Tag Archive for 'UKIP'

Poulton North by-election analysis

Published on August 18, 2011 in Elections. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Although the Poulton North by-election happened several weeks ago, I think it’s worth commenting on the result and why I think such a result came about.

The by-election results:

Liberal Democrat 1,106
Labour 895
Conservative 190
UK Independence Party (James Ashington) 97

The first thing that is interesting is that Labour failed to gain this seat, something which I thought was a forgone conclusion. Either they ran a bad campaign, with their very young candidate going on holiday during the campaign not helping, or the Liberal Democrats had a great candidate and ran another trademark Lib Dem by-election campaign. I suspect both played a part.

The UKIP result was disappointing, as we did put a large amount of resources into the area, including postal vote letters, personalised leaflets and a visit from our North West MEP. We even got plenty of press coverage and had a fantastic candidate in James Ashington. What went wrong?

My theory is that given the history of the ward, where there are normally only three candidates, people are very reluctant to stray from the main three parties, to expand on this slightly, it shows that no matter how good your campaign is, unless you have a solid consistent campaign all year round, you will get very far. Voters really do need to feel that they can trust a party and a candidate with their vote, even if there is still little chance in winning.

A fair few people in UKIP still think they can turn up to an election the week before and win the seat. The Poulton North result proves that if you have that mentality, you will get very far.

Learning from our mistakes

Published on July 15, 2011 in Elections and Politics. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , .

Despite huge amounts of effort, UKIP has always struggled to get organised at a regional level. From organising large amounts of candidates, to providing support with leaflets, we have always found it hard and had to work right up to the very last second to make things work.

However, this year in the North West we are moving forward at an incredible rate, thanks to some fantastic work from the North West team and the many hard working branch and county chairmen all over the region.

At the next local elections in 2012, I expect to see a huge improvement in the number of candidates we field and a huge improvement in the quality of the leaflets we produce, not to mention the rate at which we can get the leaflets out to voters.

Looking at the North West I really do see much more of a professional operation than say three years ago. My ambition is to see the North West become UKIP’s ‘Flagship’ region in terms of how the party should operate at a regional level. Only time will tell, but the sheer amount of hard work that members are putting into the region from Cumbria right down to Crewe give it a good chance of achieving that target.

I’m back!

Published on June 10, 2011 in Personal. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Well, after far too much time away from this blog, I’m back!
The reason I have been away for so long is due the sheer amount of work I have had. It all started during the Oldham East & Saddleworth by-election (remember that? Seems like a forever ago). During the OE&S by-election I lived in Oldham for just under three months campaigning with the rest of the core campaign team.

As well as having the above by-election, I have had my own local by-election to contest in January, were I came third beating the Liberal Democrats. More recently there have been developments to Ringway Parish Council and not to mention some fantastic results at the 2011 local elections by the Wythenshawe campaign team.

Young Independence logo

Published on November 2, 2010 in Personal and Politics. 0 Comments Tags: , .

The youth wing of UKIP, Young Independence, was in dire need of a new logo.
I spent several hours coming up with designs and with input from a few members have come up with the following:

Please let me know what you think.

Blackpool North & Cleveleys branch meeting

Published on October 28, 2010 in Politics. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Last night, I had the honour of being the guest speaker at the UKIP Blackpool North & Cleveleys branch. The branch is one of the best performing branches in the North West, with a real chance of getting someone elected next May.

The last time I was in the Cleveleys area was when I was helping the branch chairman, Roy Hopwood, fight the jubilee by-election last year, where he took second place.

I decided to talk about the many changes that are taking place in the North West region in the run up to Christmas, but first mentioned the North West website, and the valuable work it does in promoting the party in the North West. Something that I hope branches can start contributing more to over the next few months. As well as the website, I highlighted the use of Twitter and how the region is able to communicate results and news very quickly around the region.

