Independent candidacy

Being an indeoendent means I don't belong to any political party.

I can see why (sometimes regrettably) national government relies on the political party system, though I do wish it was less autocratic and gave MPs more power to speak for their own constituents. Had MPs been more independent of their party masters, they wouldn't have agreed to invade Iraq, for example.

But I cannot, for the life of me, see how the people of Lewes, or any town across Britain, benefit from having their local town halls dominated by national parties. A local election should be about local issues and local accountability. It shouldn't matter which party has got its act together in Westminster; in Lewes we should be voting on Lewes issues - town development, parking, flooding, roads, council tax, as well as schools, policing, healthcare and so forth - as they affect us. And we should be voting for the candidates who we think will best deliver on those issues.

I think most of us want to vote that way in local elections but it's very difficult when the whole process is dominated by the main national parties. I look at their election literature: so much of it is clearly centralised, sent down from on high with little "fill in your bit here" spaces dotted around. That isn't real local politics. And I look at council structures: Lewes is the largest town in the district, its biggest issue at the moment is town planning, but the very large committee that decides on planning applications includes only one - just one - Lewes councillor who's standing in this election (Jim Daly). This isn't how Lewesians want it, or how anyone in the town would organise it: it's imposed on us by a political party hierarchy. It's a political party - not individual councillors - that has led to Lewes District Council imposing policies on Lewes that the town clearly doesn't want!

And that's why I believe in being an independent.

Only an independent who can genuinely represent the wishes and needs of the ward. An independent can argue against the views that are imposed from on high for the supposed greater good of the party. An independent can ask awkward questions when the party faithful have been told to keep quiet. And an independent can vote according to the wishes of his or her electorate, without fear of party reprisals.

And independents can get elected in Lewes. Even ignoring the fact that 1000 of us march annually under the banner For Independence, people here have made it clear that an independent candidate is a good thing. Look at the success of Ruth O'Keeffe. And the fact that at the last District Council elections, four independents stood and two got in. 50% success and that's before people became so disenchanted by the incumbent council's performance on town development and parking.

There is a rather unfortunate piece of party literature knocking around Lewes at the moment which claims that independents, to quote, "can't win here". This is misleading claptrap. Independents won here last time and will win here again this time. The literature is trying the very worst massaging of facts to prove an untrue point. It reminds me of a certain prime minister who distorted the facts to take Britain to war four years ago, and the writer of the literature ought to be ashamed.

Electing an independent in this ward (well, in each of the Lewes wards, to be fair) is the best way of serving Lewes' interests on the District Council, particularly on issues where the town and the council seem to be at loggerheads. A vote for an independent is a vote for Lewes.