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Maybe this could focus a few politicans minds

2K views 41 replies 18 participants last post by  Futhark 
#1 ·
You may recall in the last general election an MP being elected in something like the 'Save Nottingham Hospital' party and winning by a landslide.

Now one MP may not cause a major problem for the government. But say if someone was standing in each of the different constituances that would be affected if Rover where to fail surely they would start getting very twitchy, especially as there is NO majority held in Birmingham that is greater than the number of people who would be affected if Rover went down.

Of course ever one who stood would of course promise to stand down where Rovers future secured before the election...

What does anyone think? If you agree lets sort it out soon (closing date soon) if not please feel free to call me a saddo! :)
 
#6 ·
...why not go one step further and stand a couple of candidates in Coventry (one for Peugeot and one for Ryton)....in fact why not one in every seat where there was a threat of a car plant shutting down. A small but strong band of Politicians fighting on such big local issues would highlight to Politicians in the mainstream parties, just how strongly people feel about these issues.
 
#7 ·
This is a great idea!

Do you know how much it costs to stand as an MP?

Is there enough time to do this?

More to the point, do we have any volunteers?

Longbridge is covered by the Northfield constituency, with Richard Burden as MP (Labour).

I think standing on a banner of manufacturing for Britain could work well. IF - and it's a big if - we could persuade every MG-Rover employee to vote for such a candidate.

Incidentally, Richard Burden released this press release three days ago about his support for MG-Rover:

“The Government is doing the right thing. Over 6,000 people work at Longbridge and there are thousands more jobs that depend on supplying goods and services to MG Rover. Reaching a successful conclusion to the negotiations with SAIC is vital to the future of MG Rover itself and to the people who live in my constituency and surrounding areas. Even if the deal goes ahead, there is no doubt that parts of it will be painful. But the consequences of not doing the deal would be far worse. The survival of Longbridge has significance both to the wider motor industry and to the West Midlands s a whole.

“In the medium term this deal offers big opportunities to both companies and both countries. For SAIC it offers the prospect of access to MG Rover technology and know-how to produce cars for the growing Chinese market and also a foothold in the European car market in partnership with MG Rover. For MG Rover it offers the prospect of a partnership stake in the Chinese market, and new investment to produce a range of new models at Longbridge for the European market.

“But to realise the opportunities of the medium term, we need to get through the short term difficulties that MG Rover faces as a small player in the global motor industry with sales falling short of where they should be. If some bridging finance from the government helps stabilise the situation to allow the deal to go ahead and build the future, then such finance should be made available.

“Nobody is asking the Ministers to either write a blank cheque or to simply put a subsidy in. They have made it clear that any finance would be based on the deal going ahead; it would be repayable and others with an interest in the deal should also expect to make a contribution. It is thinking strategically about what is in the interest of this country.”

Responding to allegations from some quarters that the offer of bridging finance is related to the expected imminent general election announcement, Mr Burden went on.

“That might be a fair criticism if either I or Government Ministers had suddenly popped up with this, having apparently shown no interest in MG Rover before. But it is five years, almost to the day, since I joined 80,000 others on the great March in Birmingham that followed BMW’s decision to cut Rover adrift. The plant was threatened with closure then and Labour Ministers joined local politicians, trade unions, the wider community and of course, the Phoenix consortium, in intervening to give Longbridge the chance of a future. There was no election at the time. We did it because it was right to do it.

“Five years on and MG Rover is still there, having already confounded the sceptics who said it would not last more than six months. But to secure the long term, it needs a partner and that is what the SAIC deal is all about.

“The negotiations have gone on longer than I would have wished. Nobody chose that they would reach their most detailed stage just before an expected General Election announcement. But we are where we are. If providing government bridging finance would have been the right thing to do to secure the deal at this stage if there was no election expected, it doesn’t suddenly become the wrong thing to do because an election is in the air.

“The important thing is that we all do what we can to bring the deal about.”



2/4/2005
Seriously, if someone wants to stand for this, I'll donate time, money and resources to the project. But whatever happens, we will have to act fast!
 
#8 ·
I'd imagine the closing date for candidates has long passed, the printing of the postal voting forms has started for one, and I can't imagine it'll be long before the normal voting slips are printed too.

