Independent Councillor in St Neots, Cllr Stephen Ferguson is considering standing in the new St Neots and Mid Cambs constituency. Are any of you tempted? (Should I try and do similar in Cambridge to what I did in Queen Edith’s ward at last year’s city council elections?)
It’s decision time following the shambolic setting of Rishi Sunak’s speech this afternoon announcing the dissolution of Parliament and the timing of the General Election 2024 for 04 July 2024.
Most of us (myself included) thought the PM would drag it out either until October, mid-December, or even January 2025.
Which means that Marianna Masters for Labour has got six weeks to persuade the voters of St Neots and Mid Cambs to vote for her even though she was only announced as their ‘parachuted-in’ candidate last week. Which resulted in Cllr Ferguson pondering whether to stand in protest against the move by Labour’s HQ.
As I mentioned before, Cllr Masters (an up-and-coming Lambeth councillor in South London) is very well connected within Labour and under normal circumstances (eg given at least six months to get to know the constituency) would perform reasonably well – having learnt enough about the essential local issues to bring a useful outside perspective. (Don’t underestimate how beneficial this can be). The problem she faces is that the campaign starts now. And her two main opponents stood for election in 2019, one of whom has been the incumbent MP for 40% of the constituency, while the other is a local district councillor covering much of the constituency.
The 2019 general election campaign in Cambridge was spectacularly dull compared to previous ones
I should know as I filmed more than a few of the public debates and hustings – feel free to browse through nearly a decade’s worth of videos here.
In particular see:
- The Extinction Rebellion Hustings at ARU on 22 Nov 2019 – opening speeches here, and Q&A here.
- The Cambridge Stays/For Europe Hustings at St Paul’s Church on 08 Dec 2019
In part it was all overshadowed by first the election result, followed by the pandemic outbreak a few months later. From which collectively we are yet to recover from.
With this being the third set of general elections I had sat through in four years, I had become more than familiar with the routine. (I was in the civil service for 2005 and 2010, so kept a very safe distance from party politics in those days – 2001 being my first general election I could vote in, at which point I lived in Hove constituency). Hence I found the whole thing quite dull given the local issues that were 1) at stake and 2) were not being discussed. How could they be when the Conservatives had selected a candidate who was a councillor in Harlow? (He also didn’t show for the Extinction Rebellion hustings – the Brexit Party’s Peter Dawe (a former UKIP candidate some years earlier) playing the panto villain role at that one).
“So, who is standing where?”
Here’s Phil Rodgers’ latest update
We are still awaiting the Conservatives to confirm their candidate for Cambridge – a seat they were defending when I started secondary school in the early 1990s. How the mighty fall? Polling just 15.5% of the vote in 2019, their candidate polled the lowest share of the vote in Cambridge’s electoral history dating back to the Great Reform Act of 1832. Which is quite a collapse.
“Will they do as badly this time around?”
If they parachute in a candidate whose only familiarity with the city is having been to university here decades ago, easily. Especially if the old Brexit Party/Reform run a higher profile campaign that takes votes of them. Less so if they select a competent local candidate who is familiar with local issues and campaigns on the handful of things that won them the King’s Hedges by-election seat last year.
What about an ‘Antony Carpen – Great Cambridge’ candidate doing similar? I.e. concentrating on local/regional issues only
Like Cllr Ferguson, I’m more than tempted – but having been back in A&E earlier this month as a precaution, the last thing in the world my health needs is six weeks of intensive stress. And the nature of my anxiety disorder (amongst the several other conditions/illnesses I’ve got) is that the triggers are very unpredictable. Even just over-thinking about something can set off various aches and pains that then set off doom spirals that are incredibly exhausting both mentally and physically. And the last thing in the world a hustings needs is me having to call for an ambulance half way through.
Which is why back in 2023 when several people asked me to be an independent candidate as an alternative to the party candidates, I had to make clear to the electorate that I wasn’t campaigning to win – or campaigning for a single vote. Rather – as my responses in this video show, I used the platform of the hustings to familiarise the residents with both how decisions are made about our city and community, and also the local history (distant and contemporary) of how we got to here – and what alternatives were rejected by previous generations.
In the grand scheme of things, if I did stand I would be aiming to participate in public debates to raise issues as set out below – inviting the party candidates to comment on them and audiences to have follow-up conversations. I wouldn’t be looking at mass leafleting or intense door-to-door campaigning.
“So, are you going to stand?”
Unlikely at this stage – not least because I can’t afford to lose £500 on an almost guaranteed lost deposit. (The Green Party lost their deposits in the last two general elections, despite saving them in 2010 and 2015 – and this was despite having two competent candidates highly regarded by their political opponents).
The only thing that might possibly change my mind is if a critical mass of people got involved to share the burden not just of the deposit but also on publicity and even standing in at hustings where chronic fatigue/Post Exertional Malaise gets the better of me.
So any campaign with my name on it would inevitably be one encouraging voters to do the following:
- Get wise about politics and democracy – learn the essentials (for example by purchasing second-hand text books aimed at teenagers that cover citizenship and politics)
- Familiarise themselves about how the City of Cambridge functions and malfunctions – and then pointing them in the direction of existing non-party-political groups that are campaigning to improve specific things – such as Cambs Unitaries on how we are governed.
- Become aware of the things that a city like ours should have but does not
- a new large concert hall (we were promised it in the 1960s but central government did not sanction the loan needed at the time to enable its construction)
- the new large swimming pool that the University of Cambridge should have built as a condition of Eddington’s planning permission, on which they’ve dragged their heels
- a light rail that goes under the city via a pair of tunnels as proposed by Cambridge Connect
- expanding the Museum of Cambridge onto Castle Hill so it tells the story of our city
- revamping the Guildhall so it looks magnificent, generates more money for the council, and is done in time for Florence Ada Keynes’ mayoral centenary
- Learning about the heroes who modernised our city – making local history a core part of our collective identity
If any existing party candidates are willing/able to incorporate most if not all of the above, then I won’t need to stand as a candidate.
In which case I can stand in the background with camcorder, filming the debates. The only purpose of me being on the ballot paper – as with the Queen Edith’s local elections in 2023, and even with Puffles in 2014 in Coleridge (Hashtag #VoteDragonGetDragon) is to encourage the voting public to discuss any issues I raise that they find interesting, with the party political candidates.
That’s not to catch out the candidates. Rather the sort of discussions I hope fellow voters will have with candidates is one that will be ongoing after the general election – whether with the candidates or their local councillors. It’s not a case of: “Build that concert hall or else” – but rather the voters asking about it, and the candidates responding both with their party’s policy and also about what things they need to consider before making a judgement call either way. That way, more people are likely to stay engaged on the issues that interest and concern them the most, rather than turning away from adversarial politics.
In the meantime, Register to vote! And also start looking at the party websites. In Cambridge this includes:
- Cambridge Conservatives
- Cambridge & South Cambs Green Party
- Cambridge Labour Party
- Cambridge Liberal Democrats
…and please keep it cordial. Let’s create a better atmosphere going forward so more people choose to get involved in the decisions that will shape the future of our city.
If you are interested in the longer term future of Cambridge, and on what happens at the local democracy meetings where decisions are made, feel free to:
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- Consider a small donation to help fund my continued research and reporting on local democracy in and around Cambridge.
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