I had a thoroughly excellent time standing in Wellingborough, it was my fifth by-election. I had a great team supporting me with Howling Laud, RU Seerius, Hell ‘n Bak, Gilly, Sir Archibald, Ringo and Allan the monk. We had a lot of discussion about campaign tactics, and carefully constructed strategies were developed in ‘The Earl of Dalkeith’ in the last few hours of the polling day on the 15th of February. We arrived at the Kettering Conference Centre for the election count around midnight buoyed by a lot of very good ideas and confident of success! The count was warm and very well organised, beautifully set out, and there was a Zen like atmosphere of absolute calm. Kingswood, our twin election near Bristol, declared around two o’clock, after which our count entered into ‘dreamtime’ while the North Northamptonshire Elections department called on ancestral spirits to find a small bundle of lost ten ballots. Even Gilly was quieter than usual becoming virtually horizontal.
The elections team had clearly thought out every move for when the count was declared and were very organised and precise about where they wanted the candidates, their agents and the journalists to be. I stood next to Helen Harrison who seemed to be very relieved to have lost!
We had a lovely time at the Wellingborough count, but I’m hoping that the Rochdale by-election and the ‘Circus of George’ being held in two weeks time will be a little bit more chaotic!
Nick the Flying Brick