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7th May 2010 15:00 | by John Barron
After a lot of hard work on all sides, we've just fought our first election as the UK pirate party.
Across 9 seats, by my calculations we polled 0.34%, for a total of 1340 votes. Our best result was in Manchester Gorton, where our candidate Tim Dobson polled 236 votes for 0.62% of the vote.
Before this election, we didn't know what level of support we could expect. Nor did we know how to organise ourselves, or how to navigate the election requirements and comply with the law. So this has been a tremendous learning experience for everyone involved, and where we've had false starts and had to begin again, and then found a fresh way forward.
Everything starts somewhere
Everything starts somewhere, and we are now on the map.
Now we need to build on that, and prepare for the next election. With a hung parliament and a likely minority government in the UK, this may happen sooner rather than later. There is much to do, and much hard work to develop further, however we can rightly say that we have made our first mark and that this is only the beginning for us.
18 comments
May 07 2010 03:05 by epriezka
Great work John and well done to all our candidates who fought and everyone in the campaign teams or back office who made our election fight possible. I know you probably feel like you need a rest, but keep it up! Let's immediately review and reapprove candidates so they're ready and in place for the next election, whenever it happens.
May 07 2010 03:05 by scuzzmonkey
to quote RATM for a second...It has to start somewhere.
It has to start sometime.
What better place than here.
What better time than now!
May 07 2010 03:05 by Gavman
I want to take a moment to once again congratulate all our candidates that stood and also to all those that helped them achieve the result that we did.I know there have been a few articles saying that we have not made much of a splash but I really beg to differ and as Eric says we need to now get ourselves in gear and really get things moving especially with the prospect of another General Election in the very near future!
May 07 2010 03:05 by Aradiel
Congratulations to all of the candidates for their sucesses.Now our message is out there and can start to grow.
We aimed to get £10,000 to fund the candidates, but how much did we end up raising? Just imagine if all of those who voted for the party donated £10 to the cause, we would have raised more than the money we needed.
May 07 2010 08:05 by barrucadu
Well done to all candidates; it's a shame none got a seat, but that was expected for the first election anyway.Let's hope for better luck next time, and perhaps a few more candidates so the many pirates elsewhere in the country get a chance to vote.
May 07 2010 10:05 by nez
Well done everyone.Remember this, the Green Party have only just won their first seat
I know a lot of people would have voted Lib Dem in an attempt to bring in the PR which would help us on a massive scale. Also, not everyone got the chance to vote PPUK because they didn't have a candidate to vote for. If you are one of these people, think about putting yourself forward
May 08 2010 07:05 by Chevey0
well done guys, the good thing about a hung parliament is there will be another election inside a year, means we get another chance a lot sooner 
Gives us time to create more media attention and get people thinking about the Pirates!
May 08 2010 07:05 by AndrewTindall
on the other hand, it means we've got to raise A LOT of money in a short time, and we're expected to best our result from this time.in other words, LET'S GET WORKIN' PEOPLE.
May 08 2010 09:05 by TheJambo
Well my bursary is in from the Uni, so PPUK will be seeing a nice chunk of change from me =D
May 08 2010 11:05 by rogerbrowne
Well done all those who stood for election, and all those who supported them by hard work and/or donations. Despite not winning a seat (or even getting a deposit back), you have raised the visibility and recognition of the party.
May 08 2010 12:05 by martindevans
What is the threshold for keeping a deposit?Does anyone have any statistics for the kind of votes the greens got in their first years?
May 08 2010 01:05 by borgs8472
^ ^you have to get 5% of the vote to keep your deposit, we didn't acheive this.
May 08 2010 01:05 by MC
Im very proud to have been a part of this. I said id be happy to get over 1000 votes total, and we smashed that, so im happy overall :>
May 08 2010 01:05 by rancidpunk
We put up candidates in the GE, that's a bloody good start that we can all be proud of.
May 08 2010 02:05 by epriezka
martindevans wrote: Does anyone have any statistics for the kind of votes the greens got in their first years?
In some ways the situation cannot be compared to the early years of the Greens. Technology, society, and voting patterns have all changed dramatically. As a consequence, we're able to contemplate things that the Greens could never have when they started. For example, we effectively ran 9 candidates who had no local organization behind them other than the organizations they created for themselves in the space of weeks. Without the national network made possible by the internet and our exploitation of it, this would not have been possible for the Greens, who would have been forced to only run candidates in places where there was already some established local org and hence the ability to raise funds and get media coverage.
Let's not forget just how much the world has changed because of the internet, mobile phones etc. It's been interesting that so much of the commentary in the last few days mentioned that, the last time a national coalition was discussed, a whole day was wasted because nobody could get Jeremy Thorpe (Liberal Party leader) on the phone!
May 08 2010 05:05 by SpudTater
martindevans wrote: What is the threshold for keeping a deposit?
Does anyone have any statistics for the kind of votes the greens got in their first years?
You need 5% to keep your deposit -- something that a lot of smaller parties (and occasionally even the "top three") struggle with. For the Greens, back when they were called "PEOPLE", wikipedia gives me:
In the February 1974 General Election, PEOPLE won 4,576 votes in 7 seats. Following the election, an influx of left-wing activists took PEOPLE in a more left-wing direction, causing something of a split. This affected preparations for the October 1974 General Election, where PEOPLE's average vote fell to just 0.7%. -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Green_Party_of_England_and_Wales
So a slightly stronger start, but definitely comparable!
May 08 2010 06:05 by AwesomeSauce
I would like there to be a candidate in the Plymouth Sutton and Plymouth Moor ASAP.Being in the deep south west, on the Cornish border, I find that very little ever happens here. As a result many Plymothians are very jaded about politics. There's nothing anyone can really get behind.
If I had enough money, and stability in my life, I wouldn't think twice about joining the Pirate Party and offering myself as a Candidate to represent the Plymothian people. But unfortunately as things are I don't see anyone taking me seriously. What with my unimpressive education and job history, coupled with the fact that I'm currently unemployed and stuck living with my Mother with no chance of escape any time soon. I'll stop there, you don't need my life story.
May 08 2010 07:05 by borgs8472
^ ^a little late...
Check out the south west forum for your regions activity:
viewforum.php?f=32