These reminiscences are part of a loose series that began with this article and continued here.
Then came the big one. Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?
You know the result, but don’t believe the tales about who won it. We worked for three different organisations in as many months. No-one from HQ came to help. Our escape from the EU was enabled by the little people, the trudging band of heroes who went out over and over again, cajoled and talked and pleaded, who delivered as many leaflets as possible from the flood of stuff coming from people who had no idea of how hard it was to get them to their target audience. And when it was all over we’d won and no-one noticed that we, the little people, were the ones who did it, not the squabbling idiots at HQ, not the balding iconoclast with his group of fantasists who were sitting miles behind the lines and living in a world that those of us trudging the streets knew nothing about, not the big political beasts who popped up on the TV. Along the pavement, open the letterbox, post the leaflet, along the pavement, up the drive, open the letterbox, post the leaflet. Sometimes you’d meet a voter who wanted to talk, who listened and nodded when you made the point about sovereignty, sometimes you met abuse, hysterical denunciations.
Along the pavement… It’s the winning that counts.
With Brexit over, things went bang, We had leaders who made our impossible situation worse by every duff decision. They were hounded by a hostile press, mocked and pilloried, and lied about and ended up by behaving like complete dorks. I voted for three different leaders and got it wrong every time. At the County Council, we hung together, just, and ended our tour of duty with everyone still on board, close to a record for the class of 2013. “Well done,” said nobody. You don’t really think you’ll get thanks, do you?
We went down fighting. I’d discovered that councillors were attending the annual County Council Network Conference at a cost to the taxpayer of over £600 each at a four-star hotel for the weekend – over £600 per head while there were people on my estates who would have been grateful for five quid a week. We tried to get the local press, the Beeb, and our leaders interested in letting the voters know what was going on. We lost. I tracked down an academic from Oxford who gave me a briefing on why my town needed more money because of the demographics of the great 1960s overspill from London. Raised the matter with the CCG. Not interested. Found that Surrey had got more cash from central government by simply asking for it, and asked the Conservative group at a full council meeting to do the same. The local reporter didn’t even bother to take a note.
Then came the County Council election. We were wiped out. After working harder than the other parties, after all that effort, we didn’t even come close. You don’t really think there’s gratitude in politics, do you? Our group split, standing and failing under various flags with the chaos at the centre of UKIP ensuring that those of us who didn’t change party were openly mocked on the doorstep. “I’d have voted for you if you weren’t UKIP” was one comment. After all the blunders made by the Labour party, the antisemitism, their disdain for the average English voter, they still beat us all ends up. So did the LibDems, the LibDems, the cliché Party! The Cons emerged triumphant even after tugging their forelocks to Osborne’s austerity regime and meekly enforcing every cut he ordered. After that, it was over and we drifted off, some to other parties, some back to their sensible private lives.
Was it all worth it, the halitosis from talking too much, the weight gain from snatching fast food after meetings, the insomnia from worrying about how we could defend our people? After all, we lost, in the end we lost.
So, knowing all that, do you still want to be a politician?
I’ve walked through my poly-tunnels as the May sun rose, past thousands of plants climbing up their canes, all made by these hands. That was good. Being a little politician was better. In the 70s we used to fly back from Cyprus to train in the UK. Best was night flying, eight miles above a sleeping UK in a mighty Vulcan, crystal sky above, and the scattered luminous towns and villages below. The Americans, never short of a slogan, used to say ‘sleep safe, your air force is awake;. That’s what it felt like, being awake and defending our people. That was good. Being a lowly councillor was better.
All jobs have a high point, a moment to cherish. Mine, oddly enough, came after the wipe-out. A very senior Suffolk Conservative – leader, borough/county councillor, mayor, you name it – confessed to one of our members that “I voted for Julian because you vote for the man, not the label.” I cherish that endorsement.
After all the betrayals by those who should have known better, the petty squabbles within the local groups, the failures by a leadership that had forgotten its duty, HQ’s unforced errors in policy that turned the party I joined into a pariah, if I had the chance to do it again, would I take it?
Like a shot. Sometimes you win.
