Total Visits

Wednesday 9 May 2012

Elections May 2012

I am pleased with our election results this year. For a small Party with very little funding we have done well, putting up 101 candidacies, in which we have often come second and also regularly achieved 20% of the vote (where the candidate has made a concerted campaigning effort). Our overall percentage is just short of 10% (including some of our candidates who stood merely as paper candidates). Well done to all who stood up for England this May!

In the London GLA Elections our vote held up well with us getting over 22,000 votes. Our total campaign expenditure in the London Elections was less than £1,000, whereas I understand the BNP (with a full Mayoral campaign and an entry in the Mayoral Booklet going to each and every elector, together with a Party Election Broadcast) spent £200,000 and got less than 2½% of the vote. UKIP, it is rumoured, has spent more than £500,000 on the London Elections yet even so failed to achieve even 5%.

I appreciate that what I am going to say now will attract criticism that my maths skills are as bad as those as Baroness Warsi, when she claimed that UKIP was simply standing in the percentage shoes of the BNP, but I cannot resist considering what we might have achieved if we had £200,000 to spend on the London elections, if for a mere £1,000 spend we got over 22,000 votes?

In the run-up to May 3rd, the BBC and various politicos and journalists were suggesting that we would lose our Mayor of Doncaster because we were unpopular there. I said that it was just a bunch of careerist ,local Labour, malcontented councillors. Doncaster's voters proved me right, by resoundingly defeating the attempt to get rid of their Mayor and so handing us a high probability of getting Peter Davies re-elected next year.

Another interesting item is that, in Wheatley Ward, Doncaster, our candidate conducted an experiment to see whether our candidates were winning votes because of their personal reputation or whether the votes were coming in because of the English Democrats’ branding.

The candidate, Roy Penketh, is well known in Doncaster, having previously been Chairman of the local Conservative branch and a long serving Conservative Councillor. He is also on various governing bodies.

Roy’s suspicion was that the 786 (23%) vote that he got last year as an English Democrat wasn’t radically affected by his relatively high personal profile, so this year he used only our general recruitment leaflet rather than a personalised leaflet - such as he had used in last year’s election (Doncaster being one of those local authorities that has elections three years out of four in multi-councillor wards).

It is interesting that the results of his experiment show that it was clearly English Democrats’ branding that was bringing in the votes. This year he again came second with 806 votes (28.25%).

Nevertheless I suspect that to achieve actual victory would require a more focussed and savvy electioneering strategy!

In the months to come therefore we English Democrats need to work harder at raising funds and increasing our brand awareness. We also need more focus upon the nuts and bolts of electioneering, but we can do this with some confidence that if we are able to get the necessary organisational, logistical and resource issues sorted out, that it will be possible for us to achieve a genuine and sustainable electoral breakthrough! I shall be focused on doing so - do join and help!

8 comments:

  1. If with £1000 there are 22,000 votes and only 1 or 2 activists in London who were actually out leafleting with the exception of Mark twiddy who was out on a daily basis ,imagine what it would have been like if groups of EDP had hit areas on a weekly basis with NC backing and them showing up as well , plus the rest of London actually doing something rather than winge about things that were not right.
    Too many people were not willing to get out and be seen and just have the name carry and maybe a punt of a couple of more k would have trebled the vote and been a huge challenge to the BNP
    Ben Weald

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well done Robin - bravo! Now that your time is more free will you now help me as I helped you? Craig Clarke

    ReplyDelete
  3. I thought that the English Democrats did particularly well in Leeds and Barnsley. I'm open to correction about that

    ReplyDelete
  4. A very good article. Well done to everyone who stood as an English Democrats candidate last week!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Well said Robin, Good practical workable policies, candidates with local knowledge of local issues, and presence and commitment to fulfil the role of an elected councillor, our party commitment to deliver on what we stand for, all go hand in hand as the building blocks (nuts and bolts) from which the ED can prosper.

    ReplyDelete
  6. As a Southerner lol I would like to congratulate Doncaster, Barnsley,Leeds,Salford etc Yorkshire and Lancashire GRIT on their efforts and results."If their is going to be a breakthrough it will be in the North of England for sure".I think the EU Elections are coming up just at the right time,get ready for some shock results for the ENGLISH DEMOCRATS will it be Barnsley ,Doncaster or even Leeds.... or all ......watch this space

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yorkshire and the Essex Marches are meant to be the two most non-compliant regions of England. The Celts are traditionally more rebellious. I put the Yorkshire refusal to lie down to the influx of Viking blood - Eric Bloodaxe et al. From the time of William the Conqueror when Yorkshire was laid waste for failing to surrender, to the Pilgrimage of Grace and the Miners' strike Yorkshiremen will not be cowed. Unfortunately they are usually beaten into submission by the South in the end. If a breakthrough is to come then it will probably come in Yorkshire who will then lead the rest of the country we hope. Peter Davies is a typical Yorkshireman, full of down to earth common sense and won't be pushed around by devious and daft politicians. God bless Yorkshire, as one of Yorkshire parentage but Lancashire upbringing (I'm afraid the Lankies are a bit soft by comparison, must be the climate).

      Delete
  7. Just 2 words to say to you Robin ( and ALL thosw candidates and workers.
    THANK YOU !!!

    ReplyDelete