Anyway, I was joking about the party, Mike...!
 
#11 ·
Ah I had already looked into this...

To stand as an MP you need to put up a deposit of £500. You will get this back if you acheive over a certain percentage of the vote. (I believe it to be 5%).
So realistically it will be free.

If you can get 80,000 on as march you should easily get 5%.

The closing date for nominations has not passed yet and neither have ballots postal or otherwise been printed yet.

Ill put up 500 quid if anyones up for it....... we will need about 4 people to stand I reckon....

Personally i think this is the most effective way to push things forward!
 
#12 ·
According to the Electoral Commission political parties must be registered by 4pm on day 3 and candidates by 4pm on day 6. I assume day one is the day the election is notified = today?

If you stand as an independent you may be able to forego registering as a party (I haven't got time to read all 62 pages!) which looks quite involved.

The deposit is £500 which will be lost if the candidate gets less than 5% of votes cast.

Link below is to the Electoral Commission info sheet.

http://www.electoralcommission.org....nalproof_220205_15797-11536__E__N__S__W__.pdf
 
#13 ·
Steve - I know you were joking. Not so sure that I was though. Maybe not the mg-rover.org party, but the Manufacturing for Britain party does have a ring to it. www.ManufacturingForBritain.com/org/net/co.uk/org.uk/net.uk/info/me.uk all exist as well.

I've got too much on my plate at the moment, otherwise I would seriously consider standing. If the election was this time next year, I'd probably have the time on my hands to do it...
 
#15 ·
I would also happily chip in, I would have thought there is a realistic chance of 20%+ of the vote (if not higher), enough to get some press attention.

Just something simple as 'Save MG Rover' party, and perhaps would be best if an employee (or ex) stood.

Just think a wage of £65k+, you can employ your other half as your secretary, loads of freebies/hospitality etc, award yourself 10-15% pa wage increases, and get a good pension! Cant be bad....
 
#16 ·
Have we got any volunteers? Realistically, we need one person to stand for the Northfield constituency (which includes the Longbridge plant). They need to be committed and have lots of spare time over the next six weeks. If they win the seat, they then need to be able to give up their job to become an MP.

They also need to be able to articulate themselves well and look good in front of a camera. They also need to work well under pressure and like a serious campaigner, rather than looking like an idiot after some free publicity.

I would volunteer myself, except that I am contractually locked into doing what I am doing until the end of the year...

We then need a team of people around that person who are able to give lots of their own personal time to work out policies, set up and run a focused campaign, handle door-to-door work, setting up web sites, handling the press, doing photo calls, meeting with senior business people and getting their support and so on. I'm talking 10-12 people who can meet on a regular basis, work together and dedicate 1-2 days a week to the campaign. They need to be able to negotiate some time off work as well.

Then we need money. We need people to donate as much as possible to get this show on the road. Realistically, it is going to cost in the region of £3000 as an absolute minimum, just to get people to notice us and to hear the message. A better budget would be £5K, plus lots of free support in terms of setting up web sites, printing materials and so on.

The clock is ticking. Do we want to do this?

First of all, is anyone prepared to stand as MP?
 
#17 ·
Sounds like a great idea, I'd happily chip in £20 quid to help the cause, but I'm afraid I wouldn't volunteer to stand as a candidate.

It all depends on whether the angle is to be as a spoiler for the mainstream parties or as a genuine candidate. The problem is that if someone were to go in as purely a spoiler and end up winning, you leave yourself in a very tight position.

What is really needed is someone who does genuinely wish to be a politician, in case they do end up getting elected. It's not fair for the members of the constituency to elect someone who isn't going to have anything other than a slogan or a single policy. Ideally it needs to be someone who lives within or near the constituency and has a fair idea of the issues in the surrounding area, not just the MGR issue. Plus of course an idea of the wider political issues, for the days stuck down in the big building in "that London"

The benefit of running this sort of campaign is that if you know the right people who know the right buttons to press, you could have some superb coverage in the media for free. :2c:

It really would take several people who are seriously dedicated to the cause, I would suggest possibly a retired ex-MGR/ARG/BL worker with some time on their hands.
 
