I have taken an interest in matters political since the very early 1980s.  My first experience of being involved in a general election was in 1983. Since then, I have gained a BA Honours degree in Government and Politics and remained politically active in various ways. I subsequently went on to work as a College Lecturer in Politics and Business Studies in an FE College in Harrow. While there, I also gained a further Master of Arts (MA) degree in Government and Politics, as well as a teacher-training qualification: the Certificate in Education (Post-Compulsory Education) – i.e. to teach at Further and Higher Education level. I also worked as a GCE Advanced Supplementary (AS) and Advanced (A) Level Examiner in Politics for the University of London Board.

I was elected to serve as a Councillor in Watford Central Ward between 1995 and 1999. During that time, I chaired their Grants Committee and held a number of Vice-Chair positions on a number of other council committees.  I additionally served on the boards and management committees of a number of local community, social and charitable organisations.

I took early retirement in 1997 and decided not to stand for re-election as a Councillor in 1999 so that I could spend more time with my wife.

My wife unexpectedly died in 2001, which left me considerably uncertain as to what I should be doing with my life. I ended up taking on a role of Manager of a local community centre for 9 years and Chair of Governors of a local primary school for 4 years. I was Chair of Watford Area Arts Forum for 6 years and became a Life Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Since then, I have gradually re-entered political engagement by joining the Reform UK Party as a member and election candidate.

The reason I decided to join Reform UK was because I liked their policies – especially national ownership of public utilities.

I also believe strongly in the concept of democracy and I further believe that the stale old LibLabCon parties have betrayed the 2016 mandate the people of the United Kingdom gave to them to take the UK out of the European Union.

As the successor party to UKIP and the Brexit Party, Reform UK now offers the people of Great Britain and Northern Ireland an opportunity to have their voices listened to for the very first time in the history of our country.

This is why Reform UK is absolutely committed to reforming the UK national electoral system, reforming the cronyism of the second parliamentary chamber (usually known by the title of House of Lords) and reforming the system of national governance and administration such that popularly elected government ministers will henceforth have the power to command recalcitrant civil servants to do as they are told by elected ministers.

With Reform UK, the clue is in the name. 

We want to see root and branch reform of the rotten and corrupt system of politics and governance within our United Kingdom. We offer an absolutely historic choice to all of our people to be able to vote for – and achieve – real and meaningful change in the UK. We WILL get Brexit done properly and we WILL change our system of elections and governance FOR THE BETTER.

I am honoured to be acting as Constituency Spokesman for the St Albans parliamentary constituency.

We welcome all forms of support and any and all new members who wish to join us in our historic quest.

John L. Dowdle FRSA