Manifesto
for Selby and Ainsty

Annoyed with MPs who put party before constituents? Narked that MPs don’t listen – and don’t need to listen to you? Frustrated that all our institutions are failing?

Empowered by you, wonderful people of Selby and Ainsty, I am your solution. Vote for a breath of fresh air, instead of rearranging the deckchairs.

You know that we can’t go on like this. We are the greatest country on earth, North Yorkshire the greatest county. The UK has a history of being first, unafraid to go it alone: Industrial Revolution; parliamentary democracy; abolition of slavery; the NHS; football, rugby, golf, tennis; the computer. When we innovate, we succeed. Brexit – love it or hate it – was an innovation: we were the first country to sever ties with the EU.

Our democracy needs to modernise.

As your MP, you will influence, on a weekly basis, how I represent you in Parliament. If I am elected, every MP in the land will need to pay attention: listening to their constituents – not just paying lip-service – will become a requirement. This is what representatives are meant to do. I intend to take democracy back to its roots, starting here, in North Yorkshire.

If you believe, like I do, that interest rate hikes are madness, empower me to do something about it. I recommend that we restructure the failed Bank of England.

When you elect me as your MP, it won’t just be the weekly surgeries when you can tell me your opinion, you will have a 24/7 ability to tell me what you think through our conversation platform. I will read, analyse, and act according to your views, because I believe local people know what they need more than the Westminster elite on the key issues.

Create the biggest political earthquake and etch this constituency into the national consciousness. Solo voices can be the most powerful. Love him or hate him, Nigel Farage had the profile and power equivalent to 100 MPs; Caroline Lucas, too, moved mountains.

Together, we can shake the very foundations of Westminster with 100,000 people storming through the lobbies of parliament every time I cast my vote on your behalf.

In a UK-first – perhaps even a world first – on the 26 June 2023, Andrew Gray began to crowdsource the views of the people of the Selby and Ainsty constituency, using machine-learning AI, in order to create this manifesto.

In total, 50 AI Polis conversations have been carried out: 46 village conversations; three town conversations; one cross-constituency political conversation. At the time of writing (the conversations remain open), there have been over 7,500 votes.

Voters were made aware of the platform via the distribution of 48,000 leaflets delivered to constituents’ homes, social media advertising and local and national press coverage.

Working in conjunction with data scientist Dr Simon Wallace, of consultancy Demonstrandum, a number of consensus positions have been identified in the data provided by the people of Selby and Ainsty constituency. Based on these positions, Andrew Gray has formulated the following policies.

Each policy has underneath it the comments and votes provided by constituents of Selby and Ainsty. You can see the statement, whether it is agreed or disagreed with, and then the % of the respondents amongst the voting groups where there was consensus.

The Bank failed to act quickly enough to deal with the inevitability of high inflation. Furthermore, their policy of increasing interest rates punishes those on variable rate mortgages as well as renters. Their victims are people least able to withstand such increases, whilst those who have paid off their mortgage and who have cash in the bank, are rewarded. It should be Parliament’s decision – not the Bank of England’s – to determine who suffers economic pain.

The UK requires a written constitution, which I propose should ensure the following: