http://www.cheapleaflets.co.uk/budget-leaflets.php
Looking at who printed previous candidate election leaflets. I think I could get somewhere.
http://www.cheapleaflets.co.uk/budget-leaflets.php shows prices for an independent candidate's leaflets last time which go down to a penny times a hundred thousand, so £1,000.
A4 paper in supermarkets at the beginning of term goes down to half a penny per sheet, and you only have to pay for bottled ink to write your thoughts about the world on the paper with an inkjet, some adapting technology, and a bottle. Wilco go a shade cheaper.
A4 pallets of sheets on Alibaba are about the same price per sheet at most - sometimes much less but I don't understand the detail. Nor do I know which UK paper mills make A4 paper and what their minimum order is - or I didn't when first writing this and have discovered a depressing fact that the government has helped put the last UK supplier of A4 office paper - Tullis Russel - out of business by promoting implausible targets for recycled office paper.
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Nobody much reads this blog so I can put a rough link in here:
http://www.spectator.co.uk/2014/08/could-you-afford-to-become-an-mp/
The journalist - Isabel Hardman - tries to account for lost earnings spent sucking-up to the party machine by prospective MPs. Some eventually get selected for a winnable seat and go-on to be backbenchers or even cabinet members, where they can be sacked for being the wrong age or gender or for being too political in the wrong way. Others - apparently - spend money just trying to get noticed by a constituency association. The party machines value campaigning over thinking, which could explain the number of thick campaigners in parliament:
"Becoming an MP takes time, too. Parties understandably set tough targets
for their candidates based on the number of days spent delivering
leaflets, the visits to by-elections, articles in local papers and so
on. Those who consistently fall short face the axe: I understand that
the Tories have already sacked one candidate for missing campaigning
targets, and Labour’s bigwigs say they won’t hesitate to do the same to
anyone on their list."
It would be good to find a solution.
A party willing to back useful candidates over manic campaigners would be good.
An electorate patient with maverick outsiders would be good, if not for the sake of electing them but in order to let them influence elections by getting a fair number of votes.
