Voting for myself and my husband
This is a second go at the same prompt, only shortly after the first. However, on that occasion, the prompt question failed to appear in the blog (see it here). It is a kind of follow-up to that last posting, and another, that deal with being the Green candiate for Crook Ward in County Durham. This one deals with having attended the count on Friday (yesterday) for last Thursday’s Council Elections. I hadn’t intended to write this up, but I have suddenly found myself unable to proceed with my intended blog that I had spent much of yesterday evening on, and nearly finished, and had no other ideas – if I were that is to , as I must for some obsessive reason, keep up my daily blog count. This one, I knew, could be completed quickly.
My husband (Geoffrey William Martin, as below) and I (Steven Douglas Bamlett, as below) both use postal votes so had voted some time before – the day of the blog available at this link – which also contains a photograph of the ballot paper before being filled in:
All three of the Reform Party candidates were elected with massive majorities over other parties. Even if the Labour Party candidates had had the total of the votes of either Geoff and I, they could not have beaten the lowest placed Reform candidate. Here is the result of the count that I saw in progress:
Crook
| Name of Candidate | Description (if any) | Number of votes* |
|---|---|---|
| BAMLETT, Steven Douglas | The Green Party | 335 |
| BEAN, Paul David | Reform UK | 1849 Elected |
| BEEFORTH, Michael Edward | Labour Party | 679 |
| CURRAH, Mike | The Conservative Party Candidate | 610 |
| HALL, Mary Elizabeth | Labour Party | 711 |
| JOPLING, Patricia | The Conservative Party Candidate | 484 |
| LION, Nick | Liberal Democrat | 255 |
| MARTIN, Geoffrey William | The Green Party | 280 |
| REED, Anne | Independent | 1327 |
| RODISS, Robbie | Reform UK | 2102 Elected |
| SCHULMAN, Adrian | Reform UK | 1645 Elected |
| WILSON, John Leslie | Labour Party | 569 |
* If elected the word ‘Elected’ appears against the number of votes.
The number of ballot papers rejected was as follows:
| Reason for rejection | Number of ballot papers |
|---|---|
| (A) Want of an official mark | 0 |
| (B) Voting for more Candidates than voter was entitled to | 4 |
| (C) Writing or mark by which voter could be identified | 0 |
| (D) Being unmarked or wholly void for uncertainty | 1 |
| (E) Rejected in part | 0 |
| Total | 5 |
Vacant Seats: 3, Electorate: 11062, Ballot Papers Issued: 4053, Turnout: 36.64%
Watching over the process felt strange, not least because, in truth, neither of us wished for the work involved in being elected to which both of us would have, in the miraculous event, meticulously applied ourselves. But, in the end I was glad to have stood. Some sourpuss voices in Labour think any party broadly on the left, and the Green Party is on most issues further left than Labour, as are currently the Liberal Democrats, should allow their votes to be taken by Labour. However, as always that anti-democratic view (since I could not presume to decide how any one elector might determine their vote) lacks any substance.
Not only on green issues but on issues that impact child poverty, the marginalisation of the older working class and the disabled, Labour has shown itself as neither to the left nor with any socially-orientated ethics. It has minimised the rights of the marginalised and given credibility to the extreme right wing policies of the Reform Party and its anti-equality-and-diversity programme (most recently in welcoming the clarity of policies designed to make the lives of the small minority of people who identify as trans-men, trans-women and non-binary impossible to live). This is not a party I would even recommend to anyone who votes largely for other reasons than mere financial self-interest.
Even the Independent candidate I voted for (Ann Reed) did not get in though she was the nearest to that possibility, having already served 8 years on the Council. However it was a sad and stressful day – perhaps the low point being that of seeing Darren Grimes elected for Reform. He is a queer man like us who has done more to roll back the political achievements of queer liberation than any other TV pundit, social-influencer, and would-be mouthy politician. Seeing him hogging TV cameras after his election was truly disturbing – not least because journalists fell for the fellow-journalist persuasion tactic. But all that is over-personal and ad hominem.
That wonderful former Scottish Nationalist MP, Mhairi Black (you pronounce the first name something like ‘Varri’) once stood up in Parliament to accuse the last Tory government of ‘sleepwalking into fascism’ by virtue of both its anti-diversity-and-equality stance and its willingness to use immigration as a scapegoat for structural issues of economic decline – some of which were heavily tied to Brexit.
Mhairi Black does stand-up comedy again now, but the ludicrous situations she exposes there are tragicomedies, not fun. The present Labour Government has pressed on with policies that depend upon weaponizing immigration as a means of explaining the dissatisfaction of white populations – in effect if not in rhetoric. Their rhetoric weakly pretends to liberality and tolerance, if not welcome. Labour now conspire with extremely regressive views of cultural identity, human rights, and the use of law in government social policy. Labour politicians have rolled out a red carpet to announce the ascent of the steps of power of a proto-Fascist party like Reform.
Yesterday I watched its sharp-suited male representatives (even aped by Darren Grimes in a podgy cheeked variety) ascend to power by signing the declaration of good behaviour for the council. They were followed round by youths and ladies who seemed in practice for the role of first storm-trooper.
Darren Grimes (on our left spatially) and others (Press photograph) yesterday. The Trump mouth bawl being perfected.
The only policies they have boasted of being ready to implement are:
- Sacking any council worker involved in Equality and Diversity policy research and implementation
- Sacking any council worker involved in Net Zero or other Green policy research and implementation
- Sacking any council worker who wants to, or must, work from home.
- Cutting the size of Council Services, and reducing its quality of choice to save money,
- Denying services to asylum seekers.
These are the Masters we have picked. They need only parrot the present Labour view that, of course, they would do more:
- if there was much more resource from economic growth,
- if these ‘non-productive’ policies, in their estimation, did not conflict with growth.
Both of the above reasons are based on lies or false interpretations of how huge national economies and international exchanges work, just as the case for Brexit was. So yes, I voted for our Green selves – but we failed to impress others, though of course we had no canvasing, leafletting or local capaign. Nevertheless, if asked, we must fight again next time – if there is a next time.
Durham Green Party outside the Cathedral
With love
Steven xxxxxxx
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