Mike Jelfs
My reflections a few days after the General Election.
Alfie made a couple of appearances at Polling Stations
Green Party Nationally
The results for the Green Party were amazing, winning all of our Target Seats. This was in defiance of all the polling companies forecasts and exit polls, who were predicting one or at most two.
I don’t think a saw a single forecast for the four seats that we got. To do this however the national party quite rightly invested almost all of our limited financial resources in those constituencies, and had members including me and other members of the local parties, travelling long distances to deliver leaflets and knock doors.
Unless we have a change to a proportional representation form of voting, this is the only way we can win seats, whilst this change is supported by Labour Party members, the party leadership does not have to follow their wishes unlike in the Green Party where our policy has always been to support this change.
Nationally we have gained over 3,000 more members, and with 40 more seats where we finished second, it gives us real hope for the future.
Cycling between Polling stations, which I love to do, also with a flat tyre on my car I could not visit many as I would have liked.
South Leicestershire
With the change in constituency boundaries, removing Braunstone an area with strong support for the Labour (and Green) Party, I said to anyone who would listen that even if you supported tactical voting it was pointless to do so here. The vote for the Labour Party did increase here by 4.9% which is better than they did nationally and with the boundary change Robert [Parkinson] should be very proud of his achievement. But even with a drop in support of 30.8% for Alberto [Costa] he still won by 5,508 votes.
Our result was also slightly up by 0.8%, this is despite many having received no leaflet from me prior to voting. My leaflet distributed by the Royal Mail, something that they do once free to every home in the constituency, I still have to pay for the leaflets, which costs several hundred pounds but I thought it was worth trying. The process was organised centrally by the Green Party, by a small group of people who did an amazing job. Unfortunately I don’t think the Royal Mail has the capability that it once had so the distribution was not that quick meaning that unfortunately I probably missed out on a few votes.
I produced a second larger A4 leaflet, that a number of party members and volunteers helped me deliver to selected areas. I am so grateful for the time they gave to help, they could have delivered far more but I had to limit on the amount of money I spent on printing.
I would also like to thank those households and business who displayed our posters in their windows, it was very much appreciated and has helped raise our profile locally.
Falling only a little short of retaining my £500 deposit (0.2% or 90 votes) is agonising, for a small party such as ourselves, but this was more than made up for by generous donations to our crowdfunder. We don’t accept large corporate donations and are reliant on generous donations from supporters and members.
A Monitor at the polling station displaying the result
The Count and IMPORTANT Observations
The count organised by staff at Blaby District Council, I cannot fault in any way, it actually finished ahead of schedule, the result was announced just after 4am when we had been told to expect it at 4:30am.
Meeting the candidates, agents and other members of rival political parties was brilliant, although our views may differ it takes a lot of commitment for anyone to get involved in politics, for in most cases no financial reward.
What is and will continue to be disappointing, is the drop in engagement with voting. The turnout in South Leicestershire dropped to 65%, 7% less that 2019. But that only tells part of the story as an increasing number don’t even bother to register, or don’t know they need to, whilst at one polling station, I was told that a number of people had turned up wanting to vote but were not registered.
Reviewing the spoilt ballot papers including drawings of the inevitable human anatomy and bad spelling of insults, is the one task as candidates we do together. But these are only a very minor part of the fact that 27,184 registered constituents that didn’t vote. So this puts the 18,264 that did vote for the winner into context, with less that a quarter of the electorate (23.25%) deciding who should represent South Leicestershire in Parliament.
I was asked beforehand if I wanted to say anything whilst on the podium, I said I would if some or all of the candidates did. It was a bit of a shock to find that I was the only candidate besides Alberto. Obviously very tired, I am not completely sure what I said, but I do remember congratulating Alberto and saying that I hoped that the Labour Government was a success, and we are not in a situation in 5 years time where the far right can get a majority, as unlike in other European Democracies our First Past the Post system does not have the safeguards that they do.
What next for me…
So to look forward, where do I go from here? It was flattering to be asked where I would be standing next year in the County Council Elections by the LibDems. I told them genuinely that decisions as to who will be standing where have yet to be made. But one thing is for sure as long as I am able, I will support this brilliant party in any way I can. If you would like to join us please do, it costs £5 a Month and if that is a struggle then we understand and you can join for a minimal amount of money.
Mike Jelfs – 7th July 2024