INDEPENDENT candidate Rich Wilson, who ran for election for the first time in May, has spoken of the experience and where he hopes to take his campaign for greater democracy – My MP.

Rich decided to join the other election hopefuls campaigning for the Stroud seat when friend and landlord of the Crown and Sceptre pub Rodda Thomas put the suggestion to him.

Knowing that it was rare for an independent candidate to win and that recovering his deposit would be unlikely, Rich decided to take on the challenge when Rodda said: “Rich, it’s not about winning, it’s about trying to change the system.”

Commenting on what he learned Rich said: “One of the really big lessons for me is that I’m not sure if it’s possible for a party other than Labour or the Conservatives to win within the current first past the post system.

“For me that’s quite a big thing because there’s a part of me that wouldn’t mind becoming an MP."

As well as running for election Rich set up a campaign, MyStroud MP. Rich wants MPs to survey their constituents every time they have to vote on an important issue in Parliament. To date seven MPs across the country have agreed to work with My MP.

“Neil Carmichael has also agreed to work with us, which is amazing,” said Rich.

“He has agreed to have an online platform where all of his votes in parliament would be voted on locally and every Friday when he comes back to do his surgeries he would respond by video to say whether he voted with his constituents or not and why.

“It’s not a referendum, it’s a survey taken through his newsletters. It’s very generous of him to agree to do it, with such a big majority he needn't but he’s agreed to and that’s wonderful.

“The key thing is that it’s funding dependent and I’m currently raising money to buy some time for me to do some fundraising for the project.”

“We need to have a system which doesn’t get captured by minority voices but you can do that, it’s just a question of money.

“People were concerned about direct democracy because of the idea of mob rule.

“I personally think that if you give people power it clearly gets them more involved with politics, it’s self evident, look at what’s happened in Scotland.”

The MyStroud MP group gathered recently to discuss plans for the future now that the election furor has subsided.

They explored how to set up a way of surveying constituents to inform decisions and votes taken by government and discussed the possibility of getting involved with Stroud District Council elections in 2016.