Tonight, I had the great honour of being selected by members of the Keighley constituency to contest the next general election as their Parliamentary Candidate.
After a ten-minute speech, the members grilled me extensively for nigh on 40 minutes about plans and priorities for the forthcoming campaign. I think I gave a good account of myself and was thrilled when the “gathered throng” voted for me unanimously.
In 2005, we did very well, increasing our vote, increasing our share of the vote, and beating the national leader of the neo-Nazi BNP into fourth place.
This time round the battle is going to be even tougher.
Labour’s Anne Cryer is standing down, and the party’s in meltdown nationally.
The Tories are desperate to win, Keighley is 92nd on their target list, and they MUST win the seat if they hope to form the next government.
Our job is to stop them.
Funnily enough, it was an event on this day in 1976 that inspired me to finally join the Liberal Party having been a schoolboy supporter for a couple of years. Peter Hain who was then the leader of the Young Liberals was cleared of an obvious “fit-up” charge of robbing a branch of Barclays Bank. Peter’s family had left South Africa ten years previously because of their opposition to apartheid, and it was more than likely that South African agents may have used a “double” to frame him.
Anyway, back to tonight, in this blog, I want to keep you up to date on the campaign in Keighley and give you a chance to get to know me and what I stand for a little bit better.
Thanks Keighley, and thanks to you for reading.
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