THE CAMPAIGN: DAY 2
‘You have to know the past to understand the present’ ― Carl Sagan
Another busy day at work today, though I did squeeze in a little more campaign time than yesterday. I had that Carl Sagan quote buzzing round my head from somewhere, and decided to spend these precious moments studying the numbers from recent Calder Valley general elections.
Being ineffective is one of my greatest fears and whenever I’m up against it at work (often!) with projects and campaigns, I have to remind myself to stay cool and start at the beginning (successful campaigns are complex animals to deliver — not starting at the beginning is a great way to become totally ineffective once they get going).
Anyway, I’m afraid it’s grim reading. Did you know that in the last (2017) election, Craig Whittaker equalled the highest vote percentage any candidate has ever achieved here, since the seat was created in 1983? (Chris McCafferty’s 46.1% in the 1997 Labour landslide). The Tory incumbent has consistently added ±3k votes in each of the 3 elections he’s fought, his best performance was the most recent one.
Tory votes added by Craig Whittaker in the last 3 General Elections:
- 2017: +3436 votes
- 2015: +2957 votes
- 2010: +3338 votes
(yes, I know Labour also added many votes — don’t @me! — but selectively looking at positive data is a risky business, people are literally dying)
The motivation that got me into this selection process was:
- losing elections in Calder Valley isn’t been taken seriously enough
- we don’t get a Labour government if we don’t win Calder Valley
- when I say ‘win’ I mean ‘defendable majority and weakened opposition’ (don’t give me 609 votes nonsense, I’m too old to ignore naivety and too young to let it pass. Even if Whittaker’s numbers were static — see above, they’re not — what kind of use / sensible target is creeping over the line?🙄)
The rest of my time I spent getting started on my campaign leaflet, which has turned into a bit of an essay to be honest. It won’t be to everyone’s taste, but that’s OK with me, I’m here to be me and say what I believe, based on my skills and experience, not rattle off whatever platitudes I think people might want to hear. If Labour members reject me for who I am, that’s OK. I don’t want to be anyone else, I like democracy and I can definitely handle not being chosen.
So to all those people saying ‘Stan, where’s your campaign?’…
Today, I completed data analysis, half a leaflet (the hardest-half is always finding a strong, coherent ‘voice’ at the beginning, but this so important once the campaign takes hold), I also spoke to some Labour members (more about that in a different post) and it’s only day two!.
We can do this.
