I attended the count for the by-election my wife stood in last night and it was a very interesting experience. Firstly I discovered that I have turned my wife into a political animal who having assumed she had no chance then got quite excited at how many people did actually vote for her - she didnt win, but she got 18% of the vote against a very big operation from the Tories/Labour who were door knocking at 8pm to get people to the polling station - we all agreed we didnt much like that behaviour as a party so we declined to join in.
Secondly it is, as Roger said, a very civilised affair, lots of polite people and the Tory women were quietly very supportive of my wife because they liked that a woman had stood in a sea of old male candidates - they encouraged her to have another go too, there are many UKIP at heart Conservative Party members in our local lot by the sounds of it but they like the comfort of the big party backing.
Perhaps the third thing is, politics is incredibly good fun. One lady came up to our rep and the Labour rep at the polling station before voting and wanted to know where each stood on a number of issues but they couldnt answer due to the conduct rules and explained this - ie she had to vote, then they could tell her so she went in and came out again and asked, so they answered her - then she turns to them and says " Now I can go and vote " and in she went having fooled both of them to get her answers. Gotta love people like that.
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