So, I'm standing as a Liberal Democrat paper candidate this May in Horbury and South Ossett. I’ve been looking back at previous election results, and what I found really surprised me. When the final votes are counted in local elections, the numbers often tell a heartbreaking story. It isn’t just about which party wins or loses; it’s the fact that, so often, only about a third of our community shows up. That means nearly two-thirds of our neighbours effectively have no say in how their local area is run.
Since I uncovered this last week, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about that silent majority. I refuse to believe that the people who stay home don’t care. I know they care. They care about the state of our roads and pavements, bin collections, fly-tipping, the quality of our children’s education, and the dignity of social care for our elderly. Talking to people about this, there is a very strong view that politics is just something that happens to us, rather than something we can actually shape.
Local Politics Isn’t Broken ... It’s Waiting for You
I hear it all the time: "Why bother? My vote can't influence anything!" But that’s just not true. From transport and infrastructure to the very heart of our local economy, local authorities decide how millions of pounds of our money is spent. When we don't vote, we aren't "protesting", we are simply handing over a blank cheque to someone else to make those decisions for us.
Let’s just address this very dangerous myth that one vote doesn’t matter. In local elections, margins are often razor-thin. A single vote really does have the power to make a huge difference. If we take Horbury and South Ossett as an example, in the 2021 local elections, there were only 45 votes between the winner and second place! That is a handful of households. That is one street of people deciding the future for everyone else.
The Candidate Problem
Looking at the local landscape again, Labour has held control here since 2021, yet I don’t see their candidates out there promoting their achievements (perhaps because there aren't many) or even their party’s policies. To me, that’s scary. Right now in Westminster, the Labour Party and Keir Starmer are in hot water over the Peter Mandelson situation, and by staying silent locally, they are risking a knee-jerk reaction from our community. I’m personally worried that if people feel ignored by the left, they might end up looking too far to the right out of sheer frustration.
Candidates need to provide clear information because it pushes the local agenda and boosts turnout significantly. We don't need more "politics-as-usual"; people need a reason to believe their voice actually counts.
I am standing because I want to lower the barrier between the "political elite" and the real world. I want to show that local government isn't just some "minority interest" for people in suits; it is the direct engine room of our quality of life and our local spending power. This May, I'm hoping that the local electorate across the country don't let the silence decide their future.
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