End
Thank you Julian for the chance to have a romp through history.
I apologise for having come late to comment on your thread and read through most of the comments here under most of which I empathise with.
However there is one that remains in my brain it was Michael Keal who said “it was the time of his life”
I’ll go with that, it was for me, ( I’m talking about the Brexit street campaign) that I had endless hard work leafleting all the villages on my own in this area and thelping at a stand in the market square on Tuesday’s and Saturdays , plus travelling to another small town and doing the same.
I was a wow with the stickers, you know the ones that came on a long paper tape, I stuck them on everywhere and they were such a barrier breaker, both for monosyllabic me and my victims who mostly accepted them with a smile on their face and a merry quip.
We did have one outright critic who stood at the edge of the crowd and said “I think you are all stark staring mad”
After a few sallies back and forth we asked him what he did for a living, back came the answer .
“I’m a retired GP”
There’s no answer to that he could have had us all certified.
I tell you, I had a ball, came home and decorated both sides of the front garden with banners suspended from a telegraph pole at one side and a lighting standard at the other both back to down drain pipes on the face of the building, I also posted some Correx boards along the front border. About 8pm a car drew up with a couple of young lads who had been putting up posters on fences at road junctions in the area, so they offered to complete my decorations and did, fairly plastered the place, even nailed some to the telegraph pole.
Obviously a great success, my house is next to the polling station and our area voted overwhelmingly YES?
Yes, it was really fun time
Heady days Julian. – I was too old and frail to leaflet, but I turned my house and front garden into The Leave House, with a rope and scaffold big board ! – From the late 1980s I had wonted out of the EU, and WE WONE ! ….. Then our leader left to start his own Party. – Then UKIP’s NEC, effectively shot two elected leaders, and left behind the idea of democracy, so I left UKIP ! ….. No one has written the future yet, and full Brexit still has to be accomplished, so maybe another Party of the People’s wishes might be needed, with Brexit as it’s goal !
JULIAN,
i am an old anti-marketeer. I go back to the 1970s. Been there and done it with PARTIES.
Since the party system you spent so much time supporting is the “revolution against our constitution”, the very thing you should have been supporting, perhaps you might like to get in touch?
john.cruttwell@sfr.fr
I would support you Martin ,, But primarily because of a good debate. If you look at the constitution, which is what this entails. It’s a HUGE problem; And it comes down to Money, power, or sex.. I can’t say much about the last item. But luckily it is by its nature ( I think ) limited.. The Power which is the end game must remain in its proper channels. It’s money , which too many equate with power, that must be a prime problem. added to the slightly ( and I really do mean, only slightly ) imperfect Ltd. Co. which also redirects power and money and sex for enormous benefits.and ills.. And if you add in the public , it needs practical common sense ( Or Grannies Rules ).
So Yep.
Thank you Julian, I too can resonate with everything you have said as apart from getting the BREXIT bus in my town on one day during the referendum, just three of us leafleted the whole town, as far as we could on one day, and I spent weeks on my own doing the same. It seems that the real brexiteers are all on this site. A big thank you although I am still waiting for the fat lady to sing.
All I was able to do, due to health and old age was display posters for both elections and referendum. But WOW the excitement and disbelief at the referendum result! Perhaps we really will get it soon.
For an election, one farmer said he would not dare vote Ukip! I still can not understand that.
We have all of us done these things. No body has approached it even vaguely logically, or scientifically. I sort of did ‘Cause that’s what I’m like.. My.conclusions are quite different from received wisdom. And as I have said over and over again. .They have no idea.. It’s as if there’s a gap.There is nothing there. They just do not want to see or hear, Not a sniff even.You can even offer money, Nothing. Does one have leprosy. There is a reason for Nigel being loved,( or occasionally by those skilled in the practice of hatred), hated. By the inventors of hatred . lefties..
It’s a marketing job. Simple.( A proper marketing job for world domination ) There are a thousand examples.
I pressed the wrong button, but i’ll carry on..
Trueish story. In the 1940’s 50’s, etc a statistician watched football matches and found something. He tried for twelve years to tell someone. No interest at all. Eventually he finally spoke to the manager of Wolverhampton Wanderers.And told him the following truth.
