Equal Parenting Alliance News – May 2007
© 2007 The Equal Parenting Alliance Party
Equal Parenting Alliance News
Election Special
Election Special
May 2007
Page 1
“Our campaign was never about winning a seat" said Ray Barry.
"We are using the election process to try to bring about change in Family Law. Did we begin to do that in this, in the first seat our party has contested? To answer that, I think you need to look at the wider picture of what happened across Scotland last Thursday.
“Nationally 2.6% of voters defected from Labour, and in seats where the sitting tenant was Labour, those votes moved, in general, to whichever other candidate had best chance of unseating them. I find it significant that, in the seat which I contested, that rate of defection doubled to 5.3%. Our campaign targeted Labour's failings, and if that influenced some voters to cast their vote tactically for the SNP candidate, rather than for me, then I am more than happy.
"We accused Labour of conducting a huge social experiment to test their pet theory that fathers are unnecessary. We argued that this experiment has resulted in a quarter of Scottish children having no contact with their father or paternal grandparents.
“We showed evidence to voters that the rise in youth crime and anti-social behaviour is caused by this isolation of youngsters from their wider families.
"In short, we focused exclusively on Labour letting down our families and children. This may help to explain why voters in this constituency chose to abandon Labour at double the national rate.
“If that was the case, then our campaign has been a great success and we intend to build on it by standing more and more candidates in future elections."
Our second candidate was Keith Collett, standing in the English local government elections in Runnymede, Surrey.
Keith gained 17 votes.
Our first candidate was Ray Barry standing as a Scottish Parliamentary candidate for Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley near Glasgow.
Ray gained 124 votes.
Congratulations to both Ray and Keith!
We are very satisfied with both these results.
Although 124 and 17 votes (out of 33,800 and 1,200 votes cast respectively) may not seem like much, we have to remember we were initially almost entirely unknown and our resources available for campaigning were very limited.
Of course, we would have liked more votes, but in the end we are not doing this to get elected but to gain publicity for the cause of equal parenting.
These are the first elections we have ever fought, tackling an established party machine.
At the very least we have given notice that the Equal Parenting Alliance has arrived – and we are here to stay!
Ray delivering his speech at the results ceremony in Ayr. The results were not announced until about six in the morning – courtesy of the new computerised counting system.
Equal Parenting Alliance Stands Two Candidates in Elections
It was never about winning a seat