Friday, February 05, 2010

A manifesto for 'Unlock Democracy' - vote me for Council!

An incumbent member of Unlock Democracy’s Council and Management Board, professionally I am a civil servant. Outside work, I am an active Liberal Democrat, serving as Secretary of the party’s East of England Region. I first became interested in electoral systems and voter participation in the mid-eighties, and have spent the intervening years administrating and improving our internal party democracy. I live in Creeting St Peter, Suffolk, where I am a parish councillor, with my wife Ros, and two cats, Katherine and Cincinnati. My blog, ‘Liberal Bureaucracy’, is apparently the 106th most influential political blog in the UK.

I offer myself for re-election to Council because I believe deeply that our nation’s democratic structures alienate the public from those who claim to represent them. We need to encourage people to engage with those bodies that serve them, to design and promote methods to allow that.

The best way to change things is to campaign, to make the case, and to do the best we can as an organisation with the means at our disposal. The role of Council is to provide guidance to our hard-working and politically savvy staff, to help them in their work, and to develop a strategy for future campaigning that reflects the interest of members and the needs of our country.

I’m not a political scientist, or a professional campaigner, just someone who cares. I bring the financial and organisational skills of someone who has worked in financial administration for nearly a quarter-century, and the political knowhow gleaned from a similar length of time working on the nuts and bolts of internal party administration.

So, your first preference would allow me to continue, and to do my best for ‘Unlock Democracy’ and, indirectly, our country. Thank you for ‘listening’…

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