After this, I mentioned the weekly election reports that I produce and the need for effective communication within the region, something the reports will help with. Along with the reports, the branch members heard about the success of the ‘Informer’ leaflets that are going down well in by-elections that we are standing in, with most Informers  having a turnaround time of about 24 hours, they are perfect for quick response campaigning.

After spending some time talking about how I was elected to Ringway Parish Council, I finished by giving an overview of the troubles the BNP are facing, most members seemed very pleased to hear about the demise of the party, with me more than happy to tell them about it.

All in all, it was a very informative and interesting meeting,  I also managed  to chat to some of the members afterwards.

Sheffield University activity fair

Published on September 24, 2010 in Politics. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Yesterday I helped the new UKIP student society at the activity fair that took place at Sheffield University. Despite being surrounded by what seemed like the entire membership of the Socialist Workers Party at the other stalls, we had quite a lot of interest, with many people taking our material and  listening to what the society Chairman, Tom Booker, had to say about a number of issues.

With the members that signed up on the day, the society is in a great position to become a hive of activity. Already, meetings and events are being planned with guest speakers from the party. The society has also launched its website, although it’s still in its development stage. The site can be found here. The national website also covered the event which can be found here.

It’s clear that there is a long way to go before UKIP gains a mass following in universities and colleges, due to the left/socialist education most students get these days, but progress is being made to restore the balance, in a professional, forward looking way.

Left to right: Wayne Harling, Me, Jonathan Arnott, Tom Booker.

Sheffield UKIP Society

Published on September 21, 2010 in Politics. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Today I spent some time helping Young Independence members prepare for an activity fair at Sheffield University. The fair itself will take place this Thursday and its looks like it will be a great day with a chance to meet lots of students to talk about who we are and how UKIP policies could benefit them.

We will be giving away some freebies to students that sign up to the society, which should generate some more interest.

Tom Booker, society chairman, looks like he will have a very active group in Sheffield University, once the activity fair is over. Hopefully this will be the first of many UKIP/YI societies that really make an impression in universities around the UK.

Once the activities fair is over, I will update the site with how it unfolded.

A rather slow day…

Published on September 16, 2010 in Politics. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Most days I’m frantically trying to finish bits of work I have, which is quite hard given the different types of work I can get, MEP work, Young Independence work, North West work, branch work, Parish work etc. It really is quite a challenge to co-ordinate it all!

Today however was one of those strange days where nothing really got done, in fact, I spent most of the day standing around Manchester city centre. I was supposed to be helping with a demonstration, but found out once I and few other members had gathered there that it was off. Despite this waste of a day, it was quite nice to get out a bit into the sunshine and the hustle and bustle of the city.

I have done some work today, few emails here and there. It will be back to normal tomorrow, bring it on!

Harbour by-election

Published on September 15, 2010 in Elections. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

The Harbour by-election will be very interesting! Labour have not put up a candidate. There isn’t even a Green or BNP candidate standing. Only four parties will be contesting this election: UKIP, Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Morecambe Bay Independents. We really do have a good chance of getting a decent result.

I spent some time this morning designing the first leaflet to be distributed in the Harbour ward and I’m quite happy with it. Of course, I can’t reveal what is in the leaflet, but I’m sure it will have the right effect on the voters.

In the beginning…

Published on September 10, 2010 in Personal. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Hello and welcome to my new blog. My old website was suffering from neglect and I felt that it was about time I started to keep any followers updated on my ‘goings on’ regularly.

My new blog-style layout enables me to post about my day to day activities as a UKIP Councillor and also the work I do as a political researcher for our North West MEP. Almost no day in my life is ever the same, one minute i could be designing leaflets for by-elections, then soon after be rushing around writing questions for the European Commission.

I also hope to comment on events within UKIP, from our current leadership election right the way through to all the local government elections and Westminster elections, not forgetting the Euros.
Being one of the youngest councillors in UKIP provides me with a unique perspective on day to day politics and event party politics.

More about me as a Councillor can be found on the ‘About Me’ page and all of my media appearances and videos can be viewed on the ‘Media’ page.

Bye for now!