UK: Independent Network Supporting 47 Candidates in General Election

Earlier this month, in a post on independent political strategy, I profiled the UK's Independent Network, which aims to promote, support and facilitate the election of independent candidates to public office. This week, the group officially launched its campaign in the run-up to the general election next month. The BBC reports:

with the loosening of traditional party allegiances and widespread anger and disillusionment about the traditional parties, there is a growing hunger for MPs who are not beholden to party machines and the whipping system . . .

Mr Bell believes the time is now ripe for more independents - "If not now when?," he says in an open letter to independent candidates . . . The volatility of the electorate, as evidenced by the sudden surge in support for the Lib Dems, is a symptom of a "sickness in the body politic", he says at the network's campaign launch at the Frontline Club, a West London watering hole . . .

The Independent Network aims to provide credible independent candidates with the sort of support their big party rivals routinely expect from head office - although on a much smaller budget . . .

They are a disparate bunch. Some are disgruntled former members of other parties, others are entirely new to politics. All share an earnest sense of public duty . . .

Essentially, what the Independent Network is offering is a kind of "kite mark" for election candidates. It has no policies of its own, beyond being non-racist and non-discriminatory.

But the 47 men and women it has endorsed (on the strength of the 20 or so at the launch it is mainly men) have all been checked out and certified as being of "good character". The have also signed up to the "Bell Principles", which means they agree to the "spirit and letter" of the Nolan committee's standards in public life and to be "guided by considered evidence, their real world experience and expertise, their constituencies and their consciences".