Boot the ball up the middle towards the opposite goal gives a 12 % chance of scoring. Any thing else gives less than 1 %.
It kept them at the top until he was replaced. The same still holds true.All you need is a huge centre forward.
Sad innit.
Thank you Julian. It’s good to bring back memories, especially memories so good. The time of my life. Though we’re not quite there yet this big beast called Brexit seems almost to have taken on a life of its own. Whatever the exact outcome things will never be the same again. You, we, we all made a difference.
I too trudged about our local villages and small towns leafleting.
I wonder if leaflets make any difference?
No-one can tell me.
Hi Harry. Your question, ‘Do leaflets make any difference’. I am long retired now but was involved in ‘Sales & Marketing’ for many years and I do recollect on more than one occasion doing a close scrutiny exercise to measure the benefits of “Leafleting” The results were about 4% response and from that 4% you had to work on that figure to gain any ‘conversion’ of approx 20%. (that’s with a lot of hard work and expense). So! the average conversion of a sale from circulating 100 leaflets was, possibly, .8
The company I worked for at that time, abandoned any idea of ‘leafleting’.
Agreed Harry, Tried it many times between 1955 and 2007 Thebest conversion rate was 2.5 % on an item of clothing / Xmas present. But most normal consumer items of any kind was about 1.25 %
Harryx2. Yes they can and sometimes do. They are like soldiers, send em to the wrong place and they don’t make a lot of difference.
How your observations resonated, Julian. Thank you for your reminiscences. A handful of us worked our socks off in Devon. Some singlehandedly leafleted a whole town. An 86 year old member of the UKIP branch leafleted housing estates 9-5, one branch member slept in her car over night to ensure a space for the Brexit stall bright and early the next morning, we organised 2 debates -Diane James MEP attended one of them for us, we raised money and had screenings of Brexit the Movie in school halls, hotels and village halls, we inundated the local and regional press with letters and articles, we parked the Vote Leave trailer on busy flyovers -had to ride shotgun to make sure it wasn’t vandalised- turned our garage into a sign making workshop and drove miles to erect them…and to repair those that were smashed,stolen or defaced to read Vote Beaver. So many memories flooded back whilst reading your article. On the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons in the week of the Referendum six of us stood for hours with our I Want My Country Back correx boards on a layby about a mile from the iconic fishing town of Brixham. It was really busy with nose to tail traffic as it was the holiday season. The car horns hooting, the cheering was amazing. Coachloads of holidaymakers were filming us, applauding us, lorry drivers were deafening us. Each day it got busier. On the Wednesday it was buzzing. I knew we were going to win. ‘If Cameron could hear this he wouldn’t sleep tonight’, one of my helpers said. We were all so proud of the part we played in getting our independence. ‘The Government will implement your decision’, Cameron’s booklet that went to every household stated. Still waiting.
God bless UKIP and all that sailed with her. When the news is depressing I like to watch this clip
https://youtu.be/SAn9Dw_srPA
The British people have spoken and were Out! Never fails to cheer me up!
A belated thank you for your efforts over the years and others who got us the referendum win against seemingly impossible odds. I was a long way from the UK on that day so my vote went via a trusted proxy. I recall the elation when we won, not by a mile, but enough given the torrent of propaganda from opposition including government.
Now we are years behind the time when we should have left and still the Remoaners will not accept that vote, something which was unbelievable back in 2016. Hopefully Boris will stick to his promises and the Evil Union will continue to make unreasonable demands to keep the pressure on him.
Will we get what we voted for? I am probably less sure at this time than I was back in 2016 but we see soon enough. Maybe it is time to start planning for some civil disruption as a contingency measure.
Thankyou Julian for your reminices which will strike a note with many active Kippers up and down the country. It was committed, patriotic, ‘can do’ people like yourself that gave UKIP the credibility, against all odds, to force the Tories into giving us a referendum and winning it. Importantly, it was people like yourself as a councillor and branch officer that went more than that extra mile keeping our national branch network together. that was key to giving the Party the credibility it required to achive its key objective – BREXIT.