Not the smartest thing for a wanna-be politician to say, is it?
I don't expect people to trust me though, I want to earn it. Poliics has an awful reputation, and hopefull my colleagues and I can change that, here in West Berkshire at least.
I have to say that I had started to lean towards the Labour candidates but now I'm not so sure. If the Labour candidates can't even manage to get the selection papers in and correctly filled out, what chance with the complexities of local government. Oh well, we'll know next time is not good enough. That's several years away. By your party's failures, you have probably stuck us with the old guard for another seven years. I think you should now hold a public enquiry into the whole matter. Worst of all though, User will now have all the ammunition needed to counteract every point you make about the new administartion when it sits for the first time.
Oh, I'd sack him/her as well.
We probably should have picked up on the missing paperwork, but as this is the first local election we have contested with a proper election agent, there are a lot of lessons to be learned. Rule number 1: Don't trust anyone.
Look, only my form was messed up, and I did that in the presence of a WBC electoral services officer who told me to fill any box because "you'll be alright". On every other form, we filled out all of the options just to be safe, but at a few minutes to twelve I didn't have that option. Carol's form was passed on Friday even though it had a detail missing, as was Adam's which is really worrying as we now know the rule is 18 by nomination day, not by polling day.
There's still no getting away from the fact that we only got half the required paperwork late on Friday. Everyone else got the relevant paperwork when requested, but the forms given to our election agent were incomplete. If someone is new to this, and asks for all of the relevant paperwork, you'd expect that paperwork to be supplied.
We probably should have picked up on the missing paperwork, but as this is the first local election we have contested with a proper election agent, there are a lot of lessons to be learned. Rule number 1: Don't trust anyone.
I think it's just a case of more training and learning lessons. A lot of our candidates are not career politicians, we have joined the party to fight the good fight over the last year or so. It's definately been a steep learning curve for me, and next time I will personally know what to expect.
It was ok for the other party election agents though, they could just waltz straight through to the electoral services department to solve any hiccups whilst everyone else was left in reception!!!
Look, only my form was messed up, and I did that in the presence of a WBC electoral services officer who told me to fill any box because "you'll be alright". On every other form, we filled out all of the options just to be safe, but at a few minutes to twelve I didn't have that option. Carol's form was passed on Friday even though it had a detail missing, as was Adam's which is really worrying as we now know the rule is 18 by nomination day, not by polling day.
There's still no getting away from the fact that we only got half the required paperwork late on Friday. Everyone else got the relevant paperwork when requested, but the forms given to our election agent were incomplete. If someone is new to this, and asks for all of the relevant paperwork, you'd expect that paperwork to be supplied.
I'd expect them to check they've been given the right paperwork, that's a basic part of their job. Did they get paid for this work?
Whilst you're not the Election Agent, as Campaign Manager, the right thing to do would be to resign from this position after such a monumental mess up.
As for not being able to fill out some basic questions on two sides of A4 properly for the Town Council elections and blaming your shortcomings on someone else, this is very poor.
I have to say that I am extremely disappointed after all of Garvey’s bluff and bluster about how well Labour was going to perform locally. Surely it is down to the individual candidates to fill their own forms in and ensure that everything is correct.
Look, only my form was messed up, and I did that in the presence of a WBC electoral services officer who told me to fill any box because "you'll be alright". On every other form, we filled out all of the options just to be safe, but at a few minutes to twelve I didn't have that option. Carol's form was passed on Friday even though it had a detail missing, as was Adam's which is really worrying as we now know the rule is 18 by nomination day, not by polling day.
There's still no getting away from the fact that we only got half the required paperwork late on Friday. Everyone else got the relevant paperwork when requested, but the forms given to our election agent were incomplete. If someone is new to this, and asks for all of the relevant paperwork, you'd expect that paperwork to be supplied.
I sympathise Richard, and I'm sure you are partly victim of possible poor treatment from other departments, but the simple fact of life is that you will meet this sort of thing in power as you would out of it. Your party has blown it here. This form filling could have been something more serious. It also serves to show what a**'oles people can be that you deal with in politics, and why some of us might be sceptical of how much 'good' you can do in office because of them.
I think it's just a case of more training and learning lessons. A lot of our candidates are not career politicians, we have joined the party to fight the good fight over the last year or so. It's definately been a steep learning curve for me, and next time I will personally know what to expect.
It was ok for the other party election agents though, they could just waltz straight through to the electoral services department to solve any hiccups whilst everyone else was left in reception!!!
With respect Richard when you say 'the other party election agents .... could just waltz straight through to the electoral services' that's not entirely the case. I am that election agent for the eight Apolitical candidates and yes we did ask for help and guidance by telephone, by email and in person - and clarification was given it in the nicest possible way from Electoral Services with no hesitation.
With respect Richard when you say 'the other party election agents .... could just waltz straight through to the electoral services' that's not entirely the case. I am that election agent for the eight Apolitical candidates and yes we did ask for help and guidance by telephone, by email and in person - and clarification was given it in the nicest possible way from Electoral Services with no hesitation.
When you collected your forms, what forms were you given?
We weren't sure how many candidates we were going to be supporting, so we requested nomination forms for more wards than we are actually contesting as we had some expressions of interest right through the district. We were told we were able to photocopy them so that we could field as many within each ward as we liked.
There was also the party stuff which is for the party to endorse the candidate and for the candidate to accept the party and use an emblem if the party has one. We Apoliticals have got an emblem but since it's not been publicised we thought we wouldn't bother with that on the ballot paper.
Only the emblem bit needs to be signed by the candidate, not the party endorsement. As far as I understand it (which is not very far!) it was for the party to endorse them rather than the other way on. If the Labour Nominating Officer was in the council offices on Monday they could have endorsed the candidates there and then.
I'm not being critical because I'm just saying that we don't know what the procedure is either, so we ask - a lot! That said I'm astonished that the Labour party don't have resources to help with this stuff.
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