Why I’m standing for Labour

By Amanjit Jhund / @amanjit

My campaign as the Windsor Labour Party’s Prospective Parliamentary Candidate began on Friday, and it seemed like a good time to reflect on what has brought me to this place in my life.

I am actually a relative newcomer to the Labour Party; I only joined in October 2008 in the wake of the Glasgow East by-election defeat. While I’d always been a Labour voter, I’d never joined a political party and at University I’d been put off politics by the sycophants and odd-balls that seemed to take part in student politics. They always seemed to be more interested in advancing their own career than making a change for the better.

It wasn’t until I’d started working in the NHS and saw some of the inequalities and problems that I did that my interest in politics was reawakened.

Then a very strange thing happened about a year ago when I was sitting at a dinner party in Edinburgh, and I had somewhat of an epiphany. Up until that point it had been easy to be a Labour Party supporter, we had won three General elections and people like me could just sit back in the knowledge that we were being run as a country by people who shared our political viewpoint and vision. But that night I realised that with the defeat in Glasgow East I had to stand up for my beliefs and contribute to the party with both my time and my money.

The next day, I joined the Labour Party and started campaigning,. LabourList was in its infancy at that point, but as one of the few professional blogs on the left I started reading it. I enjoyed the articles but more often enjoyed the discussions that would develop in the comments. I came to recognise names like Richard Blogger, Ralph Baldwin and Peter Barnard and more recently names like Ricki Lake and Hazico 28.

Despite this, it wasn’t until Daniel Hannan’s attacks upon the NHS in the right wing media that I felt compelled to write my first comment on the site. Later that day I received an email from Alex Smith, the editor of LabourList asking me to consider writing an article for the site. I was flattered and keen to contribute in any way that I could and so I wrote my first article that day. It seemed to get a good reception and I decided to try again. Alex then asked me to contribute more articles and he then asked me to start writing a regular column. At the same time I found that more and more people were asking me both on and offline to consider putting myself forward as a candidate.

I still didn’t have any political ambitions for myself but during this time the MPs’ expenses scandal hit and I found myself living in an area represented by a Labour Party MP who had been caught flipping his second home designation. I found it difficult to go out on the doorsteps and campaign, but I did so because I believed in the principles of the Labour Party. I also spent a lot of time campaigning for Hope not Hate as it seemed to be the best option for preventing a British National Party (BNP) victory. Today I still hold many of the politicians from all parties responsible for the two BNP MEPs we now have, including many MPs from the Labour Party. During that time, I felt dishonoured and ashamed to be a part of the Labour Party.

I felt angered by the politicians that were supposedly representing me, but long before President Obama, Mahatma Ghandi once said “be the change you want to see in the world” – it may sound twee to some, but I do believe it.

Part of the problem is that it is those very same sycophants and odd-balls who take part in student politics who are the only ones that do eventually put their hands up and stand for election, and they are still more interested in advancing their own careers than changing things for the better.

With this thought in mind I finally decided to put myself forward for selection, and – when I was moving to London in November of 2009 – I put my name forward for the Labour Party selection in Windsor. To both my surprise and delight I was shortlisted and then selected as their candidate in December.

It has so far been a lot of hard work even to get the launch underway but it has been extremely rewarding. In many ways it has been a strange journey to bring me here, but hopefully it’s a story that some of you may find useful. Wether you are a LabourList reader contemplating leaving your first comment, thinking of writing an article, joining a political party or even standing for office yourself (for any political party) I’d encourage you to take that first step – because you never know where it will lead you.

If you would like to follow my campaign, I would appreciate the support please do so via:

Twitter: @amanjit

The website: Amanjitjhund.co.uk

Facebook: Amanjit Jhund for Windsor

And I’d just like to finish by thanking all the LabourList readers and commentariat who by discussing ideas and either agreeing or disagreeing with me (sometimes quite passionately) over the past year have helped me to come to this point in my life.