It would be nice to have that headline emblazoned across the front page of the Hastings Observer, whereas it wasn't quite as successful as that. We did however gain a respectable 36 votes !
'Quite as successful as that'? - 'respectable 36 votes'? I hear you cry ! Well, before we write the whole exercise off, lets look at the facts.
At the time of the election, the Party structure in Hastings was - ME. The Eng Dems had only shortly before this time actually arrived in the town and I was planning a gentle build up to the General Election. Suddenly we were faced with an election ! Just as an artist can not expect the canvas to paint itself, you can not expect to change things by doing nothing! Therefore I decided that we would fight the election. St Helens Ward is staunch Tory and has been for generations but it was a good exercise for me.
The English Democrats are not quite as wealthy as the Tory Party, indeed all of our funds are provided by our members, which means that all of my publicity costs had to be met by ME. All of the canvassing had to be done by ME. And all the whilst I was suffering from that terrible scourge, the worst disease known to man - 'Man Flu'. Bravely I carried on but only managed to deliver approximately 200 leaflets to one area of that ward. The other parties in the meantime were pulling out all of the stops, in an attempt to stop the BNP from winning, the Unite Against Fascism (UAF) organisation pouring huge resources into the area. What I didn't realise at the time was the the UAF thugs placed the Eng Dems firmly in the same camp as the BNP (more about that later).
Despite all of this we achieved 36 votes. That represents an 18% share of the 200 doors that we delivered to. If that had been repeated across the whole of the ward we would have won by a clear majority. Now don't get me wrong - I am not going to go on about Dunkirk here and claim it as a victory - we didn't win ! However, it does show what the Eng Dems can achieve if we really work at it.
We can do it folks and for the sake of our grandchildren, we must do it.
KEEP THE FLAG FLYING
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