There are 20,830 Councillors in the UK, and nearly 2,000 of these are Independents or small local parties. The aim of the Independent Network is to increase this percentage, and to help anybody standing for any election on the basis of the person they are. Vote for a Person, not a Party!

At the Local Government Association, the Independent Group is now the third largest of the four Groups, the others being Conservative, Labour and liberal Democrats. But Labour Councillors have the resources of the Labour Party to help them get re-elected: Independents are on their own.

After much debate, the Independent Network decided to register as a national political party. This took time, for a number of reasons, but here we are, the Party whose Policy is to have no Policies.

We have had a bit of a steep learning curve, and we have been fined £200 by the Electoral Commission for not getting up to speed quickly enough. But they have a job to do, and democracy has to be protected.

The media want to know about numbers: how many members do you have? Well, Independents do not want to be members, so we call them supporters. While cash is great, thousands of supporters are better. So we are asking people who want to support us to give-us-a-quid, but if you can add a bit more, that would be amazing. Donate through this website, or email us for leaflets. We need your email address to evidence your support, but we promise not to bombard you.

Our next project is to update our booklet Elections on a Shoestring. You can download this from our website, and we need new ideas to update it: please email us at info@independentnetwork.org and we will put it all together and hopefully have a new edition before Christmas.

If you are standing for election next May, if you are not up to speed before the new year, you have a reduced chance of being elected. How is your campaign going? Watch our website for training events and new ideas and resources.