To vote or not to vote...

Subverting the narrative: the Independents' Day general election of July 2024

- RICHARD HOUSE

IN the freedom and truth movement, I've encountered a wide range of views about participating in a general election campaign.

On the one hand, highly respected counternarrative journalists like UK Column's Brian Gerrish argue that we should participate in the political process, no matter how futile it might seem. He argues that we will always be having an effect - even if it doesn't feel like it.

On the other hand, I frequently hear the view expressed that participating in any way in the political and parliamentary electoral process is to confer upon it a tacit legitimacy that it doesn't warrant; and indeed, it's argued that by participating in it, we are conferring tacit legitimacy on the clown show.

I must confess to experiencing great ambivalence about the whole shebang, as I can find both of these arguments equally compelling, so I commonly fluctuate between the two. And in that uncomfortable situation, I find myself resorting to expediency in making the decision on whether or not to engage with the political process. Right or wrong, in the recent general election, I did decide to participate and campaign in what became known as the Independents' Day election.

Here in Stroud, we fielded an independent truther candidate so that we could take advantage of a free leaflet drop by Royal Mail to every household in the constituency-worth around £40,000. Expedient, perhaps, but what a great way to get a truther message into every household!

I am almost certainly unique in having actively campaigned for both Andrew Bridgen (sacked Conservative MP) and for Jeremy Corbyn (sacked Labour MP). This may surprise, even shock many people -but for me, the staunchly independent status of both Bridgen and Corbyn far outweighed any right/left ideological differences that exist between them.