Introduction

Hello, I’m Richard Shaw.  In this election campaign I’m an independent candidate for the Erewash constituency.

I’m standing because I feel the electorate are aching for their MP’s to get beyond their party persuasions and find some way to work together better. This will give them a better sense of the country’s needs in relation to all issues and make their handling of these issues more representative than is currently the case: more representative of all views, interests and concerns. The question is how to send this message through the voting options currently available to us?

Beyond the vagaries of tactical voting, that possibility does not really exist, and so I am standing to address this and give voters the opportunity to send this message - their message - through me.

This message may not encounter the resistance which may be imagined, because MPs themselves, or a growing number of them, recognise this need and perhaps seek only the licence from you, the voters, to be able to do it. So again, my candidacy is to enable you to give your MP for this constituency this licence and effectively this mandate.

The need for cross party cooperation has grown especially in relation to Brexit, where other approaches have simply lead to an impasse, but it applies equally to all other matters.  The times in which we live are themselves saying this needs to happen and it is of quintessential importance to be aware of that message and to respond to it in the right way.

In terms of a mandate, people ask of any parliamentary candidate: what are your policies and eventually what’s in your manifesto?  Well, in my case, is very simple: I don’t really have ‘policies’ to offer as such and neither should I.  If I want MP’s to be able to address and respond to every situation as it arises out of the needs expressed in the situation itself, I need to allow them the freedom to do so without preconceived ideas developed to the point where they become a burden and an imposition on the issues and the politicians concerned rather than the facilitative medium towards resolution which may often be imagined. As I say, we need to give our politicians much more freedom in this respect.  However, there is a question of how the approach I represent would relate to policies and that will be addressed in subsequent communications.

On December 12^th, it may be possible to write ‘none of the above’ on your ballot paper to register your protest.  More creatively, you might write ‘all of the above’ on it to send the message ‘we would like you all to work together better’.  However, either option would be to spoil your ballot paper and waste your vote. 

But by voting for me, you can now effectively vote for ‘all of the above’ by voting for the one who will convey this message on your behalf.  This can help to bring about the change that is now so sorely needed. 

The circumstances themselves tell us this as does the current standing of politicians in the public’s eyes, something which is helpful for neither the people concerned nor democracy itself.  At present we seem like a people and a system in chains.  Let’s vote for a way to throw off those shackles.

My background in the law, mediation and counselling also informs my perspective on these issues.