Local Elections – May 2012
I have spent most of the past 2 months working with 3 groups of ‘Pirates‘ in Edinburgh, Glasgow & Manchester on their local election campaigns. As the party Nominations officer, I had a key role in ensuring that all our candidates could stand for election. Without my authorisation, no candidate could stand on behalf of the party – this involves quite a bit of paperwork juggling when you live hundreds of miles from the candidates!
Thursday 3rd May was the day of reckoning – I was on the ground in Manchester checking on polling stations and knocking on doors to ‘get the vote out’ as generally only 1 in 4 people bother to vote in the areas we had candidates in :(
Thursday evening saw us heading down to Manchester Central to watch the count and see how we did. All the info is here but the highlight of the evening was Loz Kaye getting over 5% of the vote in Bradford ward and beating the Lib Dems – a result which shows we are finally being taken seriously as a party.
After being up for 26 hours, I finally got a few hours sleep at about 7am on Fri morning, then it was back to work with Loz as we monitored the Scotland election results while he was interviewed by a magazine (will update who when it’s published).
Now I’ve had a couple of days recovery time, it’s back to work – I have internal elections to run for our board, reports to write on the election processes and planning for a possible by-election in November. This is all in addition to the normal work of standing up for our freedom of speech and human rights, which the current government are attacking every single day. Just another day in the life of a pirate……
Stuff
Update first – still busy with Pirate Party UK stuff for May elections, hopefully heading off to Manchester tomorrow to meet up with some of the candidates and do some training :) Also dealing with some potential changes at work so can’t say life is boring!
Also, really enjoying Questionable Content atm – the current space station story arc with Hanners dad etc is epic. Keep up the good work Jeph Jacques!
March Update
I decided my recent posts have been too boring, so here’s some XKCD:
On (hopefully unrelated) other topics: I’m currently in the process of sorting paperwork for PPUK candidates standing in May. It looks like we’ll be standing in at least 3 cities with a good range of candidates, I will be out on the ground in the run up helping to drum up support :)
Leanne has got a new job and will be starting later this month, so please send her congrats on her blog or FB :D
Finally, after spending several hours last week stuck on a train after it hit someone, remember that there are always people worse off than you – regardless of how things seem.
ACTA
This has been on the radar for a while, but SOPA was a more immediate threat. PPUK were at an anti-ACTA protest in London last week (unfortunately I couldn’t attend), Loz Kaye (Party Leader) gave a great speech which you can read here: http://lozkayepirate.tumblr.com/day/2012/02/11
If you aren’t up to speed on this, I suggest you keep an eye on the news as there will be more over this in the coming weeks.
Quick Update
Wow, a lot has happened over the past month! Leanne (better known as Cosette to some) proposed to me on new years day. I of course said yes! We’re planning a long engagement so don’t expect a date for the wedding for at least a year…..
In other news, I’m still working hard on Pirate Party stuff – hopefully I’ll be re-elected to my post on the National Executive Committee next month (I’ve just started running the bi-annual elections for all NEC posts and we’re in the nominations phase). Conference is also coming up in April and we will be fielding candidates in local elections in May.
I’m also involved in a number of ongoing issues which the party is concerned about, I’ll post more in a blog later this month but the DEACT continues to rumble on, the US are pushing multiple acts for internet censorship which could have wide reaching consequences and we have the Richard O’Dwyer extradition case pending appeal. All of these are good reasons for me to keep volunteering my time for PPUK.
Finally, It’s Leanne’s 21st tomorrow and big party down in Skegness this weekend – hope to see a few readers there :) (assuming I can drag her away from Star Trek online now it’s gone free to play….)
SOPA
For those that read this blog, please be aware that this site will go dark on 18th and 23rd Jan in protest against the SOPA legislation currently being debated in the US. More information regarding this can be found at americancensorship.org & http://www.pp-international.net
Huh, where’d that year go?
Hard to believe that’s it’s mid December already. Having trouble getting into the festive spirit this year, not sure if there is any one reason for that.
The one upside to this time of year, is that I’m back out playing DJ for the next few weeks after a bit of a break. Not sure if I’m going to continue doing this after next year tho.
Although it’s still nearly 6 months away, I’m gearing up ready to support candidate for the Pirate Party in the May elections – as nominating officer for the party I’ll no doubt have a tired hand from signing off all the paperwork for those standing in 2012!
Smudge
November has seen a new arrival at Tempest Towers in the form of a tabby & white kitten called Smudge. She has made herself at home and is frequently terrorising Amber as well as Cosette and myself!
Check out Smudge on FB here
Life, politics and fb
Long overdue blog post! Thought it was about time I put something up here, so here’s a few things that have happened since my last update. These aren’t in any particular order……
I rejoined fb, mainly because I need an account for PPUK stuff for now. I’ve had some interesting messages including some about going back into the radio arena, both as a dj and a manager. I’m not ruling out the possibility of the playing dj at some point (would be a while off yet if I do tho), but after the grief I had both at GRN and then running ER, I am done with the management side. My health and general life are too important. Speaking of which, I got elected as nominating officer for the Pirate Party UK, which means I’m also a member of their national executive committee. This is something where a little stress is worthwhile as I may actually make a difference, unlike the hobby/job the radio was.
Leanne (blog) finally passed her driving test. This means I can now get chauffeured instead of playing chauffeur!
I’ve also played DJ for 2 weddings and an engagement party over the past month or so. These are always fun, especially when you get to help out friends by doing so :)
Last but not least, even if you don’t generally like politics, PPUK are holding a public policy review. Take a look and see if there is anything you’d like to comment on or add you own suggestions. The PPUK website is here and the review is here
Until next time, be safe and have fun, regardless of what crap life throws at you.
