Press release

Don’t vote for me

Hello I’m Craig Ian Hall and I am the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Hyndburn. I have been interested and studied politics for a long time, but only in recent years have I become an activist.
It was the Martin Bell fronted Jury Team during the EU Election last year that wetted my appetite for entering the General Election as a Hyndburn Candidate. Although I had considered to run over the last 10 months it was only when I saw the candidate list in the newspaper a couple of weeks ago that I decided to run.
The timing of the Election wasn’t a good one. I have been busy at work and I am currently in a show “Sweet Charity” at the Empire Theatre, Blackburn during election week. I could easily have made my excuses not to run, but life isn’t always good with timings, so I paid my deposit and entered the race.
The politicians have all been talking about change without defining what sort of change. All three main parties have talked about efficiency savings and cuts but have been very light on detail. There is no easy way to sell to the electorate that your job is at risk because some bankers have blown the pension pots. Years of austerity lie ahead for many of us, but for some the party has just begun.
A zero sum model caters for winners and losers proponents of this type of system make the assumption that we live in a meritocracy. The one where if you get off your backside and work hard you will be rewarded. The problem is we have never come close to being a meritocracy but we still have winners and losers, mainly losers.
The media and politicians have not done justice to the voters in this election. I did think by entering the political arena at the General Election, I would have a voice and a platform to question the ideas and direction our politicians are taking us.
It was a letter I read in the LET on Saturday that was the catalyst for appealing to my supporters and voters in Hyndburn not to vote for me. I want to distance myself from the political circus and non-dom media owning ringmasters. It should have been an opportunity for independently minded politically active candidates to have voiced and debated new ideas and directions. Instead we have all the triviality of personality of the three leaders and what their wives are wearing and the odd pensioner making all the front page news.
There isn’t going to be much change after the Election just a different coloured outfit for the “Emperor”. There is a saying “you get what you deserve in a democracy” so don’t start complaining when the axe falls after the election.

Craig Hall
PPC for Hyndburn