Originally published in the paper edition of the Herts Advertiser.
When I speak to people about local politics and local elections, there is often a perception that it is a professional operation – with teams of full-time party workers dedicated to campaigning across an area.
This often influences their tolerance of what they perceive as bad politics – if politics is a professional operation, then failure to get as many leaflets out or knock on as many doors as a resident would like is seen as evidence of laziness or complacency.
The reality is that that could not be further from the truth.
Local politics is dependent not on full time politicians and professionals, but on the hard work of volunteers giving up whatever time they can to try and make their community better. Leaflets are delivered by and large by local residents who want to help the Party or candidate of their choice to win in an election. Candidates and Councillors are often people with full time jobs, giving up that extra hour or two they have on evenings and weekends to get leaflets out or speak to residents.
I know candidates and activists in Harpenden and the villages who literally walked tens of thousands steps every weekend and thousands of steps every evening knocking on doors, delivering leaflets and giving their residents a real choice in May’s elections. They did not do so for personal gain or glory – in many cases, they did not do so in anticipation of victory – they did so because by doing so they knew they were giving residents a real choice in the future of their area.
I know Councillors who worked immensely hard over the past four years, making a real difference for their communities, who did not get the election outcomes that their hard work deserved.
Local politics is a hard business, and one for which we don’t as a society offer much thanks or praise, but without which we could not have a functioning local democracy.
So I want to use this column to thank those people – the activists, candidates, Councillors and campaigners who give up so much time in pursuit of good governance, competitive elections and democratic choices. Democracy depends on your continued hard work to protect and promote it.
And to anyone who looked at the local elections campaigns in their area and thought “I would do that differently” or “my Party should have done more”, I have a very simple message: why not get involved and help make a difference to your community? Because locally your Party is just a group of people like you giving up their time to do just that.
