Confelicity thanks all those that made it a record breaking year for us amongst the Reform takeover. Despite this, Concrete Kings, Southend Labour, limp on until election 2027.

On behalf of the Confelicity Party I would like to say a huge thank to everyone who voted for us. It’s not an easy choice voting for a fledgling party as it can feel like a wasted vote, but every single resident who decided to put us first will have made a keeping our local movement going. The election dust has now settled and we now know who will be leading Southend for the next year.

For us, though records were broken, Confelicity were the forgotten party of the Southend elections of that there is no doubt. Not a single mention of us in any press anywhere - it’s almost as though we made no impact!

Diane Sossou with the Thorpe candidates

Yet, Lee Clark (380), Diane Sossou (200) and myself (180) all broke the previous Confelicity record of 155 votes in a ward. And we collectively we broke our previous record of 1,300 votes with a new grand total of over 1,500.

However, despite these quiet achievements, I can quite understand why we have been overshadowed.

Lee Clark with the Kursaal candidates

The Reform avalanche and Labour’s demise left little room for any other headlines and understandably so. The Labour-led coalition lost five seats while Reform gained 11. Had elections been all-up, Labour would have been wiped out, and I wonder what the career politicians will do when the inevitable happens. And that is not to forget the progress the Greens have made doubling their seats on the council to 4.

Labour remain the largest party on 17 seats, but they are on borrowed time regardless of how many times they lay claim to saving football clubs and historic buildings.

Locally, I will never be able to forgive them for cheerleading the greenbelt land by Bournes Green Chase to build 10,000 unaffordable houses not prioritised for local people to the New Towns Taskforce, and I was encouraged they lost so many seats. Their bloody-minded betrayal of Southend residents is a prime example of why, at especially important times, we must hold local referendums - they would be worth every penny in this case.

Worst of all, Labour now deny they even did this! Well, we have another year to get the facts out there for residents to truly understand that Southend will be changing for catastrophic if this administration win what will be 5 years in power from 2027.

Their reckless pursuit of concrete will leave a terrible legacy and by a miracle of circumstance they are being given just that opportunity to lead our town for another year.

Vote for leader of the council

I was stunned to learn 3 of the four Green councillors have voted in favour of Cllr Daniel Cowan to continue to be leader of Southend City Council. I have a lot of respect for all three of them and reserve judgment until they have all been given the opportunity to let us know how they have reconciled such a decision. On no basis would I ever vote for someone who holds such destructive views on the green belt and I must say it comes at great disappointment and concern.

So, the Labour, Lib Dem and Independent Group limp on.

Lee Clark and Lee Hooton (Confelicity agent)

The March Forward into 2027

Amongst all the electoral success of Reform lies the Confelicity story. Four years ago we started with nothing more than an idea of a locally devoted party who developed policy by inviting local residents to shape those policies. We’ve developed a positive manifesto of almost a hundred pledges that provide a pretty clear idea of what we’d like to do.

We’re local, our manifesto is local, and we have the best interests of Southend residents at heart. No other party can claim this and I truly believe as time goes on and word spreads, we will continue to grow support.

What Confelicity need are candidates who are willing to commit to a year long campaign engaging with residents. That is not a slight to our current candidates, it is just the reality that the only way to win votes is to earn them.

Unless you stand for a party whose brand is so popular - like Reform or ‘New Labour’ - in normal times in local elections the candidate is central. In other words, regardless of the party, a great candidate can break through.

To be open, all parties generally stand, within reason, ‘paper candidates’, which means the person standing is not much more than a name on a piece of paper as opposed to a person ready to take public office.

For instance, Labour know they cannot win Thorpe. They might put a decent, but inexperienced candidate to run in that ward, and then after they’ve earned their stripes get given a traditionally safe seat such as Kursaal. In the Tory’s case, Kursaal would be a paper-candidate haven, but West Leigh is a banker.