#18 ·
I'll chip 20 quid in. Whilst I'm not prepared to stand I'm happy to volunteer my skills as a "spin doctor". I have some background in this area. If we are serious we need to start raising cash quick and we need get a candidate. We will also need 10 nominations from people on the local electoral roll. Standing outside Longbridge would sort this.

Whilst the save MGR campaign should be the focus, we also ought to find out if the area has any concerns over education, health, crime etc and make it a very local campaign. We should seek to make this a kick the politicians up the **** protest too.

Finally we need some volunteers to campaign. Guess we are looking for students and retired people to campaign during the week, whlilst we should all work the weekends.

That's if your serious. Of course if MGR and SAIC do agree a deal...
 
#19 ·
Count me in for a donation too... £100 at least. I'll also gladly assist with PR, Marketing and anything else I can turn my hand too, maybe even fly across to assist with campaigning. How about working4britain as the name?

Incidentally, the other thing that can prove quite useful is asking awkward questions at public meetings... especially if the media are present.

John
 
#20 ·
I'd happily stand for Longbridge as a pro-manufacturing MP - however, what plays against this for me is that I have met and interviewed Richard Burden, and happen to believe he really does care a great deal for MG Rover.

Going against him because of the policies of his party seems a tad unfair... Still, if it helps the company...

Regards,
Keith
 
#22 ·
No - it would need to be Longbridge area. That is where we are most likely to cause the most damage to the Government and get the highest number of votes. After all, it is Longbridge workers with their jobs on the line, getting them to ask to vote for a candidate who is standing on their behalf is going to be an awful lot more effective than asking other people in another part of the country to vote for them.

I'd happily stand for Longbridge as a pro-manufacturing MP
Keith - does that mean you are volunteering? If so, are you a serious candidate who wants to be an MP or are you interested in just the protest vote? There is no right answer to that, its just it would be useful to know now, so we know what we are doing...

If we are going to do this, we will be predominantly focused on a single issue. Yes, we need to have views and concerns about other things going on in the community, but our core focus has to be on promoting manufacturing within Britian as a general area, and MG-Rover as the biggest manufacturer in our constituency. That means formulating policies around Buying British within the civil service, including how we are going to get the police to use MG-Rover vehicles, policies around the euro, policies on how we want to encourage high tech manufacturing in Britian and so on. It means having policies on education and filling the skills gaps. Presenting how having a healthy local economy is going to solve many of the problems within the local community, such as unemployment, poverty, vandalism, crime and so on.

So Keith, nobody else has volunteered. Does this mean you are up for this? If so, we need to have a big area meet in the Longbridge area in the next day or so, so we can start pulling this thing together...
 
#23 · (Edited)
Mobilise this forum for political activity I say.
I agree with all of the previous postings, though I many not agree with all of the views of the previous posters. We may not all agree on all things, but we all agree on one thing. The British made car is absolutely vital to the way of life we expect and enjoy. Damn Labour if they think they can use MG-Rover for political purposes. Damn anyone else if they think they can do so also.

If Keith Adams volunteers his services I will forward 100 pounds. (Oh, that is quite expensive isn't it at the current exchange rate...)

Anyhow, I would help in any way I can to elect an independent pro-manufaturing candidate in any part of Britain.
 
#26 ·
smosquito said:
Mobilise this forum for political activity I say.
I agree with all of the previous postings, though I many not agree with all of the views of the previous posters. We may not all agree on all things, but we all agree on one thing. The British made car is absolutely vital to the way of life we expect and enjoy. Damn Labour if they think they can use MG-Rover for political purposes. Damn anyone else if they think they can do so also.

.
Sorry to be a damp blanket but no manufacturing company is vital to our way of life. The sad fact is that 97% of UK buyers do not buy MGR products. So most people don't consider MGR a vital part of their life.

Shipbuilding, Coal, Iron and Steel have all disappeared from the UK ad most of Europe/USA in the past 30 years. Whole communities and ways of life have disappeared. Car manufacturing is now going the same way.

Yet the UK is the fourth largest economy WITHOUT these industries. MGR will survive this week and will emerge a more competitive and viable company as a result. But most of its products will be made elsewhere in five years time.
 
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