Well there we are then, the Newport East Westminster election is over and the voters (those who actually turned out to vote that is) have spoken. It was an interesting Westminster election campaign in a new if oddly put together constituency with portions added from the old Newport West constituency and portions lost to the new Monmouthshire constituency. There should be another massive thank you to my wife, my agent, my campaign team members and the electors of Newport East for their support.
Weather-wise it was a strange campaign as well with possibilities of torrential rain and bright sunshine (although admittedly with some heat) - sometimes all within the same hour. Any election, and this one was no different, should give every candidate the opportunity to listen to, to talk to and to meet with many Constituents, during the course of what should become a prolonged walking tour in my opinion of one of Cymru / Wales's more interesting constituencies.
Elections are not simply about the voters and the candidates, a whole host of people work very hard behind the scenes to make things work smoothly, including the Returning Officer(s) their staff, the council staff who run the polling booths and the staff who count the votes and the other council staff and the Police who work tirelessly to make the count function flawlessly.
Post election, in Newport East (and elsewhere) former candidates and even for the successfully elected candidate life can now begin the process of returning to some form of normality. For the next few weeks after returning to normal sleep patterns and a normal intake of coffee may be something of a priority, that and resisting the strange desire to knock on the doors of perfect strangers and push leaflets through complete strangers letter boxes.
Now that the sound and the fury have faded, and the door knocking and on the street conversations have blended into one, former candidates can sensibly take stock and perhaps some reflection. As a candidate, no matter the result, you should neither make instant decisions about your future nor say anything in the heat of the moment that can come back and haunt you further down the line.
There is little glory in politics, save in victory, merely hard often unappreciated effort, any dreams of political immortality / longevity should be regularly doused with hard cold realism.
I learned that lesson a few election campaigns ago, having featured on the front page of a local newspaper in relation to the well supported local campaign to Keep Abergavenny Livestock Market I had the quite bizarre experience of going to buy some chips in a local chip shop with a friend only to sit-in the queue to observe myself literally being wrapped around chips as has been said elsewhere Sic transit gloria mundi - or "Thus passes the glory of the world”.
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