I am gratified that so many people have contacted me about my election communication but I have to rectify an omission. A number of people are asking me about myself as this did not appear on the leaflet. My apologies for this: such leaflets are a very general introduction to your local candidate and they are limited in terms of how much information they can provide.
For the record therefore, I am 41, married with two children, I was born and brought up in London and moved to Oxfordshire in 2002, where I have been a parish councillor, parish clerk and a founding and continuing member of a community shop committee. I am a member of my local church. My proudest achievements in Oxfordshire have been the continued success of the shop, the decision of my parish council while I was on it to call for - and get - more affordable rural housing and the achievement of a playground project which I worked hard on as parish clerk.
I work for Oxford Brookes University and before this I worked for a Council as an adviser to the leader and the ruling group.
My ambitions for Henley are to inject a bit of democracy back into local communities, as, for example, the Henley Residents Group has done so successfully in Henley town, challenging the status quo which many may have taken for granted as they believed it couldn't change. I would like to see decent housing for people on all incomes, investment in schools and increasing control by communities of local services such as healthcare and policing. I also want to see our economy growing sustainably to allow us all to benefit from the recovery from recession.
Henley is a large constituency of many communities which is fortunate in many ways. I want everyone to benefit from all the great things on offer in Henley and Oxfordshire, which is why I am standing as a candidate in the General Election.
In the light of the declared Lib Dem policy of an amnesty for those illegal immigrants who've not been convicted of any other crimes, I wonder could you enlarge on your reasons for leaving the vibrancy of London for the hideous monochrome of rural Oxfordshire ? Not doing a 'Ben and Chloe', are we ?
ReplyDeleteFair question, if completely wrong on policy, so let's scotch that first. We're not talking about an amnesty - in fact only Tory Mayor of London Boris Johnson has mentioned this. Liberal Democrat say that there are hundreds of thousands of people living illegally here whom no government can ever remove because no one knows where they are. Plus it would cost billions and there's not exactly a lot of money sloshing around at the moment, is there?
ReplyDeleteWe think that illegal immigrants who have lived here for more than ten years who speak English should be allowed to earn citizenship so that rather than living on the fringes of society and often subject to criminal gangs, they can work, improve their lives and pay taxes, benefiting everyone.
It is an amusing thought that the pension of the BNP leader will probably be paid in large part by today's immigrants.
Back to me, I left London because I got a job in Oxfordshire. Both London and Oxfordshire have their charms but I am now very settled here and don't envisage returning to London, although I visit as often as I can to soak up some of that wonderful vibrancy