That is not to say it is a fraud, for if our candidates won they would have taken the position - and perhaps the same would be true of all the parties. Unlike Reform, we were fully aware we wouldn’t get in without campaigning hard as our name is not yet strong enough, so there was no danger in our paper candidates getting in. Like every party, we just felt it was important that residents had the option in their ward to vote for us - however few of them there would be!

Karl Lansley, Confelicity candidate in St Laurence at the SEND Hustings

Unfortunately for Reform, they have already seen winning candidates across the country drop out because they never wanted to be a councillors in the first place, and that’s where paper candidates can backfire.

The backfire for us is that aside from our record breakers - however small those records may be - it can look embarrassing with an exceptionally low vote share in any particular ward. While we broke records in this election we still brought home meagre returns in the wards we didn’t push and unless we can convince Southend residents we are a party worthy of their vote, we will never get past the tipping point.

To Residents of Southend

So now I would like to speak to all residents who want to make a difference.

Many people I speak to do not enter politics because they think they don’t know anything. If you listen to destructive commentators you’d think you were only allowed to enter the political sphere upon their say so.

This is not the case at all.

If you are a single mother with kids in school you qualify. If you are a student who has just passed their degree, but can’t find a job, you qualify. If you are retired and are worried about your grandchildren’s futures, you qualify. If you have a child when SEND, you qualify.

It’s for no one else to say otherwise and your experience of their decisions makes you as qualified as any one of them.

So, if you live and/or work in Southend, you qualify. On every level, we all qualify because we are the end-users of the policies our political leaders have put in place. We all have own experience and that is what we will bring to the table. Rules can be taught, passion and integrity is another matter.

They often attempt to deter people from entering into what they consider to be their realm because they understand the rules better. They’ve been around the poltical circus and are much more qualified than the rest of us because they are so well versed in process, procedure and policy development. But none of this makes anyone clever nor right.

And this is what I am asking of you.

If you love Southend, join and stand. If you want to change things, join and stand. If you care about yourself, your friends, your family and the town, join and stand. If you are not a career politician, join and stand. If you have an opinion and want a home to express it, join and stand. If you believe in local power, local democracy, and want to live in a better place, join and stand. If you just know you could do better than what’s out there now, we want you. If you want a party that will back you, we are your party.

If you’re Southend through and through - and that doesn’t necessarily mean born and bred - it means you love our town and want it to be as good as it can be - then we really are the party for you and your town needs you to put yourself forward.

We know we can win seats if all our candidates spend the year working hard in the ward to earn trust.

Please do get in touch with me or any other Confelicity member to find out what we’re all about. I think you’ll love what we do and how we go about things. We’re not pretentious or pretend we know everything. We’re not politicians, we’re just people who feel the day-to-day consequences of our political leaders and we want our say.

Campaign 2027

The campaign has started now.

Lee Clark’s 2027 campaign and is off to a flyer. While the other two Kursaal councillors are fine, they do not have anywhere near the public profile of Cllr Dent and Labour will be vulnerable - especially if their national disaster continues. If Wes Streeting becomes the new leader it is all over for Labour as a relevant political force.

Diane Sossou in Thorpe will be doing the same and with Cllr Martin Terry retired, that is over 900 independent votes to win over.

On top of this we have the newly elected independent Leigh Town Councillor, Helen Symmons, running in West Leigh, who broke our record on 105. And we then we have the widely respected Karl Lansley going for it in his home ward in St Laurence, who also broke the record with 108. With their desire to win in 2027 this will be a very different contest.

Once Again, Thank You!

Reform won the day and for everyone who voted for them, you will have your reasons and they are as valid as anyone else’s, but I must thank, profusely, all those who voted for Confelicity. You’ve kept us going! Had we we regressed it might have been the end, but as it is, you made our modest record breaking results possible and we can now continue to build over the next year. I ask for you all to keep faith because I believe 2027 will be the first year Confelicity councillors will be sitting in the Chamber.

I would also like to thank all of our candidates, all of our members, and a special shout out to Lee Hooton who is the glue of our party.

To 2027 and beyond!