Simon Williams, the Green Party's parliamentary candidate for Brighton Kemp Town constituency in the General Election, is writing a weekly web diary or ‘blog’ of his election campaign as it takes shape over the next few weeks in the marginal Labour-held constituency.

Williams is a Green city councillor on Brighton and Hove Council and is the only gay candidate standing for a mainstream party in Brighton Kemp Town which is thought to have one of the largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) populations in the country.

The ‘blog’ is the first of the mainstream parties to be launched for the constituency and he’ll be updating the ‘blog’ at least once a week.  He’s been piloting the blog and developing content on a fortnightly basis since December.  However he intends to move to a daily ‘blog’ once the general election is officially called in the spring.

Greens are now serious contenders throughout Brighton and Hove’s three parliamentary constituencies and they expect to build on their success in last year’s European Parliament elections where they beat Labour across the entire city and comfortably won the neighbouring Brighton Pavilion constituency with more than 27% of the vote.

 “The idea behind my weblog, which is an on-line campaign diary, is to allow voters to see what it's like to be a candidate, how we campaign and engage with people and what we believe in,” said Williams.

“Visitors can log on and find out what issues I’m raising and learn about the people I'm meeting.  Every parliamentary candidate should have a blog as it helps to make candidates more accountable and accessible to voters.

“As the only gay candidate for Brighton Kemp Town, I hope to reach out to the many LGBT voters in east Brighton who understandably feel disappointed by traditional party politics and who are fed up with being taken for granted by New Labour and the other big parties.  Many especially resent the way New Labour drags it feet on virtually every legal equality measure – often being forced into change by Europe.

“Many in the LGBT community are also concerned about the deteriorating environment, especially the threat of climate change and many still resent the cruel and illegal war against Iraq.  They’re also worried about the threat to health services in the city – especially cuts to HIV prevention services – and many are disappointed with the poor performance of the Labour City Council on ‘bread and butter’ issues such as street cleansing, recycling and its failure to reassure the community over hate crime.

“Meanwhile, Brighton is one of the most expensive places to live in the country and many LGBT people work in traditionally low-paid leisure, retail and tourism industries.  They’re feeling squeezed and many have no hope of buying their own home.  I’ll be tackling these issues in my blog over the next few months,” he explained.

He added: “The Greens are, without question, the most gay-friendly political party in the country, as human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell has said.  In Brighton, it’s the Greens who are offering the real alternative to Tony Blair with our values of peace, social justice and a better environment – not the Tories or LibDems.”

“It’s believed that LGBT people have higher levels of connection to the Internet and use  e-mail more than the wider population, so I hope my blog will help to re-engage their interest in how government and politics works; these issues are too important for us to leave to others,” he concluded.

LINKS

The Simon Williams ‘blog’

16  February  2005