Assessing the local election in Medway: a sad state of affairs if politics has come to this

For some people it is about the party. For others it is about the people. For most it is about not bothering to turn up at all. But for those who do turn out in local elections, it is about voting for candidates to work hard for residents.

Or so I thought. Because whilst my faith in the electorate’s ability to select a suitable candidate on merit isn’t entirely dead yet, one of the little darlings of the RMGS Year 13 darlings decided who he was going to vote for based on the name. Or, to be more precise, the name Crack.

Yes, Herbie Crack, veteran Liberal and even bigger darling of Watling Ward (who lives one road up from Rainham Central Conservative Councillors Barry Kemp and Mike O’Brien) had the all important “X” marked next to his name because of some kind of infantile sense of humour.

Ironically, this Year 13 darling is the frowned upon extreme right-winger in a class comprising mainly moderate right-wing students – we are the lucky year, with a Tory activist, Socialist member of the Labour Party, BNP sympathiser and Communist amongst our seven students, a class gripping the Year 13′s interests for the last year with our amazing diversity.

Of course Herbert Crack got elected in Watling alongside Diana Smith, but were all his votes the product of people with a similar level of maturity?

Looking back to 2003, I would safely say that the answer is no, and that people in Watling remain as intelligent as people in Rainham. In Luton and Wayfield, Herbie polled just 234 votes – 110 votes less than the BNP candidate Simon Brown

Looking even deeper, I found that Herbie is even a family friend (unsure of my moral standing of admitting such an afilliation with a Liberal), so I should probably be careful how I write the ending of this post.

I believe that Herbie got his 1304 votes mainly by party, but also by being seen to be doing things in the area – their visibility was far more prominent than the failed trio in Rainham Central – but it is clear to me that the other factor was also present.

It is a sad state of affairs if politics has come to the stage where people are handing out votes because a candidate has a funny surname, because candidates may as well start delivering leaflets asking people to vote for sex!