Retrospective - August 2002 to February 2010 (the BBC view)

As we approach the New Year and the campaigns of 2011, I wanted to set out what has been achieved so far in establishing the English Democrats as a viable English nationalist party. Like Caesar's Gaul I shall divide this into three parts.

For the first part and in doing this for the period up to February 2010 I don't think that I can do more objectively than to quote materially in full from the obviously not pro English Democrats internal briefing paper to BBC Political Journalists on the English Democrats dated 25 February 2010. It includes consideration of the Electoral Alliance that we were building in preparation for the General Election. It reads as follows:-

"The Alliance for Democracy – English Democrats/Jury Team
Last updated: 25-Feb-2010 11:36
Millbank x36359

1. Alliance for Democracy
2. English Democrats
3. Jury Team

1. Alliance for Democracy

On 13 February, 2010, the English Democrats and Jury Team launched the Alliance for Democracy campaign and manifesto for the 2010 general election.

Whilst remaining independent political parties, they pledged to “campaign on a common policy platform” and not to field candidates against each other in individual constituencies. They declared their intention to field “at least 350 candidates in the 2010 general election across England, Scotland and Wales”.

In addition to candidates from both parties fighting the election “in a co-ordinated manner”, they declared that “other non-discriminatory political parties and groups with similar views are welcome to become associates of the Alliance”.

Alliance for Democracy Policies (published 13 February, 2010)

Reforming our democracy to change the people’s relationship with the state by holding referendums on

- The status of the UK within the EU (UK Electorate)
- Setting up an English Parliament (English electorate)
- The status of Scotland within the UK (Scottish electorate)
- Giving the Welsh Assembly similar powers to the Scottish Parliament (Welsh electorate)
- Reducing the number of MPs by a third (from 650 to 433)
- Changing Commons elections to proportional representation
- Requiring referendums on petition by 5% of the electorate

Legislating for the following policies and then having an authorising referendum before they become law

- Limiting government borrowing to 10% of expenditure
- Protecting bank customer deposits from casino banking
- Limiting benefits to 80% of the after tax minimum wage
- Sentencing violent criminals to “army style” punishment
- Limiting UK troops in Afghanistan to the NATO average
- Requiring private medical insurance for non-EU citizens
- Establishing 10 year residence requirement for UK Citizenship
- Requiring stores to let customers leave excess packaging

Strengthening Parliament

- MPs to be free to vote in line with their best judgment on issues not in their manifesto
- MPs to be paid according to civil service pay scales
- MPs to serve for only three full terms of five years
- Elected Representatives (Prevention of Deception) Act to be passed
- Independent Politicians Complaints Commission to be set up
- Cap donations to political parties
- Members of Select Committees to be elected by MPs
- Gold-plating of EU directives to be stopped
- General elections to take place every five years

Improving the Running of Government

- The House of Commons to elect the Prime Minister
- Prime Minister to appoint junior ministers jointly with Cabinet Ministers
- Departments to be run by a Board
- Government statistics to be published by an independent body

Contacts for the Alliance
www.AllianceforDemocracy.info
Enquiries@AllianceforDemocracy.info
Tel: 08700 624 555

By Post:
Alliance for Democracy
PO Box 65106
London SW1P 9PN

2. English Democrats

The English Democrats party was established in 2002 and Robin Tilbrook is its Chairman. Mr Tilbrook is a solicitor in Essex. In annual financial accounts submitted to the Electoral Commission, the English Democrats gave their membership as 172 in 2002, 775 in 2003, 1,011 in 2004 and 1,202 in 2005. Since 2005 I have not seen any published membership figures.

In the 2003 local elections held across most of England, the party contested one seat out of the 10,427 fought received 123 votes.

In the June 2004 elections to the European Parliament, the party contested five of the nine English regions and secured 1.4% of the total votes cast in those five regions. In the local elections fought in England one the same day, they contested nine of the 4,815 seats up for election and received 1,943 of the 6.8 million votes cast.

In the 2005 general election, the party fielded 24 candidates in England (all of whom lost their deposits) who received a total of 15,149 votes – 0.01% of all the votes cast in England. In the local elections held on the same day, the party contested 11 of the 2,396 seats fought and received 3,026 votes out of the 11.7 million cast.

