Letter to Make Votes Matter

http://hastingsonlinetimes.co.uk/hot-topics/campaigns/petition-launched-against-priti-patels-first-past-the-post-plan

states:

“The proposals, which were announced during the last session of Parliament in March, would make it easier for unpopular and highly divisive candidates to get into city and town halls on low levels of voter support, the reform movement says.”

Dear Co-ordinator of 20th May 2021 Hastings Meeting 

Please recognise (& read to the meeting, to which I send my apologies) that Proportional Representation is the only way that a divisive candidate called Nigel Farage became a parliamentarian; #FPTP stopped this happening in UK Parliament, Farage was an MEP. 2ndly PR excludes independent candidates who can advance policies (eg #UBI) that the two main parties shun. I stand for #50percentToElectAnMP and look forward to constructive engagement with how this builds a #DeeperLegitimacyParliament etc

Yours faithfully 

Paul Crosland

Independent Candidate, Hastings & Rye Constituency 

How a Spiritual Community can release it's wealth for India, for example

My proposal within a Buddhist Movement with lots of real estate is that: 1) People sell as much equity in their homes as they can afford without risking losing their ability to live ..[insert adjective depending on where you are on the householder-hermit spectrum]; 2) These people, whether or not they've raised extra money from their real estate, buy shares in the Retreat Centres and Buddhist Centres owned across the Western World (worth hundreds of millions) 3) The Buddhist Centres retain 51% control and use 25% of the 49% of their capital value raised to address the concerns of our larger Buddhist brotherhood & sisterhood in India; which might be a Vaccination programme for the entire nation, blind to religion and caste.

The 108 second version of the Myth

You might read this post summarising "The Myth of The Heartless Tory" (forthcoming 160 page book) in 108 seconds. However,I'd prefer you took longer over the story telling and associated reflection that I like to think it calls for:

A) "If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”

― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956

B) The popular myth is that #WinstonChurchill said:

 "If you’re not a liberal when you’re 25, you have no heart. If you’re not a conservative by the time you’re 35, you have no brain."

C) 

 "An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy. “It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”

He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”

The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”"

D) 

"There's something wrong with democracy is we aren't in healthy dialogue between the inner individualist, the inner collectivist and a #3rdOrderOfConsciousness with a #TouchOf the Transcendental.My advice is to find friends who embody the three key energies to be integrated in the heart of each of us: The (peace-loving) Creative (rather than reactive & pleasure seeking, bohemian) Hippy, the #CreativeClassicalist and the #CreativePunk, or, in spiritual terms outlined by Reginal Ray, the lay, the #settledmonastic and the #ForestRenunciant" (#PaulCroslandIndependentCandidate)

"Have Working Class Labour Voters gone Tory forever?", asks The Telegraph

"Have Working Class Labour Voters gone Tory forever?", asks The Telegraph and a rich reply is due in "The Myth Of The Heartless Tory" book by #PaulCroslandIndependentCandidate, informed by dialogue with #StLeonardsLocalTreasureTonyMay and others....

Most Mondays what do you do? I find that I have a fresh start to the book I'm writing about modern politics, culture...

Posted by Paul Crosland, Independent Candidate on Monday, 10 May 2021

In response to Green Shaming

In Ore Ward, for Hastings Borough Council Elections, 6th May 2021, my long-time acquaintance, Gary Rolfe, Green Party gained 205 votes. 

Seeing the #GreenPartyShaming going on on Facebook (with a Tory elected in a most-“deprived” ward) I wrote:

As a #GreenPartymember who stood as #PaulCroslandIndependentCandidate in #HastingsAndRyeConstituency, somehow gaining the highest #IndependentVote in the history of the constituency, I found the experience an eye opener as regards the distance to be travelled to get from #UnkindPolitics  to #RespectfulPolitics, by which we gain #DeeperAccountability rather than end up with #HowlingHustings. The experience has led me to write the forthcoming #MythOfTheHeartlessTory; I’m confident that I’m not the only Green who sees as much threat to humanity from Labour as the Tories; here’s the only blog I found of the #5thDecember2019 #HastingsHustings that brought the town into such direspute: https://going-postal.com/2019/12/the-howling-at-the-hustings-in-hastings/

Was there a serious #OustBoris #ToryPlot before SuperThursday?

