I think some potential candidates are put off by the agro they might get on social media…
Quite a few people tried to discourage me from standing because of this. You only live once though…
I also agree that an incumbent is less likely to want to be pulled into a hustings or other debate…they are sometimes advised not to for the reasons already mentioned here. Listened into the Hampshire Police and Crime Commissioner debate last night and immediately thought “hmmmm…”
Alexander Culley
Reform UK candidate for Eastleigh North (Hampshire County Council) and Eastleigh Central (Eastleigh Borough Council)
As for hustings, it’s looking unlikely we’ll manage to organise a virtual hustings for just one ballot in Eastleigh, so it’s not just the candidates’ to blame for going missing.
The mask slips finally. Something I always knew was that James isn’t an ‘independent’ and that post above is outrageous for someone claiming to be independent when he wants a role in facilitating debate in this forum and fabulous website.
However, candidates in my party won’t take part in hustings if they are being run by someone who is now so biased. Someone else should run the hustings and elections assessments on here as he cant be trusted to be independent as he so often claims.
By that, we then may sway the vote a particular way, which may not be good as the platform’s meant to be impartial. Also, if (for example) there’s been a targeted campaign (usually only possible online) and we don’t meet the target, the candidate in question may be a “paper candidate” for us but not from others’ points of view
If people are unhappy with “agro” on social media, then in my opinion they shouldn’t stand. There will be tons of heated discussion between residents and Cllrs, and between Cllrs during Borough Council meetings. Social media has (in a way, especially during COVID times) replaced lengthy tense in-person debates.
If Eastleigh Neighbours is anything to go by, then following this , the majority of LD candidates should be “put off”, but still run
So, in Central (for example), you have 3 of the country’s biggest parties all standing. Yet, of those, only @Josh_Constable have distributed “personalised” campaign material (“personalised”, as of course I too have received Focus leaflets, but the whole of Eastleigh receives the same one). Only other Central candidate I heard from is @ACulley (have received @TParkEastleighN 's HCC Eastleigh North leaflet).
I doubt resources are the problem for those parties. Does that mean that everyone else has given up on Central, and it will be a Wayne Irish seat (not addressing to you specifically, but quoting you)
I’m sure they have, just as I’m sure people from all parties and none have tried to help other people in all wards. I was just commenting on your observation about some people not being active all year. My observation is that my local Labour candidates are not very visible even at election time, which isn’t likely to help their election chances however good they are.
I am not telling people how to vote any more than you or any other candidate is. I assume you would like people to vote for Conservative candidates, just as I am giving my personal opinion why I think they shouldn’t.
I hardly think I have been wearing a mask. I am not a member of any party, but that does not mean I don’t have opinions. There are still people and policies I agree with in the Conservative party, including you sometimes.
I am participating in the debate, not attempting to facilitate it.
Just to clarify, @afdy is running the hustings here, not me.
I run the ESLHustings twitter account, which I take great care to keep completely neutral. I also volunteer with Democracy Club to give voters as much information as possible to base their decision on, which again I take great care to do without bias. I contact all parties to help with that effort, and @LisaCrosher has been very helpful from your local party, so I think your candidate details are in better shape than others.
It’s a real shame that you continually make accusations about me lying, being biased, or not being trustworthy. I gave you a significant benefit of the doubt when you were elected and was optimistic about your potential. I actually still think you have great potential, however you have lost my trust by breaking a pre-election commitment. (I haven’t had a reply to my last email about that either.) As I said above, I genuinely believe your party has an incredibly serious problem at the top and ignoring it won’t make it go away.
Agree- that’s why i’m hopeful this place can improve on that, and its important we do whatever we can as a community to encourage the open debate here. Open researchable conversation I feel is really missing! I think we all want what’s best for Eastleigh in our own way and we’ve got to work together to achieve that (no matter your party colours).
Fair point on impartial, perhaps it would be best to turn that around into a positive and highlight where candidates have been known to be active (one day). My one pet hate is names on a ballot paper that don’t intend to do anything and are there mainly as a distraction.
I’d prefer this issue of lack of lack of active candidates was brought to the surface and discussed with the aim of inspiring more people to get engaged and do so.
Luckily i’m running them online here for the written ones. When I say me, I came up with the idea but I consider it run by the community- everything is wide open for you and the community to see and inspect or make suggestions for change - zero secrets. You can also post and ask your own question. . My aim was to improve the local conversation, and give visibility for people to research who they are voting for, and maybe learn a little more about politics along the way. @jtonline has been pushing for a video hustings, which I do think is a great idea, but yes it needs someone non-biased to run them. I think @Melanie_Tellwright would be a great choice and has already said she’d be happy to.
