UK -Jamie Barnes Freeman Cannabis Grower

[bopalot]

oh yous already know. shame on that dissent prat on here though. loool.

[rumpelstilzchen]

Hi, Jamie. Can I ask you a serious question? When you first discovered the OPCA stuff why were you convinced it was true?

[ArthurWankspittle]

Jamie - well done on taking the step to stand as a candidate.

[ArthurWankspittle]

And now even a mention for the party on the BBC.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-32388286

[Arthur Rubin]

What does "retaining your deposit" mean in English elections?

In California, at least, in order to be a "legitimate" candidate (i.e., votes for you are counted), you need pay a filing fee and get some petition signatures; I think there's a minimum filing fee, but there's some tradeoff of filing fee against petition signatures. I'm not familiar with details in other US states, or in other countries.

[littleFred]

In the upcoming general election, the deposit is £500. Candidates who poll more than 5% of the votes cast get their deposit back. They don't take cheques of any sort, not even WeRe cheques. See for example http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/_ ... ate-NI.pdf

I think it's just a mechanism to prevent absolutely everyone from standing as candidates.

[wanglepin]

hello my learned friends.

maybe it was me. nevermind, my apologies. anyhow i come bearing good news.

tried posting link here but it didnt work. any how look up the thurrock general election candidates.

https://yournextmp.com/constituency/65919/thurrock/
It`s a start Jamie.

[ArthurWankspittle]

What does "retaining your deposit" mean in English elections?

See LittleFred's answer for the technicalities. It has become shorthand for the line between "some people take you seriously" and "you're a nutter no one's interested in". It is also used to rub in the failure of a candidate, e.g. Orly Taitz didn't even retain her deposit.

[Arthur Rubin]

It is also used to rub in the failure of a candidate, e.g. Orly Taitz didn't even retain her deposit.

Orly probably didn't have enough signatures for a reduction of her filing fee. We don't have deposits in California.

Orly got a distressingly high percentage of the vote for California Attorney General in 2014; 3.2%. In contrast, I got about 2.5% of the vote in a State Assembly district in 1984, just for putting my name on the ballot on the Libertarian Party ticket. [The election process changed considerably in 2012, so these numbers may not be comparable.]

[NYGman]

244 votes. It's a start

http://news.sky.com/election/constituency/571/thurrock

[littleFred]

Darn, you beat me to it.

In Thurrock, Jamie won 244 seats, if I heard the TV correctly. That's a good score, I'd say.

[PeanutGallery]

Indeed, he should be proud of the achievement. Almost 250 people in his local area agreed with his political views.

[notorial dissent]

Good for him, it is a positive, reasonable start.

[noblepa]

Good for him, it is a positive, reasonable start.

I agree. I don't know if he stands any chance of affecting the changes he wants, but this is the way its done in a democracy. If you think a law is wrong, you write to your representative(s), you organize a public campaign or you run for office and try to change the law from within.

You don't do it by spouting off on the internet about the Magna Carta, or quoting completely irrelevant statutes or forming "Common Law Grand Juries".