(Reflections on 10 days pavement-pounding for Freedom Alliance)

1. You get out in the sun for hours at a time, meaning I have gone from "pale computer face" (which would be my Indian name) to actually having a bit of a tan...

2. You cover a lot more ground than you think, and easily average 5km a day (about 7,000 steps - fun factoid: the "10,000 steps a day" trope was a marketing gimmick developed by an advertising agency to sell pedometers - you actually get all the same health benefits from 6,000 - and that's a lot more manageable if you have dodgy knees. Which I do, courtesy of multiple sporting injuries, which is especially injurious since I hate sports and have never played any - but pubs shouldn't have such slippery floors, should they?)

3. You get chatting to many and various interesting people, including some of the other local candidates (well, one: I had a very nice chat with the Lib Dem guy, but was frostily ignored by Labour) and the general public, who are far more on board with anti-establishment themes than the establishment would like us to believe, BUT - and here is the biggest obstacle in challenging the current narrative politically - almost none of them vote, and all say the same thing: "there's no point, all the parties are the same / corrupt". That so many "rebels" feel this way serves the establishment very well, as it means those who would naturally oppose the status quo, believe they don't have any power to do so politically and so don't exercise that form of resistance.

It has been very revealing to me these last months just how little is generally known about the democratic process amongst the general public. Almost nobody knows (including me, until 2020) that "ordinary people" can stand for council and parliamentary elections - that you don't need any special qualifications or endorsements, you can just decide to do it and nobody can stop you. Moreover, many people (again, including me until recently) don't even know how to vote. The woman I was speaking to today (unvaccinated, anti all the restrictions, etc,) had no idea where her polling station was, what time it was open, or that you don't need your polling card / ID to vote. Many, many, many people don't know these very rudimentary facts about how to engage with the democratic process, and that is by design.

If the government wanted you to vote, they would invest money in ensuring everyone is educated about exactly how the democratic process works, through from registering to vote to standing as a candidate - but they don't. At all. The process is intentionally kept opaque and oblique, so only those "in the club" really understand it and therefore engage with it, and those who would naturally rebel against the establishment, do not.

I know that, in general amongst the "truth movement", the sentiment is - "there's no point in voting, as it's all rigged and/or all the parties are the same" - and I know this because I used to think so too. But having actually engaged directly with the system myself, I've come to believe this narrative has likely been covertly sewn by the establishment itself, because this serves its interests so well - that those with powerful anti-establishment sentiments don't vote.

While an anti-establishment candidate is unlikely to ever have any success at the highest levels, e.g. become Prime Minister (though you never know...), we can make a really powerful impact at the local level, where anti-establishment candidates can be and are elected. The establishment wants you to believe you are powerless at a political level, both locally and nationally, and that your vote doesn't matter - that's why they invest nothing in educating us all about how democracy really works - because that's how they retain full spectrum dominance over the political system and political decision-making.

But your vote does matter. That is why they so desperately don't want you to use it - at least, not for anyone but the establishment parties. So, please do vote in the local elections this Thursday, for an anti-establishment, pro-freedom candidate if there is one, and spoil your paper if there isn't. Paper-spolling is far better than not voting at all, because if you don't engage at all, this is interpreted by the establishment as a vote for the status quo - that you're happy with how things are. Make sure they know otherwise.

The elections are on Thursday 5th May, 7am-10pm, and you can find where your local polling booth is online or on your polling card, if you have it. You don't need your polling card or any ID, just tell them your name when you arrive.

And if you live in Golcar, Kirklees, you can vote for me! #FinchForFreedom 2022

Let's make our collective voices unambiguously heard this year.