I was delighted to see Southwark councillor Alison McGovern was selected as the Labour candidate for Wirral South just before Christmas. Alison is a rising young talent in the Labour Party. She organised an excellent canvassing session for the European Elections last year in East Dulwich. I’ve had a look at the photos from that day and I couldn’t use any of the ones with Alison because she was always coming into or out of shot. She was a ball of energy taking details and sending people on to the next door, and therefore never quite captured by the camera.
Her website is very good, full of positivity and defending Labour’s record. She is also very active on twitter and has a feed letting people know what she is doing. The “tell me what you think” page is one of the best I have seen and she offers plenty of opportunities for people to let her know what they think.
Alison is a believer in electoral reform and she uses in an election year to address the issue to Liberal Democrats:
“If you live in Wirral South, you might know that traditionally the Liberal Democrats come third behind Labour and the Conservatives. So in previous elections, votes for the Liberal Democrat candidate have not had much impact on the result of the general election.I am a keen supporter of the ‘single transferable vote’ system so that people express a first and second preference, rather than just put a cross against one candidate
This would mean that in areas like Wirral South, where voters are aware that their first choice candidate is unlikely to win, they can still choose between supporting either of the larger parties as a second choice.
I think it encourages people to vote, as there would be no wasted votes, and also would mean that the chosen MP would have support from a majority of their constituents.
But for this general election, I hope that Liberal Democrat voters who don’t want a Tory Government will consider voting for me to ensure that David Cameron doesn’t become prime minister by default.”
I couldn’t put it better myself.
