CATS : Cats Against Tory Sc..m
Donation protected
The goal
Let's remove the sitting Tory MP, Rehman Chishti, from office in Gillingham and Rainham. We are doing this by micro-targeting voters and using clever canvassing. It's a win-win-win situation and spells cat-astrophe for Chishti, whilst sending an important message that Brexit remains an issue for our children's futures. Both must be gone, sooner rather than never.
We are registered as a candidate and now need another few hundred quid to print the mailshot to 71 000 people via the Royal Mail Service.
Together, we will, at best, remove the sitting Tory from office in my constituency outright. At worst, we will inflict sufficient damage on the Tory candidate to ensure that the tactical candidate wins the seat. Your donation today will see us on our way and Rehman Chishti out of our way.
Who is leading this campaign?
My name is Peter Cook. In 2019, I stood a cat for election in Gillingham and Rainham to bring the Tory vote down and allow other parties to put their best feet forward. Yes, a cat, you got that right! Despite my insistence that nobody should vote for 'Stan the Cat', and with no budget or campaign team, UCAT did not come last !! I did not even vote for myself, nor my wife and kids !!!
What inspired this campaign?
We beat the Christian People's Alliance with 229 votes with virtually NO campaigning !! We were not so far away from defeating UKIP (happy face) and the Green party (sad face) in Medway. The long-term Tory party agent told me at the hustings "If it hadn't been for your stupid f..cking cat, you were easily the best candidate on the stage". We also helped the local Lib Dem candidate retain their deposit (the first time this had happened in more than a decade) as a by-product of the campaign.
Election Strategy
It occurred to me that :
- If I had campaigned across the long-term with a campaign team rather than a couple of weeks, we could easily have done much better.
- Certainly, if I had asked for people's votes (I got 229 votes despite begging people to vote for the other candidates) we would have done a lot better.
- With a budget, we could have done several leaflet campaigns, town hall meetings and media coverage, and ;
- Stan the cat had much better policies than the established parties !!
Outcomes
Stan the Cat will achieve one of three outcomes:
- Suppress disaffected Tory voters who will not vote differently by getting them to vote for Stan.
- Remove hard Tory voters by switching them to the cat or ReFUK, thus splitting the Tory vote and allowing the tactical candidate to win.
- Nudging soft Tory voters by getting them to vote tactically for the recommended tactical voting party.
This is a carefully calibrated tactic based on deep knowledge of the area and expert level skills in canvassing. Here is ITV's report on the Hustings in my area:
We have a full manifesto available via Cats Against Brexit Mayhem. Somewhat more amusingly, the press and some people were impressed by the more fanciful policies of repurposing the Medway tunnel as a giant cat flap and so on !! :-).
I have started an intensive campaign of pounding the streets, attending hustings. conducting media activity, communicating with residents and building a team to support me. If we succeed, we will oust Rehman Chishti, long-standing Tory MP who does little for the area and send a powerful message that "Brexit is NOT done". Even if we fail, we will help the constituency to fall to the tactical candidate, so there is no 'lose' strategy in all of this.
In the very unlikely event that I win, I may well cross the floor and hand the seat to another party, depending on the outcome of the election. A hung parliament or coalition may be the outcome of the election, so I will make my donation once we have the facts at the time. My seat will NOT be given to ANY party which supports a continuation of Brexit, which is breaking Britain.
I will upgrade the serious campaigning this time around. That said, we'll keep Stan the Cat as our furry mascot and the key campaigning idea of "Could a cat do any worse than a Tory", which was a very persuasive slogan in 2019.
'White Stan' - we also had a ginger version !! Our cats were outsourced for media purrposes, as my wife is allergic to them !!
How will your money be used?
Funds will be used to register the candidate, print leaflets and support campaign activities for the General Election on July 4th, 2024. Initially, there was a comprehensive plan for an 18-month campaign, but the current focus is on essential campaign activities due to time constraints. If the campaign does not fund fully all money will be redirected into our national leaflet campaign for Tory marginals and on the ground campaigning in tactical seats.
I invite others to copy (cat) the design to get their own Trophy Tory out. A list of possible targets can be found at GTTO. Support can be offered.
What makes this campaign unique?
This campaign combines a serious political objective with a humorous and engaging approach. Using Stan the Cat as a mascot and the slogan "Could a cat do any worse than Rishi?" adds a light-hearted element to the campaign while addressing serious political goals.
Why should you donate?
Donating to this campaign is an opportunity to support a creative and strategic effort to bring about political change in Gillingham and Rainham. Whether the outcome is a direct win or a strategic advantage for another party, your contribution helps disrupt the status quo and promote a more representative democracy where PR becomes a more realistic goal.
Support the campaign and help us prove that even a cat can make a difference in politics! Donate now to be part of this innovative movement.
Any questions? E-mail me at [email redacted]
Finally, here is one of the mainstream media videos we did in 2019. Obviously, this time, our campaign will be more serious but the question remains:
Better a Cat in a Hat than a Tory Tw..t?
Organizer
Peter Cook
Organizer
England