I stood for election...

[Mon Ami Mate]

And failed to get elected. Just as a Parish Councillor, Conservative. 9 Councillors elected, 8 Lib Dems, the other Conservative came 9th and I missed out by 29 votes. Eye opening experience banging on doors and trying to engage with people. Most of my worst prejudices about mankind not only affirmed by significantly reinforced. World domination is going to have to wait.

[Night Runner]

This is something I'd love to do at some point in my life.

Would be good if you could tell us more about the process, any surprises etc.

[Mr_B]

Mon Ami Mate said:

Most of my worst prejudices about mankind not only affirmed by significantly reinforced

Such as ?

[ChiChoAndy]

I won election unopposed (in the Student association! )

[Mon Ami Mate]

The only surprise was the depths to which humanity can sink, which shouldn't be a surprise at all I suppose. "F**k off you Tory "c**t". From a woman in her eighties for example. Some mong threatening to turn his dogs on me unless I got out of his garden. Lots of nasty, bitter, hateful people.

The real surprise was that I successfully bit my lip and turned the other cheek on every occasion. Was a bit of a slap in the face to go through all of this and then miss out by 29 votes.

I'll be back...

[ChiChoAndy]

Mon Ami Mate said:

The only surprise was the depths to which humanity can sink, which shouldn't be a surprise at all I suppose. "F**k off you Tory "c**t". From a woman in her eighties for example. Some mong threatening to turn his dogs on me unless I got out of his garden. Lots of nasty, bitter, hateful people.

The real surprise was that I successfully bit my lip and turned the other cheek on every occasion. Was a bit of a slap in the face to go through all of this and then miss out by 29 votes.

I'll be back...

At least you can come out of it knowing that nobody likes you.

[thinfourth2]

I had a brief foray into politics myself when i joined the local village committee

I gave up as most of it involved discussing dogst, complaining, back stabbing, complaining, dogst, back stabbing, dogst and more dogst.

There was little issue like what to do about the area where everyone dumped their garden waste as it got full and folk had dumped a shed down there. This was discussed for many many meetings.

I got bored and had a bonfire and then bribed a JCB driver to flatten the place and bury the waste

[Halb]

Mon Ami Mate said:

And failed to get elected. Just as a Parish Councillor, Conservative. 9 Councillors elected, 8 Lib Dems, the other Conservative came 9th and I missed out by 29 votes. Eye opening experience banging on doors and trying to engage with people. Most of my worst prejudices about mankind not only affirmed by significantly reinforced. World domination is going to have to wait.

I did it a few years ago...was an interesting experience, I may have a another crack at it one day.

[Mon Ami Mate]

ChiChoAndy said:

At least you can come out of it knowing that nobody likes you.

Other than the 360-odd people who voted for me. It has been a Lib Dem stronghold for years. God knows what it must be like going door to door in a Labour heartland.

[Halb]

Mon Ami Mate said:

Other than the 360-odd people who voted for me. It has been a Lib Dem stronghold for years. God knows what it must be like going door to door in a Labour heartland.

Scary..

[ChiChoAndy]

Mon Ami Mate said:

Other than the 360-odd people who voted for me. It has been a Lib Dem stronghold for years. God knows what it must be like going door to door in a Labour heartland.

Well, I was on a few boards of the college, when I was in the SA, (as a 30 year old mature student), and by god, I've never heard such dull tts prattle on about the most inane crap for that long.

[eldar]

I stood as a parish councillor. 14 vacancies, 8 candidates, so need to be bothered with trivia like elections when apathy appears to be in control. Fascinating parish, as well, has Sellafield in it....

Interestingly, almost no candidates have any partly affiliation around here, apart from a couple of loonies that are BNP.

[Jasandjules]

Well done for attempting to do your civic duty OP.

Unfortunately politics suffers dramatically due to humans being involved..

[steve2]

i am a Parish councillor and as it is a small village it can be very boring but if the few of us who do the job did not it would be left to the local council to have controlover us !!!!

[Pupp]

Why on earth did you contest a parish election from a party political perspective? What great matters of policy did you think you would be considering? The main thing the average parish does that has much influence over residents' lives is respond to consultations on planning applications and that has to be done apolitically on the basis of material planning considerations (at least if it is done lawfully)

[Mon Ami Mate]

I'm a member of the party, I have worked for the party and various MPs and candidates and the local agent approached me and asked me to stand.

[Pupp]

Could it be that you might have had more success had you campaigned on the basis of what you could have done to address whatever issues presently confront the parish, rather than by just sticking a blue rosette under peoples' noses?

[ChairsWithHairs]

Good on you for standing, but what a shame about the reaction you found. We had our labour candidate come around the other day, I detest labour after what brown did but politely explained I would not be voting for her and had a good conversation about local issues, I also thanked her for being out engaging people even though I disagreed with her party enough to make voting for her a no-no.

[thinfourth2]

Pupp said:

Could it be that you might have had more success had you campaigned on the basis of what you could have done to address whatever issues presently confront the parish, rather than by just sticking a blue rosette under peoples' noses?

talking about dogst

People love to complain about dogst

If you formed a political party that only had policies about dogst and stopping lorries speeding past houses you would win a landslide

[anonymous-user]

thinfourth2 said:

I had a brief foray into politics myself when i joined the local village committee

I gave up as most of it involved discussing dogst, complaining, back stabbing, complaining, dogst, back stabbing, dogst and more dogst.

There was little issue like what to do about the area where everyone dumped their garden waste as it got full and folk had dumped a shed down there. This was discussed for many many meetings.

I got bored and had a bonfire and then bribed a JCB driver to flatten the place and bury the waste

I like that! I can imagine the committees full of wky wky people and prejudiced narrow minded fools who would together work against someone like you, someone who just gets it done. That would make me go mad.
On the doggy plop theme there's nothing much else round my way that causes me nuisance, except the speed of cars flying down my hill and that, I'm told by the parish guy, is a borough or county issue.