Even those with little interest in politics couldn’t help but notice the general election campaign since the date was announced. The relatively short amount of time all of the parties have (although it might not feel that way to those on the receiving end) means that a lot of ‘stuff’ has to fit into six weeks.
This has pros and cons as a candidate. My immediate advantage over some of the others is that I was selected absolutely ages ago, back in 2022 I think, so my local party hasn’t had to scramble around with a rushed selection process.
The Green Party nationally has actually been much more ‘on the ball’ than most others in this regard. A few days after the election was announced we already had the second largest number of candidates selected - more than the Tories and Lib Dems.
The Tories being caught on the back foot by the announcement might come as a surprise to many people. “Surely they would have been briefed that an election was coming before the general public were?”, you might think. This very much appears not to be the case, and by all accounts there were many local Conservative ‘associations’ rather annoyed about not knowing the date in advance.
So here we are, one day away from the deadline for nominations and some candidates are probably not quite confirmed yet. This means that despite all of the media noise you might not actually get to vote for someone you expected to. They may also be some unexpected candidates on the ballot.
I am pleased to say that my papers are in and validated, and I will definitely be on the ballot for Bath. My Green colleague in the photo, Edmund Cannon, will also definitely be on the ballot for North East Somerset and Hanham (where Rees-Mogg is standing).
Labour, the Tories, the Lib Dems and Reform have also announced candidates for Bath, but until the council publishes the statement of persons nominated and notice of poll tomorrow we won’t know for sure who is definitely going to be an option for voters.
A great result for me, although admittedly unlikely, would be if everyone else is late or has messed-up their forms and I am the only candidate, thus winning by default. One can always hope! Assuming they aren’t that hopeless then we have an interesting few weeks coming.
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