General Election campaign watch — Friday 10 April

By Hackney Citizen | Friday 10 April 2015 at 13:48
Ballot_Boxes_creative_commons_Anthony_Karanja

Ballot boxing begins. Photograph: Anthony Karanja (Creative Commons)

Nominations for the General Election closed yesterday and the campaigning has begun in earnest. Check in with the Citizen over the next four weeks for weekly round-ups on what candidates have been up to in their attempts to secure your vote.

Hackney North & Stoke Newington

Stoke Newington reservoir

Stoke Newington reservoir. Photograph: London Wildlife Trust

Diane Abbott (Labour) has been out campaigning in Stoke Newington and helping Labour campaigns in Brent and Hampstead. Abbott has also been on a ‘Political Blind Date’ organised by the Guardian, where she was paired with the Conservative MP for Penrith and the Border, Rory Stewart.

Simon de Deney (Liberal Democrat) has taken a “new approach” to political campaigning and written and filmed a poem inspired by Maya Angelou’s ‘And I Still Rise’.

De Deney describes ‘Hackney Rise’ as “an appeal to register, to vote and to get involved in politics”. You can hear him recite the poem in his film here. 

Amy Gray (Conservative) has voiced her support for cycling campaign group Hackney People on Bikes and its petition against the route of the proposed cycle superhighway. Gray and the parliamentary candidate for Hackney South and Shoreditch, Jack Tinley, recently braved the rain on a visit to chat to stallholders at Chatsworth Road market. 

Heather Finlay (Green Party) has endorsed the Migrant Manifesto, visited the Kurdish Community Centre and met with residents at market stalls over the weekend.

Keith Fraser (UKIP) has called for the introduction of English language proficiency tests at border control. That way, says Fraser, “if any potential immigrants fail we can say: ‘See you later, fella’.” Fraser also asked why schools were wasting taxpayers money on funding bilingual dictionaries for children who only speak English as an additional language.

The UKIP candidate also had a dig at the incumbent, Diane Abbott, when he tweeted:

The other candidates for Hackney North are :

Jonathan Silberman (Communist League)

Jon Homan (Animal Welfare Party)

 

Hackney South and Shoreditch

shoreditch aerial shot

Shoreditch

Meg Hillier (Labour) has vowed to continue championing safe cycling if she is re-elected in May. She praised Hackney Council’s cycling app as a great platform for cyclists to discuss issues and voice concerns.

Hillier also joined Labour councillors at a building site for new social housing, where she tweeted:

Ben Mathis (Liberal Democrat) has been calling for urgent action on air pollution. Running with the slogan “Boris jokes, Hackney chokes”, Mathis wore an industrial dust mask to make his point.

He said: “It used to be that protective masks like I’m wearing today were just something for cycle couriers and over-cautious tourists. But if councils and Mayor [of London] Boris Johnson don’t take the situation seriously, the increase in particulates and polluting gases like Nitrogen Dioxide will mean masks become more and more necessary.”

ben_air_quality_

Ben Mathis in his mask.

Jack Tinley (Conservative) has organised a sleep-out to take place tonight (10 April) in the grounds of St John’s Church in Hoxton to raise awareness for the homeless.

Tinley has spoken out against the incumbent, Labour’s Meg Hillier, for a statement on her campaign leaflet that reads: “Don’t let the Tory/Lib Dem Government rob people of their right to register to vote”.

Tinley called the leaflet “frankly outrageous”, saying: “As far as I am aware, every major party is committed to increasing voter turnout. To somehow imply that the current Government wants to take away people’s right to vote is a lie and bad for democracy.”

Responding to Jack Tinley’s accusations, Hiller said: “Whilst we appreciate Mr Tinley’s alarm, it has to be said that this is the fault of his own party which changed the rules for people to register to vote, leaving many people being left off the new register in Hackney, running into thousands of people across the UK.

“This has been verified. Does Mr Tinley not know about what his own party has been doing?”

Tinley also showed where his football loyalties lie in this recent tweet:

 

Charlotte George (Green Party) has kicked off her campaign with a video  ‘Politics is Grey: Vote Green’. She joined the Green Party candidate for Hackney North, Heather Finlay, in a visit to the Kurdish Community Centre. The Greens will be holding a Ceilidh dance night on 17 April.

George also made a video appeal to Russell Brand, a resident in Hackney South and well-known ‘anti-voter’, urging him to change his mind and vote for the Greens.

Brian Debus (TUSC) launched Hackney’s TUSC campaign yesterday with an event at CLR James Library in Dalston. Today (Friday 10) Debus attended the TUSC’s manifesto launch at Canary Wharf to demand “bailouts for the 99% not the super-rich 1%.”

Gordon Shrigley (Project for an unidentified political object) officially opened the campaign room this week at IMT Gallery, 201 Cambridge Heath Road and launched his website.

The other candidates for Hackney South are:

Angus Small (UKIP)

Russell Higgs (Independent)

Taiwo Adewuyi (Christian People’s Alliance)

Paul Birch (Cannabis is Safer than Alcohol)

Bill Rogers (Workers’ Revolutionary Party)

Total
0
Shares
Share 0
Tweet 0
Pin it 0
Share 0