Thank you and reflections on GE 2019 in Maidstone and The Weald

Well that was depressing but with a ray of hope. A brief election in the dead of winter dominated by an issue that should never have been in play while the huge existential threat of climate change and the sixth mass extinction is conveniently overlooked.

On the plus side the Green vote increased overall by 60% and my result of 2172 (or 4.2%) was up from 888 (1.7%) in 2017 - a whopping two and a half fold increase and the highest ever in Maidstone and The Weald.

Hannah Temple in Faversham and Mid Kent did excellently too! These increases mirror the rise we saw in the Euros and Locals this year. They are a real game changer that we will capitalise on in next year's locals.

Across the country we got 865,000 votes and one MP. How many votes does it take to get an MP I hear you ask... that depends how unfair the ruling parties make the electoral system. The Tories got 38,000 per MP according to the Electoral Reform Society Don't you just love the smell of British democracy?

With these votes under a proportional system there would have been 18 Green MPs and Corbyn would have been leading a coalition (yet Labour still doesn't support PR...). Based on the last national vote under PR (the EU election this year) there would be around 70 Green MPs.

We had a couple of hustings in Maidstone and The Weald. Sadly there was no photo of James Willis (Lib Dem) candidate giving the Helen Grant (Conservative) a hug and telling her what a nice person she is.

Meanwhile, Boris Johnson is claiming a 'stonking' mandate having received 44% of the vote. Less than the Remain vote in the referendum. But then he has got 56% of the seats with 44% of the vote - yes there's that great smell again.

It is worth remembering that the Conservatives national vote share was only 29.29% of the total electorate (13,941,086 votes cast of 47,587,754 total electorate) while Helen Grant's was 41.02%
(31,220 of 76,110 electorate).

Anyway a few photos of the night starting with my air punch at the 2172 being announced.

Photos by Matt White and Steve Cheeseman