Have I misread a conspiracy ie #ToryCoup to #OustBoris? Was the appearance of a #MaxHastings master-move actually just Radio4’s World At One digging up an old enemy of Boris or did Max Hastings make the move to get his message of a clear & profitable route out of 10 Downing St & on to the uplands of #BorisJohnsonPublicEntertainer? In the #MythOfTheHeartlessTory I’ll be comparing the fortnight before the local elections as a period of blood-letting akin to the two months between #Pussygate in early autumn 2016 & the 20point recovery in opinion polls that Trump support needed to regroup after that setback. The main bloodletting “victim” is #CarrieAntoinette, whom TheSpectator has been IMHO effective in HoldingToAccount. Should she be seen to continue to seek to set Boris’s agenda and he act disproportionately according to her will/taste, the #OustBoris #ToryCoup will still rally & rally stronger. No one placed a bet at the #10 to 1 odds I offered. I repeat my offer at 5to1 that Boris will not be leading the Tories come the next election; up to £100 of bets (ie 20 x £1 bets) being taken. 

The only poll that matters

#PaulCroslandIndependentCandidate on #ToryCoup to #OustBoris (complete with Facebook Response) 

The idea that “The only poll that matters is the General Election” needs serious reconsideration in relation to the unfolding #ToryCoup to #OustBoris..:

Not so; #BorisIsMortallyWounded & is unlikely to see out his elected term of office, unless the #ToryCoup to #OustBoris is foiled by #RishiSunak refusing dialogue. Elementary mistake to think that Starmer’s polling is what counts more than RishiSunak’s, which is, of course, being done in secret. I offered generous odds on #BorisJohnson being out of office soon; that Facebook Advert/Boosted Post is doing the rounds of the #SouthEastCoast this weekend?: 

“The mistake the #lefties are making is to presume that #BorisJohnson is invulnerable until the unlikely day that #KierStarmer is more popular; actually, as with #MargaretThatcher the question is whether there’s a Tory who better protects the integrity of the “Conservative Brand”. The interview on #WorldAtOne during the week of Boris’s former boss, former head of the Telegraph, #MaxHastings, was painting the picture of Boris leaving #10DowningStreet to have an easier life (& richer one) as #BorisJohnsonPublicEntertainer. Even the #DailyMail put the knife into Boris twice this week, with front-page headlines about #BodiesPiledHigh-#gate and (my favourite headline since #FreddieStarrAteMyHamster; #BorisPaintedIntoACorner. Now it’s #CurtainsForBoris”

#PaulCroslandIndependentCandidate on #ToryCoup to #OustBoris (complete with Facebook Response

From the playlist Tracking and Tracing The #ToryCoupAttempt

What is the “Refuge Tree Woods YouTube channel” about?

“An unexamined life is not worth living" they say. I also hold myself to account in public for how I am living it; me "The Imperfect Idealist". I share what delights, what troubles, the joy of friendship and the quest for reliable meaning in life.Whenever I manage to get-up again, after phases of my #bipolarwarriorcycle that are conventionally called depression, I will be again #standingforgenerosity and hopefully learn with you here as we(?) fall down time and again in building #CommunityCohesion, #ConvergentPolitics & a “Democracy of Met Needs”.

As the #GE2019 #PaulCroslandIndependentCandidate I’m seeking to establish a tradition of #HastingsIndependents keeping their deposits (ie 5% of the vote) in general elections. I offer on #HastingsTube a way for us to get to know each other better in the search for the #ReplacementIndependent. Would you welcome group mentorship to become the #IndependentCandidateToCome?

Alongside observations on life and “Mess In Progress” talking to the camera to prepare for books such as “The Myth Of The Heartless Tory” , Investin2066Country and the Festival of The New Society 2066”, “LevelUpOurLife”, “Dad post-Dad” & “The Secular Religion Of Music; Integrating the Classicalist, The #CreativeHippy & The #CreativePunk within”.

So, in summary https://youtube.com/c/PaulCroslandRefugeTreeWoods aspires to offer:

#AppliedBuddhism from #FreeRangeBuddhist 007, who has experienced #DadAndSonIsolation until Dad’s August 2020 death, then #LockdownMentalHealth issues & recognising my loneliness and “vulnerability”  ie #PaulCroslandLonelyHeart,

#PaulCroslandDraftAuthor, practicing #NobleFriendship. 

For a randomised(?) #YouTubeFilmlet from my channel click this Google Search here

Another MythOfTheHeartlessTory opening

Standing for election can be a traumatic experience, accompanied by denial of the trauma. It has taken 18 months before I have seen my actions as others perhaps saw them earlier. Though my critics expressed their opinion less classically, perhaps I was akin to Icarus, flying too near the sun? 

Almost 18 months ago now, Hastings Independent Press published what I call "A Tale of Two Independent Candidates": 

“Amber Rudd’s majority over Labour candidate Peter Chowney at the 2017 general election was just 346. The three other candidates, Nick Perry of the Liberal Democrats, Michael Sheridan of UKIP and independent Nicholas Wilson all lost their deposits. 