In the 2006 local elections, the party fielded 16 candidates in the 4,300 contests and received around 5,000 votes out of the total 7.9 million cast.

In the 2007 local elections, where 10,486 seats were contested, the party fielded 78 candidates who received a total of 19,705 votes.

In the May 2008 London Mayoral election, the party’s candidate received 0.4% of the total first preference votes cast. Among the 2,840 seats contested in council elections across England that same day, the party fielded 45 candidates who received a total of 11,340 votes.

In the June 2009 European parliament elections, the party contested all nine of the English regions with the following res

Votes %
East Midlands 28,494 2.3
Eastern 32,211 2.0
London 24,477 1.5
North East 13,007 2.2
North West 40,027 2.4
South East 52,526 2.2
South West 25,313 1.6
West Midlands 32,455 2.3
Yorks. & Humber 31,287 2.6

Total votes cast 279,797 2.1

In the 2009 local elections held on the same day, some 2,318 seats were contested and the English Democrats fielded 76 candidates who received a total of 36,507 votes.

The party’s most spectacular result to date was in the Mayoral election in Doncaster, held on the same day as the European Parliament election, where they narrowly won.

4 June, 2009 Doncaster Mayoral election result

1st Prefs % 2nd Prefs Total votes %
Michael Maye Ind
17,150 22.8 7,840 24,990 49.6
Peter Davies ED 16,961 22.5 8,383 25,344 50.4
Sandra Holland Lab 16,549 22.0
Jonathan Wood Con 12,198 16.2
David Owen BNP 8,175 10.9
Stuart Exelby Ind
2,152 2.9
Michael Felse Ind
2,051 2.7
Turnout: 34.9

The BBC commissioned an NOP among 500 residents of Doncaster (sampled 2-7 January, 2010) to test levels of awareness, as well as attitudes towards, the Mayor of Doncaster. The poll suggested that 63% of adults in Doncaster preferred their council to be run by a cabinet of councillors, compared with 22% who preferred a directly-elected Mayor. Some 54% said they would vote against Doncaster’s current system of a directly-elected Mayor in a referendum (34% said they would vote for). And 13% could correctly name the English Democrat Mayor of Doncaster (Peter Davies).

Westminster Parliamentary by-elections

In by-elections contested by English Democrats, the party received the following vote shares:

Birmingham, Hodge Hill (15.7.04) 1.4%
Hartlepool (30.9.04) 0.1%
Bromley & Chislehurst (29.6.06) 0.7%
Ealing, Southall (19.7.07) 0.4%
Sedgefield (19.7.07) 0.6%
Crewe & Nantwich (22.5.08) 0.7%
Henley (26.6.08) 0.5%
Haltemprice & Howden (10.7.08) 7.2%*

* Not contested by either Labour or the Lib Dems

Contacts

Robin Tilbrook, Chairman – English Democrats & Alliance for Democracy Spokesman
E-mail: – RobinTilbrook@EngDem.org
Web: www.EnglishDemocrats.org.uk

3. Jury Team

The Jury Team was launched in March 2009 by Sir Paul Judge, Director General of the Conservative Party (1992-5). He was formerly chairman of Premier Brands, a major food company, and is said to have a personal fortune of £30 million. According to the Electoral Commission, the Jury Team spent £344,522 on its European Parliament election campaign (of which 46% was spent on media activities)

The Jury Team subscribe to two additional policies that do not appear in the Alliance manifesto above, namely: “allowing state schools to opt out from local authority control” and “introducing ‘no-fault’ compensation for public bodies”.

In the June 2009 European parliament elections, the party contested all nine of the English regions with the following result:

Votes %
Scotland
6,257 0.6
Wales
3,793 0.6
English regions
East Midlands
7,362 0.6
Eastern 6,354 0.4
London
7,284 0.4
North East 2,904 0.5
North West
8,783 0.5
South East 14,172 0.6
South West 5,758 0.4
West Midlands
8,783 0.6
Yorks. & Humber.
7,181 0.6

Total votes cast 78,569 0.5

Westminster Parliamentary by-elections

In the one by-election contested so far by the Jury Team, the party received the following vote share:

Glasgow North East (12.11.09) 1.3%

Contacts

Sir Paul Judge, Leader – Jury Team and Alliance for Democracy Spokesman
e-mail: paulj@juryteam.org
web: www.juryteam.org