Mike Buchanan declares the seat he’ll be contesting in the 2015 British general election
Two months ago, on behalf of Justice for Men & Boys (and the women who love them) – henceforth ‘J4MB’ – I declared our intention to contest the top 30 Conservative marginal seats (at the 2010 general election) at the next general election, scheduled for May 2015. I declared that intention in a letter sent to David Cameron, the relentlessly anti-male and pro-feminist Conservative party leader and prime minister:
http://j4mb.wordpress.com/our-open-letter-to-david-cameron-march-2013/
We recently announced that Ray Barry, leader of The Equal Parenting Alliance – another political party – will be contesting a Tory marginal, Wolverhampton South-West, on our behalf in 2015.
With two years still remaining before the election, donations to fund 30 deposits and related campaign materials are on course. We plan to announce seats we’ll be contesting as and when adequate funding is in place. I can now announce I’ll personally be contesting the Bedford seat in 2015. It’s generally been a Labour seat over the years, albeit one surrounded by safe Conservative seats. I lived in Bedford for many years after 1995, and it’s a town for which I remain very fond. I still spend some time in the town, and I’m looking forward to engaging with local issues, in particular men’s human rights issues, to raise local awareness of how discriminations originating from both central and local government adversely affect the lives and prospects of men and boys in the constituency.
In 2010 the Bedford seat was won by Richard Fuller for the Conservatives, as a result of an anti-Labour swing. His majority was just 1,353 votes over his Labour rival – the seat is #25 on our list of 30 target seats – and his prospects of re-election in 2015 are already slim, given that UKIP is picking up so much support from traditional Conservative voters.
People sometime ask me why J4MB is targeting only Conservative marginal seats in 2015. The reason’s simple. The Conservatives have moved so far to the left under David Cameron they’ve left a huge vacuum on the centre-right, which is potentially fertile ground for both J4MB and UKIP (UKIP took almost 25% of the national vote in the recent local elections). The Conservatives have been, under Cameron’s stewardship, as anti-male and pro-feminist as the Labour administrations of 1997-2010.
J4MB intends in future elections to secure enough support in the marginal seats of whichever party is in power to reduce significantly the prospects of a second term in office for the party in question. If we’re successful, we’ll get men’s human rights firmly onto the political radar in the UK for the first time, and the main parties will be forced to become less anti-male over time. We’re going to do all we can to make that vision a reality.
We’re planning to launch the local campaign in Bedford with a presentation at the Harpur Suite Bar, Bedford, 18 May, 15:00 – 17:00 (doors open 14:45). Admission £5.00, any surplus will go towards party funds. Attendance is strictly limited – just 25 people – so if people want to contact me beforehand to reserve a place, I invite them to contact me at mb1957@hotmail.co.uk.
The venue and time of the talk are being revealed in the local paper, The Times and Citizen, whose Hayley O’Keeffe recently interviewed me. I have no idea if the event will attract demonstrators, but I sincerely hope so. We’ll be photographing and filming anyone trying to disrupt the event, or trying to dissuade people from attending it, and putting the images and footage on the blogs.
A small number of newspaper journalists and photographers will also be covering the event. Militant feminist demonstrations outside venues where men’s human rights activists are scheduled to speak are proving to be PR disasters – the demonstration outside Warren Farrell’s recent talk at the University of Toronto springs inevitably to mind – so the more militant feminists (along with their male puppets) who demonstrate outside this event, and future such events, the better. The more angry and vocal they are, the better. The good citizens of Bedford will soon learn that militant feminists are driven by misandry, and they have no evidence base to support their claims and arguments. They’ll also learn that J4MB is driven solely by an interest in human rights, and our claims and arguments are underpinned by a rock-solid evidence base.
Onwards and upwards…
Mike Buchanan
JUSTICE FOR MEN & BOYS
(and the women who love them)
