Telegraph journalist tries to crowd fund 10 Young Independents for 2015 Election

Guinness Boy · Oct 9, 2013

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/techno...and-out-of-touch-its-time-to-fix-westminster/

Following on from the thread about Labour and the left, in which Buzzer and I both expressed disillusion with party politics and professional politicians, Telegraph blogger Mic Wright has written a piece expressing the same sort of view. Only he's doing something about it.

The above link is to his plans to support 10 Independent candidates in the 2015 Election using a mixture of donations and crowd funding. The candidates must be under 30 and unaffiliated. They can't stand on a hate ticket. They can take the salary but not expenses (Mic has since clarified on twitter they can take allowances - which are different - so they can run a constituency office).

Can it work? Will it work? And if one of them stood in your constituency with a manifesto you liked would you vote for them?

strings · Oct 9, 2013

I like this idea. I am one of those people that do not really like the idea of party politics, I don't think it encourages debate about what is good for our country, instead 95% of MPs vote for whatever their party leader tells them to.

More independents, in my opinion, would be a good thing.

Problem is, I simply cannot see an independent being elected - they would have to be a very strong candidate as people tend to vote for the party they want to see in government, rather than the person they want to represent them in parliament.

sten_super · Oct 9, 2013

Nice idea, and the horror from a few in the Telegraph comments section at the idea of someone that doesn't have their right-wing views being encouraged is very funny. Having said that, I agree with some of the criticisms of the idea, in that a 30 age limit is too low (I'd suggest saying that applicants must be between 30 and 40), I think some expenses are required (to cover public transport costs) but could be done in a transparent fashion. I see the point of only standing for one term (limiting their ability to 'buy into' the political system) but at the same time that limits the ability to undertake substantial change.

Billy the Fish · Oct 9, 2013

sten_super said:
Having said that, I agree with some of the criticisms of the idea, in that a 30 age limit is too low (I'd suggest saying that applicants must be between 30 and 40), I think some expenses are required (to cover public transport costs) but could be done in a transparent fashion. I see the point of only standing for one term (limiting their ability to 'buy into' the political system) but at the same time that limits the ability to undertake substantial change.

Really can't see the point in any of those rules. If they get elected and do a good job why would they not stand again, why limit it to 30 - if you're good enough you're old enough, and why not claim expenses that you're entitled to?

hans kraay fan club · Oct 9, 2013

So true:

On all sides, our politicians have become a professional class, pod people destined for office and doing no other work besides that which they consider politic to their future calling as Junior Minister for Obsequious Toadying in the Department of Dave Is Awesome.

As for these proposals, I do agree with many of the comments below the piece, that say that the age limit of 30 is counter-productive. Why exclude such an enormous % of potentially suitable candidates?

Also, to correct the OP, one of the rules states that 'there will be NO restriction on party affiliation'.

10 independent candidates

These candidates will be funded by a central pool of £5m which will pay for election costs but also for speech writers to help candidates with their message, PR people to promote the campaign and developers to crunch data on the seats they’ll fight in.

There will be no restrictions on party affiliation or political ideology beyond the rejection of that which is legally-defined as hate speech.

All candidates will be 30 or under on polling day.

Broad experience will be considered and attending university will not be a selection criteria.

The candidates will be selected by an independent board – based on the current demographic make up of the United Kingdom – whose work will be independently audited.

Funding will come from a mixture of high value donors and crowd-funding. Donors will have no say in candidate selection nor in the construction of the independent board.

Guinness Boy · Oct 9, 2013

hans kraay fan club said:
So true:
Also, to correct the OP, one of the rules states that 'there will be NO restriction on party affiliation'.

Thanks. I have the short term memory of.......what's that thing again?

For me it's an interesting idea with a few flaws. The under 30 restriction is because so many are in parliament - everyone I think - is over 30. However I would be more interested in electing an independent if they could demonstrate experience in a field that would be useful when it came to running the country. I hope it at least causes a stir and gets the other candidates to up their game if one of these is standing. I might even contribute to the crowd funding.

Tricky Dicky · Oct 9, 2013

strings said:
More independents, in my opinion, would be a good thing.

In theory, yes. The problem is, how do you decide who to vote for if you have no idea roughly what they'd do on any particular issue. When a candidate is in a party, you have a good idea on their stance, and whether you are likely to agree with them. A pure independant can hold very different and inconsistent views on different issues. I don't see how it can work - i'd be happy to be put right though.

jgmcdee · Oct 9, 2013

Tricky Dicky said:
When a candidate is in a party, you have a good idea on their stance, and whether you are likely to agree with them.

Tell that to any lib dem voter, or those with tory MPs who commonly vote against their party line. If a candidate can spell out their own individual viewpoint on the major issues, and provide a general idea of their outlook on life and the purpose of government, it should be enough to provide a steer for most voters.

Tricky Dicky · Oct 9, 2013

jgmcdee said:
Tell that to any lib dem voter, or those with tory MPs who commonly vote against their party line. If a candidate can spell out their own individual viewpoint on the major issues, and provide a general idea of their outlook on life and the purpose of government, it should be enough to provide a steer for most voters.

Maybe

beorhthelm · Oct 9, 2013

Tricky Dicky said:
In theory, yes. The problem is, how do you decide who to vote for if you have no idea roughly what they'd do on any particular issue.

read their manifesto?

an awful lot of candidates do not actually agree wholely point by point with the party manifesto, with many faultlines within each party, so really offers a poor guidance how they'd vote on a particular issue (if given a free vote). the party only tells you broad strategic political principles of their candidates, even then not accurately (see tuition fees, Europe)

Herr Tubthumper · Oct 9, 2013

I like the idea of under-30. If I had my way only under 30s could stand and vote for parliament. The over 30s have failed the UK; time to let the next generation have a go.

CheeseRolls · Oct 9, 2013

Shoreham Beach used to return two Independents to Adur Council and this seemed to work well, up until the point that they moved to a cabinet style council. Everything is decided upon at committee level and committee membership is divided up on party lines. Seeing that they were going to become irrelevant the Beach Independents decided to take the Conservative whip in council, which largely defeats the purpose of their independence. Central government with it's working committees is run the same way, so Independents and small parties merely sit on the outside and protest.

The alternative is to follow the LibDem coalition path, where they trade policies and principles for power and end up supporting a highly diluted and often contradictory set of policies. I guess this initiative might uncover some winners, but ultimately they will need to align somewhere along the line to make any difference.

LargeHadronZugzwang · Oct 9, 2013

Snollygosters all. We need a positive vote to bring this word back.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/bo...ark-forsyth-the-horologicon-top-10-lost-words

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Telegraph journalist tries to crowd fund 10 Young Independents for 2015 Election

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