Conferences and winable by-elections

Just finished a three day stint at the Green Party conference in Hove. It is always great to seem old friends and make new ones and every conference that I have been to has its share of tension and fun - this one was no different. Conference has also given me the chance to fully charge my batteries for the by-election in Fant Ward and to recruit helpers from outside of Maidstone to elect our first Green here.

We've campaigned hard in Fant Ward over many years and for the past couple I have stood as the Green candidate there. Last year saw a fairly even split between all four parties after intense campaigning by all of us. This year, with the County Council elections, there was no official count of the votes just for the ward so we counted the votes as the came out of the ballot box. It was very clear that there was a sizeable swing to the Greens in June.

There is a very real opportunity to elect a Green on 1st Oct in Fant Ward, and we will be working our socks off to make this happen. Business as usual politics has got us where we are today, the Greens have fresh ideas and are making a real difference in places like Norwich, Brighton, Oxford and London. Maidstone needs to follow their lead.

I'll try to keep up the blogging during the campaign, but my first tasks will always to get out there on the street and talk to people so I hope you won't mind if I miss the odd day or two!