Matthew Lewis

NME campaigning finally seems to be coming to life, with various candidates flinging their hats in to the ring, two groups promising major improvements to CF nationally have been formed, and three brave young men standing up and offering themselves as Chairman. So far campaigning has been mostly good natured.

However, there have been a few snipes and grumbles, noted below, so I'm going to offer my two-cent's worth.

There are at least a couple of candidates who stated clearly that they weren't going to stand, however, times and circumstances change so we shouldn't castigate them for changing their minds.

X has done this! Y has done that! X sucks!

For me, an NME candidate, and especially a candidate for chair needs to have a record of three things: A good level of experience and activity, married to a good level of effectiveness. Thirdly, a diplomatic nature to some extent.

My big worry is that we will elect a capable and active NME and Chair, only to find it splits in to unworkable factions early on. Hopefully as the campaign goes on, and we all get to know a bit more about each other mutual respect will grow, and the election will produce a strong, united executive.

Most of us are going on rumour as to how we judge the candidates thus far, so let's just wait and see. True colours will soon emerge for better or worse.

FT is a copy of CF4B!

At first glance perhaps, but not really. And anyway, is that such a bad thing? Both promise more representation and national cohesion, with a greater level of communication between the various regions and levels of CF, this is true. However, CF4B is backing candidates who, as part of their own manifestos, will push to achieve these aims, whereas so far as I can see FT is operating much more as a bloc, with policies coming from FT rather than the individuals (apologies if I'm wrong here!). CF4B is also only running four candidates, whereas FT is running a candidate for every seat, including Chairman, with the prospect of an NME made up entirely of FT candidates. This is something I desperately did not want CF4B to offer, and I am very happy we're keeping our numbers to a decent level.

Current executives had 'insider knowledge'!

Probably, but what do you expect, that the NME has no say in planning elections? This election is clearly (touch wood) a one-off in that the date was so unclear amid all the delays, but with Michael Lunn in place that problem should not rear its head again. Maybe some on the inside had more exact knowledge of dates etc, but it's hardly as if the rest of us are left reeling from the announcement; "what? an election? when?".

So, I can't see any major problems so far, and whilst this is politics and politics is usually dirty, I think we can look forward to another well-run gentlemanly campaign. Best of luck to all.