DEMOCRACY AT WORK …. IN NORTH HEREFORDSHIRE!

And this time next week, Ellie Chowns (the Green Party candidate for North Herefordshire) will know whether or not she is part of that Green Party contingent.

Apart from a brilliant week in Suffolk (campaigning in Waveney Valley alongside Adrian Ramsay, the more and more impressive Co-leader of the Green Party), I decided some time ago to get behind Ellie’s campaign in North Herefordshire. And I'm thrilled I did. What some saw as a “crazy insurgent challenge in a rock-solid Tory seat” is now right up there as the biggest possible shock result of the 2024 General Election!

I've been in the constituency since Monday (after several weekend Action Days before that), and I really do believe this could happen. Both the main tactical voting sites (Stop the Tories.Vote and Best for Britain’s GetVoting.org) have advised tactical voters to get behind Ellie’s campaign – both Labour and Lib Dem voters are an absolutely critical part of that campaign.

She's a brilliant candidate, with tonnes of experience in local government and as an MEP, known and respected locally – in fact, exactly the right person to dispatch an arrogant self-serving incumbent Tory MP to political oblivion. (Sorry, Ellie: I know you will not approve of those ad hominem comments!).

So, I've been door-knocking for the whole week. And I've loved it. So many positive responses on the doorstep, such a rejuvenating sense of the need for change.

But there are still many voters who to be urged over the line (from a “3” to a “1” in canvassing jargon!) to make it a done deal.

Only one thing is taking the shine off it for me: the significant number of people telling me they will not be voting for anyone on July 4th, having given up “on the whole bloody lot of them” (that's quite a polite rendering, by the way!).

I get it. But I also hate it. For all sorts of reasons.

Somewhat surprisingly, I found myself completely caught up in the D-Day + 80 media coverage. My Dad was there on those beaches, as a front-line surgeon and talked about it all very movingly.  Partly as a result of that, I’ve always felt that all those who died in the Second World War did indeed die to protect the freedoms of all those who came after them – including the right to vote in free and fair elections.

So, I'm gutted that so many voters (young, middle-aged, and those as old or older than me) just don't get that. Don’t see it as a responsibility (indeed, an obligation)to protect what was so hard won.

 The whole idea of “renewing our democracy” here in the UK means many things to many people.

“Renewing our Democracy” here in the UK means many things to many people. But I know for sure that there is no party in the General Election that cares as passionately about that as the Green Party.

Which is why I'll still be here in North Herefordshire on July 4th – pursuing each and every vote! 

Jonathon Porritt

www.jonathonporrit.com