One week into 2018, it’s slowly dawning on me that I may have bitten off more than I can chew when it comes to the extracurricular activities I’ve signed up to this year.
As in previous years, I’m likely to spend a lot of 2018 campaigning with Bournville Labour. This May, there are all-out elections in Birmingham. Bournville Ward has been divided into two wards. This means we’ll be splitting our time between a one member ward in Stirchley (where our current Labour councillor, Mary Locke, is standing) and the new ward of Bournville and Cotteridge.
While campaigning in both Wards will require significantly more work, I’m really excited about the prospect of doing more campaigning this year in my home neighbourhood of Bournville. I’m also really proud of the quality of our candidates, Liz Clements (@LizClements) and Fred Grindrod (@fredgrindrod).
I’ve campaigned alongside Liz since 2015 and she’s probably the hardest working campaigner I’ve ever met. In May 2017, Liz was elected as a councillor in Hall Green. Throughout the General Election, Liz was a tireless champion of the Labour Manifesto. Even better, she is committed to public services which put people over profits and wants to bring an end to the outsourcing of public services.
I’ve not known Fred as long as Liz but already he’s impressed me with his dedication to campaigning and core Labour values. Like Liz, Fred lives in Bournville. Fred comes from a trade unionist background and, like Liz, has an excellent grasp of policy (like me, he also used to work in equalities) . Fred connects with local people on the doorstep and speaks with passion about the impact Tory cuts are having on the most vulnerable members of our society and what we need to do to change things. I’m proud to be campaigning for him.
As well as leafleting and door knocking, I’ll once again be volunteering my digital skills. Here are the key social media accounts to follow:
Francis Clarke 