questions
So we vote for you and you win the election, what then?
This is such an important question that I have given the answer its own page click here
What happens if you don’t get the Electoral Commission to change their rules?
I continue as an MP for at least 5 years pestering continually, if I make enough of a nuisance of myself Parliament will have to pass the bill just to get rid of me.
What happens if you do get the Electoral Commission to change their rules?
The mandate that I will have been voted in with, will have been completed and, as such, according to the constitution of the “No Candidate Deserves My Vote!” party I will stand down as an elected MP and the party will be disbanded. This will cause a By-Election in Stevenage (and anywhere else that there is a sitting MP of the party). Of course, in the By-Election you will have the option to vote “None of the above” and I may also stand again as an Independent if you want me to.
Suppose we get a “None of the above option” what happens if it wins?
This causes an automatic By-Election. The idea is that you have said that none of the parties standing for election makes the grade. And if they do nothing but just stand for election again under the same policies, you continue to vote “none of the above” until the candidates come and ask you what you really want. That way you get true democracy not just a party line.
You have never been an MP before, why should we vote for someone with no experience?
It is worse than that, I have never even met an MP before! However, every single MP in the entire country was first voted in with no experience whatsoever, not only that but none of the current candidates for Stevenage have any experience of being an MP either. Every once in a while you get a government minister promoted to a position such as Education Secretary who happens to have been a teacher in a former profession. This, however, is very rare indeed and the norm is that we are governed by people who have little to no experience in the area they govern. This is where we have to learn to be good listeners to our advisors, Civil Servants and experts in the field.
How passionate are you about Stevenage?
If you read the section about me on this website I think you will get a satisfactory answer to this question. In brief, to me I look upon Stevenage like I would a Church, it is all about the people, not the buildings.
Your party are not exactly going to be running the country so how much influence can you exert?
Chris Grayling, MP for Epsom and Ewell, puts it well: “An individual MP does not have much power to demand that something is changed on behalf of a constituent, but I do have the ability to get access to the right people and try to get the problem solved”. Essentially, I will be in the best place possible to get something done, there is no better place or forum in the land for exerting influence on the laws and processes that govern us and as an MP of any party I have an equal vote.
You call yourself Steve of Stevenage, what about all the other Steve’s in Stevenage?
Ah yes, I have a little apology about this which you can read in the about me section. This is my one concession to blatant electioneering, a publicity stunt if you like. Oh, and I own the domain names which is the modern way of claiming something.
So if No Candidate Deserves My Vote then surely I shouldn’t be voting for you?
Yes rather ironic don’t you think? However that is the fallacy of the voting system that we currently have and one that the “No Candidate Deserves My Vote!” party hopes to resolve. Temporarily, you will need to go along with the current way of voting, and thus vote for someone, in order to get the “none of the above” option onto the ballot papers of the future. Then you will be able to vote for no-one.
If no one deserves my vote why bother to vote?
There is a small percentage of the electorate that never bother to vote anyway, so if you do not turn up to vote then there is no way of telling you apart. Also you will have had no say and thus will have to accept whatever happens and whoever gets voted in.
Surely I can just spoil my paper?
There is also a small percentage of the electorate that accidentally spoil their paper so once again it is not possible to determine if a paper was spoilt by choice or accident. Also your vote is not counted and so it becomes the same as if you had not turned out to vote.
If the main parties don’t appeal then I can just vote for any silly party that comes along?
Whoa, be very careful about this choice. This is probably the most dangerous thing you could do. You might just end up voting for something very much worse?
You mentioned politicians expenses, so what about yours?
Quite right, it was the straw that broke the camel's back so I vowed to make mine public. You can download the latest snapshot from here.
What are your thoughts about all the other important issues of Government?
Even though the "No Candidate Deserves My Vote!" party has only one policy, as a partial Independent I have to have some form of policy for all of the other issues of government. Of course I could say as an Independent with no political party whip you, the electorate, tell me what policies you want however, many people are now asking me for my ideas so I have produced a manifesto white paper entitled "Manifesto of an Independent". You can download the manifesto in PDF format here.
