Stanborough School Mock Election
Mr R Hobson, Subject Leader: Politics, writes:
With the General Election taking place this week, Stanborough School has also been in campaign mode. Students from our Year 12 politics class have been working in five separate campaign teams competing for votes from Stanborough staff and students in Thursday’s mock election.
The campaign kicked off last Friday with a lively debate taking place in front of an audience of Sixth Form students. Party candidates faced tough questions on a wide range of issues including NHS funding, Brexit, climate change and the housing and homelessness crisis. Labour Party candidate Josh Paul
defended his party’s position on Brexit, outlining that in his view the most sensible strategy for dealing with the Brexit impasse was to put it back to the people in a second referendum. Unlike his party leader he was willing to admit that in such a scenario he would campaign to remain in the EU.
This admission was met with disdain from Brexit Party candidate Ollie Curtis who reiterated his commitment to a clean break Brexit and “respecting the will of the people”. He roundly rejected accusations that his party was in fact the greatest obstacle to getting Brexit done by taking potential Conservative votes in Labour held marginal seats.
The Conservative candidate, Daniel Green, was keen to outline his party’s plans to tackle climate change and their commitment to invest in public services. With question marks surrounding his party’s commitment to additional NHS nurses following a recent Nicky Morgan interview, he explained that the 50,000 extra nurses was based modelling the current rate at which nurses were leaving the profession. Therefore in real terms his party’s commitment was for there to be 31,000 more nurses, as well as 19,000 retained who would otherwise have left.
The Green Party candidate, Alex Ford was keen to outline his party’s commitment to tackling the climate
emergency while outlining what he deemed to be the failed record of the Conservatives on this matter.
The Liberal Democrat candidate, Zaiynab Malik has made the case for revoking Article 50 and instead
reinvesting money into public services.
Throughout this week hustings events have taken place in front of each year group.
“Stop Brexit. Vote to protect Britain’s future. Vote Lib Dem”. Zaiynab Malik, Liberal Democrats.
“The Earth is at the centre of everything we want to achieve. We’re stuck between a Tory rock and a Labour hard place, and the Green Party are the alternative.” Alex Ford, Green Party.
“Brexit means brexit. Save our country’s democracy. Vote for the king. Vote Ollie Curtis” Ollie Curtis, Brexit Party.
“You are our priority. Our aims are your aims. It’s time for change. Vote Labour” Josh Paul, Labour Party.
“Vote for a majority. Vote to get Brexit done. Vote Conservative” Daniel Green, Conservative Party.
Stanborough Election Update
After a fantastic week of campaigning Stanborough students and staff went to the polls last Thursday, alongside the rest of the country. The Stanborough electorate had observed debate and hustings speeches from each of the five candidates and cast their votes in tutor time.
In the end the election was in no way reflective of results in the outside world, as once votes began to be counted it became clear that the Greens and the Brexit Party would be the front runners.
Congratulations to Alex Ford of the Green Party who was victorious, winning 35% of the vote. The relatively low winning vote share is a testament to his fellow candidates each of whom claimed a significant number of votes also. Alex’s closest challenger was Ollie Curtis of the Brexit Party who took 29.6% of the vote. Labour’s Josh Paul polled at 15.1% while the Conservatives Daniel Green and Zaiynab Malik of the Liberal Democrats each polled strongly with 10.6% and 9.7% respectively.
The Greens were particularly popular amongst our younger students who voted in large numbers for Alex’s vision of an environmental revolution.
“I was very happy to see such a large amount of support for the Green Party within the school. It was my pleasure to be elected, and to see that the Stanborough students and staff have voted for the Green New Deal, protecting our environment and enhancing our economy, a second say on Brexit, and for an end to the “War on Drugs”. Thank you all very much for your support during my campaign and indeed afterwards. Together we put an end to the Brexit Party” – Alex Ford, Green Party MP for Stanborough School.
