GIVEN the debate in the Restore Britain/Advance UK saga, as I have a personal interest in this matter, I would like to put my two penn’orth in.
I am a member of both the Advance UK party and what was formerly the Restore Britain movement, and I am considering standing in the May elections. This means I will have to nail my colours to the mast and withdraw from one of those organisations.
I will not be withdrawing from Advance UK. Why?
There are a few bones I have to pick with the system in general first.
With my 25-year experience of standing for both parliamentary and local election, campaigning for Brexit and other related matters, walking the streets with leaflets, running street stands and busting a gut to play my small part in restoring some common sense into politics, I have long been of the opinion that there should be more help with understanding election jargon. From my experience of speaking to the public on doorsteps and from street stands, it is clear to me that a frightening proportion of the population do not understand the political system.
I operate on the principle that, if you are looking to buy a used car, you get expert advice from somebody who knows what they are doing. Not everybody understands car mechanics. By the same token not everybody understands politics. God knows, those of us who have been involved in it for years struggle enough with it.
As a regular contributor on social media I have arrived at the opinion that there are significant numbers of individuals who really haven’t a clue who or what they’re voting for.
I have just read a heated exchange on Facebook – including the liberal use of the F-word – with regard to the Ben Habib/Rupert Lowe situation. It was crystal clear to me that not one of the individuals involved in this verbal punch-up understood the argument, or the origin or structure of Restore Britain and Advance UK.
I joined Advance UK soon after it launched, and then signed up to Restore Britain on the understanding that the latter was a movement rather than a political party.
During this period Ben Habib made it crystal clear that his former Reform UK colleague, Rupert Lowe, was welcome to join Advance UK – and even become leader if he wished. A magnanimous offer indeed.
Then it all went silent. Fast forward to the last two weeks and all hell broke loose. Ben was still issuing a public invitation to Rupert to merge the parties and made it clear he was open to the idea of Rupert being leader. Answer came there none!
In the past week I have been monitoring YouTubers’ interviews with both of these gentlemen, with a growing sense of frustration.
This has not been helped by reading ill-informed, ill-judged and totally clueless comments from ignorant online pub politicians and other folk, with the kind of mentality and knowledge that would be better employed arguing about football.
I have experienced this type of ignorant argumentation in the past, both online and on the doorstep. Total ignorance of the ever-changing and emotionally charged subject of politics. Not a clue who the parties are and what they represent; not a clue who the personalities are; not the foggiest idea of policy, procedure, or even how elections actually work. There are far too many people in this country who don’t know what they are voting for because they can’t be bothered to do the research beyond collecting soundbites.
There should be more emphasis on balanced information during election campaigns so that folk understand what they are voting for. Information should be available to the public during election campaigns on the actual mechanics of voting. Maybe a non-partisan pamphlet covering the kind of vocabulary that circulates during purdah. If people knew more about the nuts and bolts they wouldn’t be bamboozled by soundbites and personalities.
There are also far too many people – around 40 per cent in the last general election, and around 60 per cent in the London mayoral elections, both in 2024 – who couldn’t be bothered to vote, and look what we got as a result of their apathy.
Ironically these will be the people shouting the loudest.
There is no excuse for not voting, not now you can actually appoint a proxy voter to cast your vote for you. That can be a member of your family or a friend. You can also vote by post, but I don’t agree with this because it’s open to fraud. There is more information than ever before about candidates and parties. We have the equivalent of the great Library of Alexandria at our fingertips. It’s called the internet. All parties have their own platforms and social media channels. Every candidate distributes a leaflet at election time. There are no excuses! More should be done to encourage the public to take responsibility for informing themselves.
The British electoral system needs a complete overhaul. Those who are in the UK illegally, have no allegiance to this country, nor respect for its history and culture, and are here purely for their own agenda, should never be allowed to vote.
Electing a government to run our country is by far the biggest responsibility for every adult in the UK outside their own family commitments. Indeed, it is for their families that they need to vote responsibly and in full knowledge of who and what they are voting for. Casting a vote is a huge responsibility with everything riding on it.
If folk had shouldered that responsibility in July 2024, this country would not be in the dire state it is in now. However, this would have been the classic two-party tactic, vote one in to get rid of the other – with total disregard for the fact that this self-defeating situation has been occurring for decades. As the saying goes: the definition of stupidity is doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result.
Party leaders must also play their part, by not confusing and conflicting the electorate. That’s why I am nailing my colours to the Advance UK mast – a registered political party that has set out its constitution and a properly constructed political philosophy for all to see and understand, things that Restore Britain currently lacks.
