I’ve been a vocal advocate for social justice, trade union rights and anything that would stop the awful right wing slide for my entire adult life. I’ve been a member of the Labour Party for seven.

I have finally decided that it’s time to put my money where my mouth is. I am very realistic about my chances; it’s a Tory stronghold area. But I’ve basically been on the losing side of every election since I could vote, so I’m used to losing. You never know though, one day…

Any advice or thoughts are welcome, but just wanted to share really. Wish me luck!

Time to get the Tories out.

Good on you

Any advice or thoughts are welcome
…
Time to get the Tories out.

You’ve just answered your own question.

Well done you, and good luck.

Best of luck OP.  Can you tell us which council you’re hoping to stand on?

That thought occurred to me only this morning, not sure I’m brave enough, but a very cool thing to do – go you! 🙂

Strange coincidence, I was mulling standing as an independent while walking the dog and listening to a Martin Lewis podcast today.

He was asked how ministers could be seen to be worthy of trust, but the crux of his reply was you have to be “trustworthy” and people feel politicians are not trustworthy as they have to toe the party line.

On that basis I think the only option is to stand as an independent. No idea how to do it though!

From the battering the local councillors get on my village FB group over every petty thing you get my utmost respect for taking on the role if elected. I’m sure I wouldn’t be patient or calm enough to play the game

Don’t tell anyone you ride bike, or the tory gammon’s will never vote for you.

As its all lies, election promises I mean, tell them you’ll ban cycling in the city center, and round up any foreign people who try to move to the area.

Presumably your local party sort out flyers and posters?

In which case its a matter of banging on doors, convincing people that you couldn’t possibly be as shit as a Tory, and face a lot of rejection.

Best of luck. You’re to be admired, whether you are successful or not. Too many of us moan but do nothing about it

Nice one, get the party to give you a list of willing people who can help deliver leaflets and attend listening sessions. I’m one of the willing, our councillor has us all in a whatsapp group and we help out where we can.

It can be done, Labour control our council now, the first labour councillor for fourty years was elected five years ago.

My nephew recently got elected as a Labour councillor.

He had a few goes but before being successful as they make you “cut your teeth” on areas you will never win, until you get a shot at something winnable. Even with his background as an ex-RN Officer and Afghanistan “veteran”.

No idea how to do it though!

it’s basically an arcane, repetitive form that you get from the council, you need a proposer and a seconder, and you need to be eligible, which is either live or have business in the nearby area (not necessarily the ward you want to stand in mind you). If you do it independently then it all falls on you, if you are a political party member then you are supported by an election agent of the party and you get to use their logos etc. it’s all very 1970s and ripe for an overhaul to be honest. This election will be the first to require photo ID at the polling station too, talk about decks being stacked…

I am very realistic about my chances; it’s a Tory stronghold area. But I’ve basically been on the losing side of every election since I could vote, so I’m used to losing. You never know though, one day…

Any advice or thoughts are welcome, but just wanted to share really. Wish me luck!

Whilst it would be crazy to expect to win in those circumstances you need to have a bit of a plan if you do – and I don’t mean politically, the party will sort all that out.  We had a local candidate who always stood in every election and did OK but clearly was never going to win. They stood at the last election and ended up a councillor.  I’m not sure who was more shocked, her or the tory guy who had expected to get the seat?  BUT she didn’t seem to have a plan, she ran a small business and I know one of her employees who said next time she came in everyone was very excited for her and she just looked terrified.  I spoke to her in her business capacity a few months after she was elected and she just seemed exhausted.  It is a huge time commitment so you need to work out how you would do it.

I reckon just be genuine. Show you’ll vote for what you think is right/fair/just rather than because you want power. Don’t toe the party line if you don’t think it’s right.

And good luck.

anything that would stop the awful right wing slide for my entire adult life

Y’know you have to get (some of) these people to vote for you if you want to be successful? Might be better off trying to understand their views and working towards a compromise? Just a thought anyway.