The Lib Dems as unrepentant Remainers and UKIP as belligerent No Dealers had clearly differentiated programmes from both main parties in that election. Mr Wilson, however, was a paid-up member of the Labour party. He said he had joined it “to vote for Jeremy Corbyn” but was standing separately on an “anti-corruption” ticket. As he polled 412 votes, and Cllr Chowney lost by a lesser margin, it is hardly surprising that Labour held him substantially responsible for their shortfall. 

Could history repeat itself two years on? For here comes another independent candidate, Paul Crosland, on the 2019 ballot – not, as far as is known, a recalcitrant Labour member, but one who is espousing radical causes that seem likely to attract more fringe Labour voters than Conservatives.” 

https://www.hastingsindependentpress.co.uk/politics/ge2019-paul-crosland/ 

So, in what kind of politics can an independent candidate polling just 412 votes be held "substantially responsible" for a) the shortfall of 346 votes & b) for their party not getting the victor's 25,668 votes? IMHO an unfair, blaming (rather than responsibility-taking) kind of politics.

I chose to stand in 2019 in a “marginal seat” where I knew the back-story that includes this assumption by the "Independent"(left-wing!) local press that the 412 votes of my predecessor as the independent candidate were in some sense rightfully Labour's! Thus Nicholas Wilson (known as “Mr Ethical”) was scapegoated for the "Labour Party trauma" of Amber Rudd winning by 346 votes and I found myself threatened, in a surprisingly upsetting way, for the decision I took to be #StandingForGenerosity. 

Amongst other things, I contest both the assumptions about where Nicholas Wilson’s votes came from and where my 565 votes cast in 2019 came from. I suggest that neither are minor, parochial issues, but signifiers of a number of overdue changes needed in UK Politics for democracy to survive/flourish.

In standing as I did in 2019 I can simultaneously show the influence I had as an Independent Candidate in shifting the policy and publications of Hastings Labour Party. In other marginal constituencies other local branches of major political parties can be significantly shifted by the actions of Independent Candidates. My findings, dialogues and reflections amount to an informed proposal of a new kind of politics in a democratically deficient UK. Within this vision I have realised through standing and reflecting long and hard on the shortfalls of the vision I formerly presented that regime change is not necessary to make most of the difference.

Though I moved out of #HastingsAndRyeConstituency on the day of the General Election result -under a number of pressures, personal and political, I was not, like the independent candidate in this constituency before me, castigated for losing Labour an election. 

Nonetheless I was assumed by some to have capitulated with the Tories. That accusation is worthy IMHO of unpacking if we are to hold dear in this country anything other than polarising/reactive (rather than creative) politics which, IMHO, doesn't get the best out of anyone. Does standing up for something other than a #HowlingHustings make one an ally of one party and an enemy of another?

Though I value my two decades engaged in mediation work in settings as varied as prison and 10 Downing St, I’m no saint. I’m certainly not (yet) free of the antithesis of the #KinderPolitics for which I stand. I evidence my own #UnkinderPolitics in writing epitaphs for Teresa May and Nigel Farage; the former PM who upset some wheat and didn’t have a viable way of enacting Brexit, the latter an unelectable individual (under first past the post politics) from whom the lessons of his massive impact on UK politics have not yet been learned. 

In the forthcoming book, "The #Myth Of The Heartless Tory", with input from #StLeonardsLocalTreasureTonyMay & #ChrisGidlowAuthorAndHistorian, I wish to explore with you: 

1. How #KinderPolitics might produce #DeeperAccountability & more #InfluenceNotControl 
2. How Independent Candidates, without needing to be elected, may become the mediators and influencers of seismic "Welfare Initiatives" way beyond the extension of free school meals during the Covid19 crisis. (I picture the creation of a new political consensus (like after WW2) to the extent that any political party seeking substantial numbers of MPs being elected could only achieve their electoral goal if they supported at least an experimental trial in the area of  "UniversalBasicIncome" or lowering the pension age (#PensionsAt30?) as a step towards the “BasicIncome culture-shift”.)
3. a #DeeperLegitimacyParliament and route towards #ConvergentPolitics without compromising "A Democracy of Met Needs".

Please bring the year 20xx closer

"An unexamined life is not worth living" they say. I also hold myself to account in public for how I am living it; me "The Imperfect Idealist". I share what delights, what troubles, the joy of friendship and the quest for reliable meaning in life. I stand for generosity and fall down time and again as I experiment in  #CommunityDevelopment in #HastingsAndRyeConstituency; having founded #StLeonardsSharingConsortium in 2011 & recruited #ADAOSLOS #RightLivelihoodTeam to promote it’s #NonMonetaryEconomy potential in the year 20xx.

When might you be contacting me to find how helping me bring 20xx closer (in one of a myriad of ways) could serve you (& your nearest and dearest)?