Quite a short blog today, but a personal one.
My partner is Owen B Lewis, and truthfully he's one of the most amazing people I've ever had the good fortune to know. He's the writer of two fantastic novels, The Waterfall Warrior and Vulnerable Voices. He's exceptionally good at anything practical, and has the ability to cut through the drivel and just crack on with achieving an objective. In the time I've known him, I've witnessed how Owen is always able to recognise when someone is struggling or vulnerable in any way, and has the intelligence and drive to fight for them to be able to get the support they need.
If you follow this blog, you'll probably have seen my posts regarding our work in South Wales (and if you haven't, please do check them out). As a general summary, in late 2022 we learned that Owen's former place of work, Tudor Street Day Centre in Abergavenny (formerly known as My Day My Life) had not been re-opened since lockdown, leaving many local disabled people with very little day-to-day support. Owen took this argument to Monmouthshire County Council, and it's still ongoing - but rather than spending all this time arguing with people, he decided to set up a community group called The Gathering. The Gathering has proven extremely popular with disabled people, their families and their carers, and we've had interest from quite a wide geographical range - reinforcing the fact that these services have been cut to the bone all over the place. The battle isn't over yet as we're still in need of a better location than the one we have, but there's a lot of talk behind the scenes about how to improve things.
Both our local Tory MP David TC Davies and the Labour parliamentary candidate Catherine Fookes have been openly supportive of the scheme. It's been lovely to have such public support from them; however, we have talked a lot about what it could mean for the next election. As I've written in many previous blogs, I'm extremely sceptical about both the Labour and Conservative Parties, and truthfully I don't believe either of them deserve to form a Government (irrespective of my opinion on the local candidates). Owen shares my views on this. It has occurred to us that with The Gathering proving so popular, people in the new constituency of Monmouthshire may take this into account in the way they vote - and if so, it may be beneficial to give them the chance to vote for the independent person who actually set up the whole thing, rather than the Labour or Conservative candidate who's been supportive but might not have been that actively involved.
When Owen told me he was planning to stand as a Parliamentary candidate, I was asleep. We'd been talking about it for a few weeks, Owen had previously ruled out the idea, but then he came back from the gym and woke me up by saying, 'George, I've decided - I'm going to do it.' I'm incredibly excited about this. We are aware that it's exceptionally difficult for independent candidates to win elections - but then, these are exceptional times. Public trust in politicians is at an all-time low. It often feels like there is no one to vote for who actually represents our views. This is especially true with recent events in the Gaza Strip; there is unequivocal support amongst the public for an unconditional ceasefire, and both major parties have dragged their feet over it. My opinion is that they drag their feet over everything, locally and nationally. They dragged their feet over support for the disabled until Owen got his act together and started sorting everything out.
From having observed the Westminster political system for several years, it largely seems impossible to reform - but I've also spent seven years, both before he became my partner and since, watching Owen consistently achieve the impossible. When we met, he proved to me that he was more capable than me of producing theatre, in spite of the fact that he had no experience at the time and I'd spent three years at University learning to do exactly that. Since then, he's never stopped doing that. This time last year, people thought that Owen made a lot of noise but no one had faith in him to set up a scheme like The Gathering - and yet here we are, and it's going from strength to strength. There is no one I trust more to shake things up, in a way that benefits ordinary people rather than the rich. He's not an establishment politician, and he's not like George Galloway in the sense that he doesn't seek fame or personal glory. Owen is someone who is humble enough to listen to regular folk, and assertive enough to stand up to anyone who gets in the way of accomplishing something special.
Two weeks ago, we met Andrew Feinstein, who is hopefully going to stand against Keir Starmer in Holborn St Pancras. Andrew was very encouraging of Owen, and it was a really inspiring evening. I'm really excited to see what other independent candidates might stand against establishment politicians, and I'm looking forward to being part of this kind of campaign in Monmouthshire.
But we need your help as well! At the moment, we're still fundraising for the £500 deposit that Owen needs to be able to get on the ballot paper. Here is a link to Owen's crowdfunding campaign, where you can read more about him in his own words. At the time of writing, we've raised £125 of the £500 needed (which is positive, because the crowdfunder has only just gone up). Deposits are refundable if the candidate receives more than 5% of the vote, so if you declare your name on it you could potentially get your money back later as well.
Thanks for your help if you can. Let's do this!
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