I’m desparate to get the Tories out, just a tiny bit more than I’m dreading Labour getting in 🙁

So good luck! 🙂

Gently remind people they need very specific photo ID, a Voter Authority Certificate, or a postal vote in order to vote… Thanks to an recent, absurd Tory change https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/i-am-a/voter/voter-id

Y’know you have to get (some of) these people to vote for you if you want to be successful?

it’s a really reasonable point, but I don’t think that the current hard right politics being implemented by the incumbent government really represent the majority. When I engage with individuals I find that many times they are far more socially liberal than they maybe realise; I’m fairly sure that if people were allowed to sit down, read policies and make reasonable decisions based on what they feel is right and fair, absent of being bombarded by warped messages from a toxic media and commentators every hour of every day, we’d have a very different government in charge.

I also think that, more than before, people are starting to see through the gaslighting, and that’s why Labour have a 26% lead.

Basically, I think most people are decent, reasonable human beings, given a chance. Just not the Tory 1%ers.

Tory strong hold eh ? Get a contract out on all the old retirees, they are helping ruin this country. Most ‘working’ people can’t stand the Tory scumbags.

Good luck.

From the battering the local councillors get on my village FB group over every petty thing 

You need a very thick skin. It is MENTAL how personalised and bonkers online is.

Well done you and good luck.

I went to see Bernie Sanders speak recently, and at the end someone asked him ‘but what can we do?’ and his answer was to do exactly what you’re doing.

It is MENTAL how personalised and bonkers online is.

Well, at least he’s on here practising for that

Good for you. Local councils are the foundation of democracy and they need people like you standing for election.

I’ve recently left local authority work after nearly 20 years. Some of my tips.

Knock on doors and talk to people. At local level a lot of votes are based on personality and relationships.
Campaign on local issues. Hospitals, school closure, whatever. Local elections are won and lost on local issues, much more so than association with national issues. Just saying you are standing against Tory is not enough
Understand that council can shut schools, close services and raise council tax, but never, ever mess with wheelie bins. Councillors will win and lose seats on wheelie bins, parking, speed limits, dog shit and pot holes. They are the key issues for the great electorate (and never try to argue otherwise)

If elected:
Be clear it is a poorly paid second job, it will use a huge amount of your time.
Understand you will never, ever make everyone happy. If you set out to do so you will fail
Don’t read comments on Facebook posts, especially on posts about council put up by local newspapers. It is the wild west and will make you want to hurt people.
Develop relationships with Council officers, they will make your life a lot easier, you can will in turn make their life easier.

Good luck. It was our constituency candidate selection meeting last night. Our lot sound like they’ve a lot more chance than you, but you never know. At least you’re trying though.

I’ve been out leafletting and door knocking but no way would I stand, so I admire those who do. You’re going to hear a lot about wheeley bins and pot holes 😂

Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

I saw on the BBC that cocaine production has reached an all time high, I assume that is the suppliers anticipating your ascent to power.

What franksinatra said. At a local level, it matters more what you do/promise on local issues than which party you represent.
You also will need to work with others – that’s really important. It’s about building a consensus for action as the wheels turn slowly and deliberately.

Again, focus on what you will do, not how bad the other guy is and knock a lot of doors, go to local events, meet people. Just get your name out. As a newbie, you have nothing to lose.

Again, at a local level, I wouldn’t take social media too seriously. Your best weapon is face-to-face interaction and meeting people.

Dogshit
Potholes
Immigrants
were the classic ‘big three’ we used to get!

my brother’s a labour counciller in his local area, has been for a few rotations now. He started off by being put up for election as an MP where I live (aged 25 or so) – needless to say its a tory stronghold so he didn’t get in..

I think he enjoys it, its a bit of a drag on his time, and I think its very much a small cog in a big machine, but he likes nudging things where he can. His council is (just) labour majority which probably helps

Best of luck, you can have my vote, anything’s better than Gavin and his cronies. The local lib dem is trying to get some recognition locally (they need it) by taking selfies of himself and the pot holes & telling everyone on Facebook..

Assuming your standing for our ward, this was the 2021 results..
Labour: 453 votes
Green Party: 546 votes
Conservative: 2911 votes – Elected

Thats a hell of an uphill

@chevychase, Ha! I’ve made the exact same observations about people wanting to be managers at work, too. I am now one of those managers and some of my greatest job satisfaction comes from being a manager for staff, rather than against as I observe so many of my contemporaries being.

