Road to Parliament blog: Regrets? I've had just one so far

On top of the local team is a national one which helps to organise centrally. Most give their time for free and all work extremely hard.

But there are a group of individuals who are vital to any campaign. They provide an unwavering network of support without which any candidate will crumble. They are the family and friends of activists.

This week, for the first time in my campaign, I did something which I regret.

Very early on Sunday morning, my two small children tip-toed into my bedroom with all the stealth of a drunk hippopotamus. As my wife pretended to be asleep they issued me with strict instructions regarding my role in the forthcoming Mother’s Day breakfast which was due to be delivered. I clambered out of bed and followed the preparation party downstairs, just catching a very slight and happy smile on my wife’s still supposedly asleep face.

The chaos that ensued in the kitchen as my youngest tried to pour milk into an overfull bowl of Coco Pops and my eldest hacked at a slice of toast with a blunt knife in order to make it heart-shaped was, quite simply, delightful. We bounded upstairs with breakfast and gifts and jumped onto a now wide-awake and grinning Mummy.

Roughly 15 mins after that event I was out of the door and on my way to my first political session of the day. As I darted down the road to the meeting I attempted to call my own mother. I couldn’t get hold of her. No problem, I’ll try later.

Very quickly the day began to disappear. The team meeting was followed by a visit to an area of community interest and then a photoshoot, we spent time talking and listening to constituents about a local issue after which we organised a meeting of association members. The session was rounded off with the delivery of election literature.

Before I knew where I was the opportunity to visit my mother was gone for the day. It is this which is my first regret of the campaign.

Politics is all consuming and, without realising it, you find that you’ve cancelled birthday parties, missed parents’ evenings and neglected to be available for friends and family when they need you. Despite this I have found that those closest to you are supportive of what you do and incredibly understating considering the circumstances.

As I’ve written previously in these blogs, I believe politics to be a noble calling and those that undertake it are, overwhelmingly, good individuals. It makes sense then, that the nearest and dearest to political activists see how hard they work and how much the work that they do matters. But when I think about the error I made by not seeing my mum on Mother’s Day I start to appreciate how dedication can potentially move to selfishness. We need politicians to be dedicated but we also need them to be people. After all if they don’t have a life how can we expect them to empathise with the public?

I’ve spoken with others who are on the campaign trail and I hear similar stories. One friend of mine merrily waves his husband off every weekend to campaign in a constituency which is a 500-mile round trip. Many weekends he’ll take friends and family up to help him on the stump. What incredible support!

Moving deeper into my theme I had a quick check through my diary to see how many ‘nights out’ Mrs F and I had had over the past few years that were completely non-political. By non-political I mean no raffles or speeches or fund raisers etc. There were depressingly few. It then occurred to me that, when we do have a night, I probably talk about opinion polls and the like.

So I am blessed with amazing support and often forgiveness from those closest to me. I try extremely hard to live up to the expectation that comes with being a candidate for parliament and I’m so grateful to my family for recognising and supporting my efforts. But, counter-intuitively, dedication to the cause could perhaps have a negative effect making candidates, like me, policy wonks or party automatons.

There has been much talk recently about the type of parliamentary candidates that are being selected. The constant sniping in the media between all parties seems to be turning many good candidates away from putting themselves forward for election – this can only be bad for democracy.

We need to ensure that the people we elect are rounded, sensible and balanced individuals who can understand and empathise with the electorate they serve. Simply selecting massively wealthy people who can afford to fund a general election campaign and only spend their time talking about politics cannot be healthy for any of us.

By the time I got home on Mothering Sunday my kids were in bed and the roast dinner was in the microwave.

Mrs F welcomed me back, smiled and said she was proud of me. I couldn’t help thinking that I’d have been a better parliamentary candidate, and person if, on Mother’s Day, I’d stayed in with my family and got my mum round for dinner. I could have organised the meeting for another day.

Realising and appreciating the value of people is essential if you are to represent them and to properly understand their hopes and aspirations. Put simply, politicians should not get so wrapped up in the business of politics that they forget to be human.

Contact Peter on peter@peterfortune.co.uk or @PeterTFortune.

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