings and although I will be invited to tender my answers to the questions and have a couple of minutes to introduce myself I will not be allowed to join in the Q&A session owing to "time constraints". Perhaps they got their lead from the Comet?

But the best bit of all is that I am a member of CTIS myself...!   You got to hand it to them, no "jobs for the boys" there...   but then not exactly fair, equal or impartial either...   as a lay preacher in a CTIS church I feel a few sermons are in order!

Monday 29 March 2010

2-Tier Democracy

Running as a General Election candidate I keep coming across a definite "them-and-us" 2-Tier democratic process. There is Conservative, Labour and Lib Dem and then there are "the others" of which I am a member. A kind of "Elite" party and "Plebian" party divide if you like.
The latest incident was last week when I discovered that the Stevenage Comet local newspaper was hosting an election candidate hustings for a business forum but had only thought it necessary to invite half the candidates. I will leave it to you to guess which half? To make matters worse, when I pressed them on the matter the reason given was lack time available for the number of questions. It struck me that halving the number of questions was the easy solution.
If we are not careful we will end up with a democratic system along the lines of nations like Iran where anyone can set up a party as long as it is Conservative, Labour or Lib Dem!

Thursday 25 March 2010

Darling puts off declaring cuts until after the Election

I am sorry, I am new to this game but is not the purpose of an election to vote for what a party is going to do? So how can you do that if they are not going to tell you until after the election? Now I am not going to be part of the next government, just an MP is as far as I can go, but I am going to tell you right now BEFORE the election where I am going to get the money from. I am going to gang up with Vince Cable and he and I are going to rob the banks of OUR money and then when we are done with that we are going to cut them down to size so they cannot hold us to ransom ever again.
So, if the Labour party refuse to tell you what you are voting for, the answer is simple... don't vote for them!

Monday 22 March 2010

Politics at an all time low!

If the expenses scandal wasn't evidence enough for a sea change in politics then comes along outgoing MP's using the dying embers of their priviledged positions for personal gain with seemingly no shame or respect to the people who elected them there to represent them.
I have been questioned about my lack of experience in politics but if that lack of experience means I don't know how to cheat on my expenses or line myself up for cushy executive board advisory jobs or be a non-Dom is that lack of experience really all that bad a thing?
Seriously folks, if you want a sea change in politics you are going to need to vote for a whole new bunch of politicians so make sure you choose the ones with no experience!

How does a "None of the above" option actually work?

Let us suppose that in every election there is now a "none of the above" option on the bottom of every ballot paper. If it does not get the majority vote then one of the candidates will have won and are duly elected. Although this is stating the obvious I included it to show that "none of the above" is still a First Past The Post (FPTP) voting system.
Now suppose that "none of the above" gets the majority vote? What has happened here is that the electorate have declared "no confidence" in the candidates standing for election in that constituency. The "No Candidate Deserves My Vote!" party however, does not believe in having no governance so this situation has to cause an immediate and automatic by-election and the electors come out again to either vote for new candidates that they can believe in or new policies or both. If the same candidates peddle the same policies then the electorate simply votes "none of the above" until the situation changes. The essence here is the voter has an option to say NO until the prospective representatives find out what the voter wants and provides a votable set of policies or stand as Independent on their character credibility.

Wednesday 17 March 2010

What about your expenses?

I have declared that my motivation to finally get up and do something about our political situation was spurred on by the expenses scandal so mine had better be spot on. I have decided to declare all my expenses in an Excel spreadsheet downloadable format from my campaign website.  My goal is to ensure that the expenses spreadsheet is never more than 24hrs out of date. Please note that whilst I am just a candidate I don't actually get any of my expenses paid back.  There is no tax payers money in my campaign at all, I am largely self-funded with donations from a few supporters, but you can see for yourself: http://www.steveofstevenage.org.uk/about/expenses.htm

Monday 15 March 2010

What do you do with an MP?

In speaking to people in Stevenage it has become clear that many people are not quite sure what the difference is between an MP and a Local Councillor. As it is very likely that both will be elected on May 6th I thought I should blog something about it.
Essentially, the basic difference is that your MP deals with national issues on behalf of the people of Stevenage whilst your Local Councillors deal with local issues within Stevenage.  Let us not forget that there are also County Coucillors that deal with county-wide issues, Hertfordshire in this case, and MEP's that deal with European-wide issues such as currency, borders, trade and European law etc.
Some examples of these might be: If you wanted to speak out about a law that was being billed by Parliament, either in support or objection, or you might want to have your say about our troops in Afghanistan or the economy and taxes etc, that would be a matter for your MP. If, on the other hand you wanted to complain about the roads in Stevenage or a play area etc these would be matters for your local councillors. Then there are the County Councillors that deal with county-wide issues like our schools and highways and byways between towns. The example I gave about the roads may actually involve any of the representative groups like so: potholes in residential roads of Stevenage would be your local councillor, lighting on a stretch of "A" road in Hertfordshire would be your County Councillor, building a new Motorway from London to Stevenage would be your MP and building a road bridge across the channel might be your MEP.
There are some grey areas that confuse some.  The best example is the Lister Hospital.  This hospital is part of a National Service (NHS) even though it only serves Stevenage and the surrounding area. As such it is a concern to your MP and any such talk about merging services with QE2 Welwyn Garden City would most certainly be an MP issue. Local schools might seem to be a local issue and thus the concern of your local Councillors, however, they are all owned and managed by Herts County Council and are thus a County Concillor concern, the curriculum however, is national and thus a concern of your MP.
Confusing isnt it? But I hope I have managed to clear up some of the confusion. In any case, any of the representative groups can advise you of who you should be talking to.