So maybe, just maybe I could be one of those exceptions that prove the rule.

Forgot to say that Labour high command should be able to give you decent resources like an electoral register, voting intention, household information, demographics by area etc – can be useful when door knocking

Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

I saw on the BBC that cocaine production has reached an all time high, I assume that is the suppliers anticipating your ascent to power.

I don’t think he’s Gove

@v8ninety You’ve got plenty of electoral experience, what can go wrong?

Tory strong hold eh ? Get a contract out on all the old retirees, they are helping ruin this country. Most ‘working’ people can’t stand the Tory scumbags.

I’ll work on them and the wedding barges, @molgrips can distribute propaganda and everyone else can alternate between CZ’s and driving cows until polling day.

NKL for the win!

Dogshit
Potholes
Immigrants
were the classic ‘big three’ we used to get!

Don’t forget a mandatory hi-viz, done a poo pose and lots of pointing.

I’m not left wing, or a Labour voter, but great to see someone getting involved with helping their local community, so good luck and hope it all goes well.

Actually, that’s one of the frustrating things about our voting system. A candidate might be brilliant and hard working, but a lot of people won’t vote for them because they are the wrong party. A particular problem at council level where politics shouldn’t matter so much. I think I would rather all councillors stood as independent.

Actually, that’s one of the frustrating things about our voting system. A candidate might be brilliant and hard working, but a lot of people won’t vote for them because they are the wrong party. A particular problem at council level where politics shouldn’t matter so much. I think I would rather all councillors stood as independent.

Absolutely agree, it never ceases to amaze me how many people think support for a councillor is support for their party and actually means anything.

Until the People Act 1969 only the candidates names were on ballot papers, not the political party or organisation they represented. It was considered that voters were voting for individuals not their parties.

Obviously it made it more difficult, especially in local elections, if people had to find out the name of the candidate of whatever party they wanted to back. People want to vote on party lines, so Harold Wilson changed the rules when he was Prime Minister.

Well done!

I’m active in the a Labour party and we got a Labour Councillor elected in our ward for the first time ever last year. We had a 20% swing from the Tories. Across the constituency we won 3 out of 5 and in aggregate a good Labour major. The look on our Tory MP’s face at the count as he saw a future hammering in a GE was a beautiful sight.

In terms of tactics. We linked local and national issues where we could. Went big on huge cuts to Local Authorities by central government. Also played up the local credentials of our candidate. Know your electorate, what are they pissed off about, buses/trains, antisocial behaviour, traffic/speeding/parking, environmental issues, green belt, schools etc

On the doorstep last year and even more this year I’ve never known such a positive response to us and even more a negative response to the Tories.

Obviously there are many places where a victory isn’t possible but pushing hard in locals, helps with General Election and puts the fear into the Tories.

Good luck and hope it is a rewarding endeavour. If you win there tends to be more room to be your own person as a councillor than an MP so carry through your values into office

I have finally decided that it’s time to put my money where my mouth is. I am very realistic about my chances; it’s a Tory stronghold area. But I’ve basically been on the losing side of every election since I could vote, so I’m used to losing. You never know though, one day…

Don’t be so disheartened, Wokingham, which has NEVER not returned a Conservative MP unless either:
*The Conservatives didn’t exist yet
*Wokingham (as a seat) didn’t exist.

Now has a Lib-Dem council.

Which means that last night I came home to a tory propaganda piece with John Redwoods face on it telling me how in a mere 6-months they’ve bankrupted the council, destroyed the roads, etc, etc.

Actually, that’s one of the frustrating things about our voting system. A candidate might be brilliant and hard working, but a lot of people won’t vote for them because they are the wrong party. A particular problem at council level where politics shouldn’t matter so much. I think I would rather all councillors stood as independent.

My mother was a Borough Councillor, she wasn’t remotely party political, but the local Tory party thought she would be a good Councillor so asked her if she wanted to stand for them as they had seen how effective she was in other voluntary work. She duly joined the party the day she was put forward as a candidate and significantly increased the previous substantial majority. Her only interest was improving things for the community – hardly discussed national issues.