Peace Party: Behind-the-scenes of our debut US news appearance

By Tommy Holgate

It is with great delight that I write these opening words to what is essentially the kick-off blog for my General Election 2015 campaign in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England, UK, Europe, Earth.

Prior to this I had spent a month working any shift under The Sun [pun intended, as I mean the newspaper] in order to put some money aside to make a run for the Parliament.

Of course, I do not expect to win. However, in a world of infinite change and endless possibilities, why rule it out?

I feel that, if there are people in Chesterfield who are currently not going to vote at all, then they may be persuaded to tick a box of Peace by way of being part of a message that extends beyond the perceived boundaries of the town, and potentially around the world.

That message is: "There is a small town in the middle of England where people are willing to say they prioritise humanity over profit made from oil, and weapons manufacture."

The clip below is a little fly-on-the-wall video from our first appearance on US* news [full interview at the bottom of this page].

Only 48 hours prior to this chat, I was logging off after my final shift on The Sun's digital sports desk and drying my eyes off after a series of good luck messages on my leaving card.

The people who work there are only people too, and I'm keen to remind anyone of that, who may have a preconceived idea of what constitutes a tabloid journalist.

On the day in between I was covered head-to-toe in glitter, in a pair of gold hotpants, dancing in a music video for a female pop duo.

It was a strange week and you can still see some glitter on my cheeks in the interview.

But I was nervous. As soon as the interview began there was a voice inside my head, saying, 'pick your words carefully, you're a politician now, they could be held against you!' and so I felt like a rabbit in some headlights.

It felt like having a job interview - for a job you didn't really plan for or know about [ie, less than six months ago I imagined this phase would be a decade away] - conducted transatlantically, through an earpiece with a [perfectly understandable] time delay.

Plus, fatigue was present after working myriad extra-curricular late shifts over the previous month in order to save up to move home and start campaigning [in that sense I am using Rupert Murdoch's money - albeit having been exchanged for my time and digital production services - to spread a message of peace. That's one way of 'justifying' my time spent there, if such justification were ever needed, which, judging by some initial minor trolling, it will be!]

But the feedback otherwise has been fantastic, which I am grateful for as I have now stopped beating myself up for referring to 'Jeremy Paxman's Newsnight', saying 'House of Collomons' and the word 'truth' around 50 times in the opening minute or so.

Peace Out.

Tommy

*John Morris, Peace Party National Organiser, appeared on the BBC ahead of the 2014 European Elections. Click HERE to watch.

And here's that RT interview in full...