The Big Lancaster & Fleetwood Candidate Roundup
Thursday night is now, it seems, politics night. So here we go.
Now, as anyone who's been anywhere near me during election times previous will know, I have a massive stick up my arse about voting for the representative and not the party that they're affiliated to. I won't bore people with the rant unless prompted, but I'll admit that my stance on this has relaxed a little bit.
The first thing that contributed was the US elections. That was a powerful night, let me tell you, and it rather brought home the power of having a real focus for the nation's interest, someone about whom people can say "see him? He's in charge". Okay, so this isn't really relevant in this case; we don't have anything like a presidential electoral mechanism, even if we now have more and more of the trappings (such as live debates).
The second thing that has forced me to lift my gaze a little bit from the candidates to the wider general election has been watching my own reactions to the debates. I find myself thinking more favourably of the Labour candidate when I hear Brown calmly and firmly defend economic policy, or look at the Lib Dem candidate all the more seriously as Clegg puts himself forward as more and more of a statesman. Is my mind really so suggestible? There's no real link between the national and the local there, but the national debate is inevitably making my mind settle on local candidates who have jack all to do with the top-end mudslinging.
I may just be deluding myself into thinking I have more national clout than my vote (admittedly one in a marginal seat) actually has. Nonetheless, there is a wider context to view the election of personal representatives to Her Majesty's Government or Opposition to be had in all this. To me, the context (other than post-recession recovery - thank you Gordon Brown for raising that dull but unavoidable truth) is that this election may, in all seriousness, see the start of something resembling a multi-party system. Or rather, ahah, the time when there's a colossal clusterfuck because we don't yet have a multi-party system, despite there being more than two parties getting appreciable chunks of power. This means hung parliament, and political Interesting Times. I wanted context for my choice of representative? Well here it is: we need someone who can be effective in whatever place the end up in in the clusterfuck. And if it comes down to vote-by-vote coalligning to get the job done, then every damn MP in the commons is going to be important, especially if their judgment could be the clincher in a crucial vote.
So, in the end, it comes down to: vote for the strongest candidate. Whatdoyouknow.
So, for my personal election choice, I've pretty much put everyone on the table and examined them and, you know what, I'm still undecided: there are some real surprise contenders for my affections in here. I present my finding to you now, gentle reader, that they may be of use.
Surprise contender #1: Eric Ollerenshaw.
Now, I'd be tempted to consider him for office on the 'Don't Tell Me What I Can't Do' basis that the vast majority of people I know socially would start making wild-eyed panicked "you can't possibly" noises when I say that yes, he's the Tory candidate. Not voting Conservative has become so deeply cultural in some parts that it isn't even questioned much anymore, and that's just damaging. I'm really not convinced that a new Conservative government would set a fire to all the good work the Labour government has done in areas that the Tories traditionally opposed but now accept (like Minimum Wage, way back in '98), nor that the lunatic fringe (all parties have one of these) will be allowed anywhere near actual power. That cleared up: the candidate.
I'd initially pegged him as "someone your gran would like", and that's probably still true, but he does appear to be the most politically experienced candidate of the field. The other side of this is that his big league political experience, well, wasn't got in little old Lancaster. I find it hard to care too much about this, although I would love to ask him "Why Lancs & Fleetwood, and why now?". To be honest, the most intriguing aspect of Ollerenshaw's CV is his experience working directly with other parties. Y'know: bilateralism. This was back in his days in London politics when he was working alongside his labour counterpart in an attempt to stop Hackney eating itself. In the aforementioned event of a hung parliament, the ability to sit down with the other side and figure out what's really important will be pretty damn crucial.
Which brings me neatly on to
Surprise contender #2: Gina Dowding.