I think this is an unfair comment to make in the thread discussing “Missing candidates”. It may be your personal opinion and that’s ok in my book - however it would be unfair for everyone to start calling out who to vote for on threads which are not asking the question “Who should i vote for?”. The conversations would eventually become non-useful.
I’d suggest taking up the personal issue you have raised separately with @PaulHolmes88, and for the benefit of new readers, consider modifying your comment here as its not relevant to this thread.
Hi Paul, I have offered to run the hustings. I can assure you that I am completely impartial. I only want what’s best for Eastleigh.
My business is a HR consultancy, so I am well used to mediation and dealing with conflicting views.
My view on politics is: I honestly do not mind who someone votes for, as long as it is educated.
In fact my best friend (who I won’t name but I know you have met with her recently) has opposite views to me on pretty much everything. However I respect her because she has educated herself before aligning herself to a party.
Happy to have a 121 discussion with you if that helps at all.
Thanks Sam. Just to be clear to everyone else though this doesn’t mean I am labour!! I really am impartial. Look forward to hearing from LD and Conservatives soon on this. As well as reform and independent candidates!
Will this be for Eastleigh North or Eastleigh Central? I ask because you’re probably going to need to invite the candidates that are not active on here - given the time, you might find it easier to do this by contacting Sam Jones, Senior Elections Officer at Eastleigh Borough Council. She may not be able to share contact details, but she may be able to contact candidates for you. Her email here:
I disagree. It should be possible to disagree with people without “agro” or things getting personal. Our politicians should be setting a good example and it’s terrible that people are being discouraged from standing.
I apologise if it was too much of a tangent in this thread. This thread actually began as a tangent in a thread about a Lib Dem leaflets- is there a way to split the conversation into a new thread or is that something only admins can do?
In my defence the thread had already started calling out who not to bother with…
While paper candidates are frustrating for many reasons, for the sake of democracy I would personally rather have the option to vote for them than not.
In contrast democracy cannot function properly when people aren’t honest. There is a clear difference between politicians putting a positive spin on things or making commitments which later turn out not to be possible, and the complete disregard for the truth at the top of one party. It’s just my opinion but I do not trust candidates who tacitly approve of that kind dishonesty by not speaking out, and I would say the same whichever party they were a member of. Without open honest debate, there is no real democracy.
I am not asking people not to vote Conservative because they are Conservative. As I explained above I am asking people not to vote Conservative for a reason. It really isn’t personal and there are still Conservative candidates I would consider voting for. You are in a unique position in that you could actually take action to do something about the issues at the top of your party. I hope you will but I’m not optimistic given your responses.
Not quite sure I understand (and want to know if I did something wrong)…
I started the thread in the Eastleigh Politics main thread, not the leaflets thread. It’s just crammed full of leaflets (because its a sub thread)… oh the irony.
But other “non leaflet” threads have also been started in Eastleigh Politics, so just want to make sure you’re not seeing it in the PL thread.
My mistake, it was another thread which @afdy split out of one of the leaflet threads. The hustings one maybe? Sorry for the confusion, I’m still getting used to this forum.
I think we’re all still getting used to it as its very new, myself included!
Apologies if I caused confusion @DazzaRPD, its definitely not you
To clarify what happened; Your post “bit of a rant post - missing candidates this election” was originally a post made in the Eastleigh Election hustings thread. It seemed like a different topic to me and so I thought I’d try splitting it to make it easier for casual later readers interested in one topic. You can see where it originally split from as the original Eastleigh Election Hustings contains a link to this thread which looks like this:
Splitting topics is a handy feature which to keep topics on focus and make it easier for a casual reader who is interested in just the one topic only (most of our readers, I think). You can see this frequently going wrong on Facebook as for example you may have a post about a lost dog, which can turn into an argument about the price of fish. This solution allows the clever fish priced people continue their conversation unhindered without upsetting the lost dog owner.
It works well if the posts are very separate topics (Missing candidates seemed very different to arranging a hustings). The drawback is it seems to cause confusion as it doesn’t inform people actively involved in the thread enough. I’m thinking if i use the feature again I should insert a staff notice to let people know it has been split.
Who can split topics?
Short answer = just me right now!
Longer answer = Admin, moderators, or level 4 trusted people. No members have yet achieved level 4, and only two members have achieved level 3. Technically i’m the only admin / moderator right now, though I’ll hopefully be looking to add more soon as one person is easily fallible.
. My aim was to improve the local conversation, and give visibility for people to research who they are voting for, and maybe learn a little more about politics along the way. 