Wednesday 10 March 2010

Political Shenanigans?

Today I was turned down by my printer for printing my posters, leaflets and banners etc after having got a quotation for the work and then commissioning the first bit of work to be done several days later. The reason given was a "conflict of interest" which can only mean another political party.
I cannot prove it and am not accusing anyone, but it does make me wonder if a little phonecall was made to the printers threatening the removal of a sizable bit of business if they printed my material?

Tuesday 9 March 2010

What happens if you do get the Electoral Commission to change their rules?

As I was voted in with that mandate then, according to the constitution of the “No Candidate Deserves My Vote!” party, I will stand down as an elected MP and the party will be disbanded. This will cause a By-Election in Stevenage (and anywhere else that there is a sitting MP of the party). Of course, in the By-Election, for the first time, you will have the option to vote “None of the above” and I may also stand again as an Independent if Sevenage wants me to.

What happens if you don't get the Electoral Commission to change their rules?

I continue as an MP for at least 5 years pestering continually, if I make enough of a nuisance of myself Parliament will have to pass the bill just to get rid of me. Note: our constitution states that once the "None of the above" option has been made law all standing MP's may stand down and the party will disband.

Monday 8 March 2010

What happens if you actually win?

Pigs may fly, snowmen may be found in Timbuktu and man may land on Mars, but if I do get in, the following will happen:

The irony that in order to have the option to vote for no-one you first have to vote for someone has not escaped my attention. I intend my tenure to be fairly short-lived. There are two things that I am duty bound to do. Firstly, to carry out my mandate and introduce a bill to have the Electoral Commission rules changed to include a mandatory “None of the above” option on every ballot paper of the future. Once this is done the “No Candidate Deserves My Vote!” party will have completed its “raison d’ĂȘtre” and I can stand down and allow what we have achieved to takes its course in the democratic process of this nation. Whilst carrying out my mandate I will, of course, also be MP for Stevenage, and as such will have a day job to represent the people of Stevenage, and its institutions, to Parliament, taking part in the Parliamentary democratic process, working on laws and acts of Parliament through committee and holding surgery in Stevenage to listen to issues and ideas from Stevenage electors that affect the governance of the Nation and Stevenage. In this second role I have no party political manifesto to worry about and thus would act as an Independent, so don’t ask me about health, education, economy... come and tell me!

You have never been an MP before so why would we vote for someone with no experience?

It is worse than that, I have never even met an MP before! However, every single MP in the entire country was first voted in with no experience whatsoever, not only that but none of the current candidates for Stevenage have any experience of being an MP either. Every once in a while you get a government minister promoted to a position such as Education Secretary who happens to have been a teacher in a former profession. This, however, is very rare indeed and the norm is that we are governed by people who have little to no experience in the area they govern. This is where we have to learn to be good listeners to our advisors, Civil Servants and experts in the field.

What is "No Candidate Deserves My Vote!" all about?

Have you ever been in that position where you don’t know who to vote for? Somehow none of the main parties seem to represent you and you have been less than enamoured with the behaviour of some of our politicians? What are your choices?
You can...
  1. Not bother to turn up to vote. The problem with this is that you are no different from those who never turn up anyway and you have had no say. That is hardly democracy.
  2. Spoil your ballot paper. Unfortunately a small percentage of voters do this by mistake anyway so there is no way of telling whether you have spoilt it by choice or accident.
  3. Vote for any fringe party in protest against the bigger parties. This is probably the most dangerous option as you may be voting for something even worse.
The “No Candidate Deserves My Vote!” party has one aim and that is to introduce a bill to Parliament to have a “None of the above” option added to every local and general election ballot paper of the future. That way you can exercise your democratic right to vote to say that none of the parties currently represents you. It will also encourage your democratic responsibility to turn out to vote.
A MORI poll carried out on behalf of the Electoral Commission in 2001 predicted that up to 30% more voters would turn out to vote at an election if they had an opportunity to vote for no-one.

So what made me decide to stand for election?

Well I am certainly no politician that is for sure, but I was stirred into action over the recent expenses scandal, realising that it was a party-wide problem and that our politicians have served us very badly just recently, lining their pockets with our money while our brave soldiers give their lives in battle for this nation. Something has to be done and saying that I have no experience in politics is no excuse for inaction. I have plenty of experience in life and the human condition that qualifies me as much as any other person for office and service to our nation.