Gina's Green, and no fluffy hippy. The Greens have, by their own admission, held off fielding anything other than a "paper candidate" for Lancaster as they didn't believe they had the power base here. Now, judging by their share of the council, they do have a political base, and they've fielded a not too shabby candidate for their first real stab at a constituency you'd think was Green-leaning (in part) anyway. Gina's a bit of a mover and shaker, from what I can tell. If something's not there, she makes it happen. I'd go so far as to say that if she got in for L&F we'd hear her name in national politics within a year, even if it was just in the form of an angry diatribe from some far corner of the Commons. Of course, the flipside is one would imagine her being less willing to work with the tools to hand, and the other parties without coming up against a wall of Irreconcilable Differences. For historical context, she was suspended from the council for leaking documents pertaining to a tax-deferral arrangement for Heysham 1 Power Station because she objected to the way the decision was made. The ethics of what she did under the circumstances are a grey area for me, and she did a half decent job when I pressed her on it of convincing me that she doesn't just spit her dummy out if she doesn't get her way. I can't help but think however that I'd want someone who can play the game by it's rules, even it's slightly retarded ones. As someone who'd push her own rules though, she's worth my consideration.
This envelope-pushing is not something I'd expect of
Surprise contender #3: Stuart Langhorn
I need to accept that if the election was today, and I voted Lib Dem, it would mean I'd abandoned my principles spoken of above. It's not that Stuart's a bad candidate, far from it, he just... a bit wet. It's probably not fair on him at all, and in fairness I think he's very capable on the local level, and things are working well for him at the City Council. But that's just it - that's where I picture his level to be. He may be an excellent small town politician, but I just can't see him butting with Westminster's most headstrong. If he can convince me that he's up to that in the next few days (I may have to stalk him down again, like last time) then I really can't fault his 'application'; knowledgeable about local concerns; able to tie those concerns to national policy; and backing a party that are really striking a chord with me this election.
Why yes, I too have been swayed by Nick Clegg's approach of
1. Stand back while the others fight
2. Address the questioner using his/her name
3. Deliver a rhetorically tight answer that touches on core values.
I have, however, been more swayed by the growing mood that something's going to change in British politics, and the Lib Dems - with their history of pushing electoral reform - act as a focal point for this. Also, while Blue and Red are arguing about relatively small variations in tax hikes and spending cuts, and making claim after counterclaim that their version of Elderly Care reform is the super-nicest and they thought of it first, Yellow are talking about things that seem different enough to inject a feeling of Change ("Yes we can!, etc"), and that makes things interesting. Okay, so I may regret my desire for interesting when the political landscape gets frustratingly Interesting, but that could just be the influence of Steady Hand At The Tiller Brown this evening.
Talking of Brown, let's talk Red.
Surprise contender #4: Claaaive Grunshaw.
I'm given to imagine that after last election's defeat, the local Labour party did go down to the muddy sands of the Fylde coast, they did take up a measure of river clay, and Lo! did they sculpt a Core Old Labour Values Candidate primed for success in a university town with an ailing fishing town next door. Seriously, if he was fictional he couldn't have a better background for picking off Labour voters in the area, from his apprenticeship as a trawler winch builder to his Lancaster degree.
I'm finding it hard to connect to the guy though, despite voting Labour the last 2 elections. This could be because he's a bit Fleetwood-centric (yes, having a fading, isolated, Innsmouth-esque fishing town in the same constituency as a student heavy, fluffy middle class historic town is a bit Special. Goodness knows what the thinking was there). Or it could be because, well, I was always more a New Labour kind of guy (I liked Blair. Sue me.). It could also be because I'm not convinced that he's got the breadth of thinking that I'd like to see; in his election documentation there seems to be a lot of weighting towards very local issues - buses and the like - that I'm really not interested in when it comes to choosing my national government. I suppose this could be a result of his background in Fleetwood: the logic being that when times are tough you look to getting your immediate concerns in order, but this in itself drums home to me that he's really Fleetwood's man.
On the other hand, he does seem to have a chunk of decent political experience under his belt, some of which was parliamentary, and if old habits get the better of me, I could do a lot worse.
Talking of a lot worse...
No, I can't even bring myself to list the others by name. The UKIP guy is, well, a UKIP guy with an axe to grind about the 'political elite'. Although he's got an interesting enough background he's not really a contender. And as the the BNP lady... Yeah, well.
There's an independent as well, but if anyone can find anything useful about one Keith Riley you're doing better than me. He likes the fishing industry.
So yes, it's pretty much wide open, with less than a week to go. I don't know what's going to sway me in any particular direction, but if anyone's got any opinions on the above candidates they'd want to throw in, then jump right in. You never know, you may sway a floating voter.
