By David Warden
David was the Social Democratic Party candidate for Bournemouth West in the UK General Election
I first joined the Social Democratic Party (SDP) back in 1983 when it was a breakaway from the Labour Party. It was famously led by the ‘Gang of Four’: Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams, David Owen, and Bill Rodgers. It formed an Alliance with the Liberal Party and in 1988 the two parties merged to become the Liberal Democrats. David Owen opposed the merger and he continued to lead what remained of the original SDP until it wound up on 3rd June 1990. A month later, on 3rd July 1990, the Party was re-established by members who wanted to continue the legacy and political ideology of the original SDP. I re-joined this continuity SDP a couple of years ago.
Back in January, the South West branch of the Party was looking for members who were prepared to stand for Parliament in the upcoming General Election, either as campaigning candidates or as ‘paper candidates’. I agreed to stand as a ‘paper candidate’, not really knowing what was involved beyond permitting my name to be on a ballot paper. On 22nd May, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called the General Election and I was about to find out what was involved!
My main task was to get 10 signatures on my nomination paper. These signatures had to be people on the electoral roll in my constituency, Bournemouth West, and could include my own signature. Finding nine more people was surprisingly easy. However, another SDP candidate in Christchurch was having difficulty and so I found myself standing outside Waitrose supermarket in Christchurch approaching complete strangers and asking if they would sign his nomination paper. Within an hour, I had gathered the required number of signatures. Nationally, the SDP fielded 122 candidates and I was proud to be one of them. Each of us had to pay a £500 fee to our local Council in order to stand, but this money was reimbursed to me by the Party.
Unfortunately, during the campaigning period I had a chest infection and was in no fit state to deliver leaflets through letter boxes; however, as a paper candidate I was not obliged to do so. But 5,000 leaflets had been delivered to my home. I discovered that the Royal Mail will deliver election leaflets free of charge but the leaflets which had been printed did not quite meet their strict specifications, and so they remained undelivered – a missed opportunity.
I started to get hundreds of lobbying emails from prospective constituents, mostly as a result of them clicking a button on a website which sent a standard email to every candidate. One of the first was from a constituent telling me that he was a member of Humanists UK and asking if I would pledge to support humanist campaigns. That was an easy one! I received emails about a huge range of issues including Palestine, Personal Independent Payments, Cyprus, housing, climate change, abortion rights, guns, and crustacean cruelty. I tried diligently to answer every one.
On 1st July, I attended a hustings at my local church. Unfortunately, the Conservative candidate Sir Conor Burns was unable to attend. Because of this, the Labour candidate declined to attend, and the Liberal Democrat candidate refused to share a platform with the Reform UK candidate. So we were down to four: Reform UK, Green Party, the Christian People's Alliance, and me. There were some anti-racist protesters outside but the event went off smoothly, perhaps because the vicar was in charge! I had studied the SDP manifesto thoroughly and was able to answer all of the questions raised. The youngest questioner was a girl aged about seven who asked us what we were going to do about litter and dog poo.
On election day, I dutifully went to my polling station and enjoyed the luxury of voting for myself! At midnight, I went to the multi-constituency counting hall where hundreds of ballot paper counters, agents, officials, party activists, and candidates were gathered for the night. I went home for a short break at around 2am, returning at 3am because I didn't want to miss the line up! One of our most entertaining tasks was inspecting spoilt ballot papers to ensure that we agreed with the official decision that they really did not count. I was surprised to see the number of ballot papers on which obscene words and graphic images had been scrawled!
Towards 5am, we could see the ballot papers piled up in colour-coded bundles of 100. I did not expect to get many votes because the SDP remains a very small and relatively unknown party. In the event, I got 139 votes. This tally is by no means untypical for small parties. I was pleased to be in triple figures! The SDP nationally increased its vote tally by a factor of ten since the last election, to more than 33,000 votes. So we may be on an exponentially upwards curve.
Around 5am, we formed a line for the declaration of results read out by the returning officer. As expected, Sir Conor Burns lost his seat to the Labour Party. A deafening cheer went up when the Labour candidate's vote was declared. Sadly, no one was there to cheer me but, nevertheless, I took part in a brief moment of history. Sir Conor Burns gave a dignified losing speech.
Democracy is a core value for humanists and I was indeed proud to take part in this election as a Parliamentary candidate. I've had so many congratulatory messages from friends for being brave enough to stand and for increasing democratic choice. It did not take much bravery, although there's always a slight frisson of fear about what fanatics might do these days.
Would I do it again? Certainly – and I'll try and get those leaflets out next time.
Humanistically Speaking is not politically-aligned. David stood as a candidate for the SDP in a purely personal capacity. Thumbnail image is of Sir Conor Burns and other candidates, including David, at the declaration of the election result.
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