www.vote-jonathan.co.uk

Who is Jonathan?

Jonathan is 27 and has lived in Sheffield all his life.  His hobbies include football, chess, poker and playing a variety of musical instruments. Jonathan represented England at chess at Under-21 level, and captained the Yorkshire adult team to two national rapidplay trophies.  He competed in the Gibraltar International Chess Festival in January 2008, which featured some of the world's top players, achieving a score of 4.5 out of 10.  Jonathan is a committed Christian and has preached at several churches in Sheffield and Rotherham. 

Jonathan believes that many people choose not to vote because they don’t think that their vote will make a difference.  By allowing people to vote on the issues that matter to them, Jonathan thinks that people will feel more involved in their local communities.  He is concerned by the fact that most of Britain’s new laws are now made in Brussels, which has taken even more power away from the people.

He believes that it is important to stand up for what he believes in and after much thought, Jonathan decided to join the UK Independence Party in 2001. He stood for Parliament at the 2005 general election and has stood 6 times locally at council elections, achieving 13.8% of the vote in May 2008. He will be a UKIP candidate at the next European elections in June 2009 and has been selected as the UKIP candidate for the (new) Sheffield South-East constituency at the next General election.

Career

Jonathan gained a Master’s Degree in Mathematics from Sheffield University at age 19.  From 2000 to 2008, he worked as a Mathematics teacher at Handsworth Christian School in Sheffield, and was Head Of Mathematics from 2006.  He has also worked part-time for Yorkshire's UK Independence Party MEP Godfrey Bloom as a political researcher since 2004.  He was appointed as UKIP's Local Elections co-ordinator in 2005 and became responsible for UKIP’s local campaigns nationwide.  He co-authored UKIP's national Manifesto for the local elections in 2006, 2007 and 2008.   

At the 2008 UK Independence Party Conference, Jonathan was appointed as the new UK Independence Party General Secretary, and was featured on BBC1's The Politics Show in September 2008. 

Charity work

Jonathan has 12 years of broadcasting experience in Hospital Radio.  From 2004 to 2008 he chaired a Sheffield charity providing activities for local young people and he continues to chair SASCA, the Sheffield Schools' Chess Association. At sixth-form and university, Jonathan raised funds for a number of charities.