Now, as anyone who's been anywhere near me during election times previous will know, I have a massive stick up my arse about voting for the representative and not the party that they're affiliated to. I won't bore people with the rant unless prompted, but I'll admit that my stance on this has relaxed a little bit.
The first thing that contributed was the US elections. That was a powerful night, let me tell you, and it rather brought home the power of having a real focus for the nation's interest, someone about whom people can say "see him? He's in charge". Okay, so this isn't really relevant in this case; we don't have anything like a presidential electoral mechanism, even if we now have more and more of the trappings (such as live debates).
The second thing that has forced me to lift my gaze a little bit from the candidates to the wider general election has been watching my own reactions to the debates. I find myself thinking more favourably of the Labour candidate when I hear Brown calmly and firmly defend economic policy, or look at the Lib Dem candidate all the more seriously as Clegg puts himself forward as more and more of a statesman. Is my mind really so suggestible? There's no real link between the national and the local there, but the national debate is inevitably making my mind settle on local candidates who have jack all to do with the top-end mudslinging.
I may just be deluding myself into thinking I have more national clout than my vote (admittedly one in a marginal seat) actually has. Nonetheless, there is a wider context to view the election of personal representatives to Her Majesty's Government or Opposition to be had in all this. To me, the context (other than post-recession recovery - thank you Gordon Brown for raising that dull but unavoidable truth) is that this election may, in all seriousness, see the start of something resembling a multi-party system. Or rather, ahah, the time when there's a colossal clusterfuck because we don't yet have a multi-party system, despite there being more than two parties getting appreciable chunks of power. This means hung parliament, and political Interesting Times. I wanted context for my choice of representative? Well here it is: we need someone who can be effective in whatever place the end up in in the clusterfuck. And if it comes down to vote-by-vote coalligning to get the job done, then every damn MP in the commons is going to be important, especially if their judgment could be the clincher in a crucial vote.
So, in the end, it comes down to: vote for the strongest candidate. Whatdoyouknow.
So, for my personal election choice, I've pretty much put everyone on the table and examined them and, you know what, I'm still undecided: there are some real surprise contenders for my affections in here. I present my finding to you now, gentle reader, that they may be of use.
Surprise contender #1: Eric Ollerenshaw.
Now, I'd be tempted to consider him for office on the 'Don't Tell Me What I Can't Do' basis that the vast majority of people I know socially would start making wild-eyed panicked "you can't possibly" noises when I say that yes, he's the Tory candidate. Not voting Conservative has become so deeply cultural in some parts that it isn't even questioned much anymore, and that's just damaging. I'm really not convinced that a new Conservative government would set a fire to all the good work the Labour government has done in areas that the Tories traditionally opposed but now accept (like Minimum Wage, way back in '98), nor that the lunatic fringe (all parties have one of these) will be allowed anywhere near actual power. That cleared up: the candidate.
I'd initially pegged him as "someone your gran would like", and that's probably still true, but he does appear to be the most politically experienced candidate of the field. The other side of this is that his big league political experience, well, wasn't got in little old Lancaster. I find it hard to care too much about this, although I would love to ask him "Why Lancs & Fleetwood, and why now?". To be honest, the most intriguing aspect of Ollerenshaw's CV is his experience working directly with other parties. Y'know: bilateralism. This was back in his days in London politics when he was working alongside his labour counterpart in an attempt to stop Hackney eating itself. In the aforementioned event of a hung parliament, the ability to sit down with the other side and figure out what's really important will be pretty damn crucial.
Which brings me neatly on to
Surprise contender #2: Gina Dowding.
Gina's Green, and no fluffy hippy. The Greens have, by their own admission, held off fielding anything other than a "paper candidate" for Lancaster as they didn't believe they had the power base here. Now, judging by their share of the council, they do have a political base, and they've fielded a not too shabby candidate for their first real stab at a constituency you'd think was Green-leaning (in part) anyway. Gina's a bit of a mover and shaker, from what I can tell. If something's not there, she makes it happen. I'd go so far as to say that if she got in for L&F we'd hear her name in national politics within a year, even if it was just in the form of an angry diatribe from some far corner of the Commons. Of course, the flipside is one would imagine her being less willing to work with the tools to hand, and the other parties without coming up against a wall of Irreconcilable Differences. For historical context, she was suspended from the council for leaking documents pertaining to a tax-deferral arrangement for Heysham 1 Power Station because she objected to the way the decision was made. The ethics of what she did under the circumstances are a grey area for me, and she did a half decent job when I pressed her on it of convincing me that she doesn't just spit her dummy out if she doesn't get her way. I can't help but think however that I'd want someone who can play the game by it's rules, even it's slightly retarded ones. As someone who'd push her own rules though, she's worth my consideration.
This envelope-pushing is not something I'd expect of
Surprise contender #3: Stuart Langhorn
I need to accept that if the election was today, and I voted Lib Dem, it would mean I'd abandoned my principles spoken of above. It's not that Stuart's a bad candidate, far from it, he just... a bit wet. It's probably not fair on him at all, and in fairness I think he's very capable on the local level, and things are working well for him at the City Council. But that's just it - that's where I picture his level to be. He may be an excellent small town politician, but I just can't see him butting with Westminster's most headstrong. If he can convince me that he's up to that in the next few days (I may have to stalk him down again, like last time) then I really can't fault his 'application'; knowledgeable about local concerns; able to tie those concerns to national policy; and backing a party that are really striking a chord with me this election.
Why yes, I too have been swayed by Nick Clegg's approach of
1. Stand back while the others fight
2. Address the questioner using his/her name
3. Deliver a rhetorically tight answer that touches on core values.
I have, however, been more swayed by the growing mood that something's going to change in British politics, and the Lib Dems - with their history of pushing electoral reform - act as a focal point for this. Also, while Blue and Red are arguing about relatively small variations in tax hikes and spending cuts, and making claim after counterclaim that their version of Elderly Care reform is the super-nicest and they thought of it first, Yellow are talking about things that seem different enough to inject a feeling of Change ("Yes we can!, etc"), and that makes things interesting. Okay, so I may regret my desire for interesting when the political landscape gets frustratingly Interesting, but that could just be the influence of Steady Hand At The Tiller Brown this evening.
Talking of Brown, let's talk Red.
Surprise contender #4: Claaaive Grunshaw.
I'm given to imagine that after last election's defeat, the local Labour party did go down to the muddy sands of the Fylde coast, they did take up a measure of river clay, and Lo! did they sculpt a Core Old Labour Values Candidate primed for success in a university town with an ailing fishing town next door. Seriously, if he was fictional he couldn't have a better background for picking off Labour voters in the area, from his apprenticeship as a trawler winch builder to his Lancaster degree.
I'm finding it hard to connect to the guy though, despite voting Labour the last 2 elections. This could be because he's a bit Fleetwood-centric (yes, having a fading, isolated, Innsmouth-esque fishing town in the same constituency as a student heavy, fluffy middle class historic town is a bit Special. Goodness knows what the thinking was there). Or it could be because, well, I was always more a New Labour kind of guy (I liked Blair. Sue me.). It could also be because I'm not convinced that he's got the breadth of thinking that I'd like to see; in his election documentation there seems to be a lot of weighting towards very local issues - buses and the like - that I'm really not interested in when it comes to choosing my national government. I suppose this could be a result of his background in Fleetwood: the logic being that when times are tough you look to getting your immediate concerns in order, but this in itself drums home to me that he's really Fleetwood's man.
On the other hand, he does seem to have a chunk of decent political experience under his belt, some of which was parliamentary, and if old habits get the better of me, I could do a lot worse.
Talking of a lot worse...
No, I can't even bring myself to list the others by name. The UKIP guy is, well, a UKIP guy with an axe to grind about the 'political elite'. Although he's got an interesting enough background he's not really a contender. And as the the BNP lady... Yeah, well.
There's an independent as well, but if anyone can find anything useful about one Keith Riley you're doing better than me. He likes the fishing industry.
So yes, it's pretty much wide open, with less than a week to go. I don't know what's going to sway me in any particular direction, but if anyone's got any opinions on the above candidates they'd want to throw in, then jump right in. You never know, you may sway a floating voter.
okay
awake
busy