Tory MP for Bridgwater and West Somerset,Ian Lidell-Grainger, is well known for going to ground during General Election campaigns. It’s almost as if the Conservatives didn’t want people to meet him. This week the newspapers are full of ‘ILG shuns debate’ . The Right Honourable Ian himself says “No I will not be taking part in public debates. I haven’t done them since 2001 and I won’t be doing them this time either”. However, Labour’s candidate Wes Hinckes thinks this is a shame and so has invited his Tory rival to meet him anywhere he likes at a place of his choosing, whether it’s for a walk around Bridgwater to see what’s really going on or just for a ‘nice cup of tea’ in one of the many cafes in the town.
Wes says “Democracy only really works if people can talk to the people who are supposed to represent them. How else can we have our say and how else can people be understood. It begins by listening and it works by talking. Come on Ian, let’s talk about it.”
Wes We Can
Wes, District Councillor for Bridgwater Hamp, is planning to attend every meeting he is invited to as well as knocking on doors across the constituency to talk to people about the issues that matter to them and getting out onto the streets with other Labour members to discuss why he believes he can win in this area despite the odds.
At the last election the Tories and UKIP were the two leading contestants locally but since the EU Referendum and the Tory acceptance of a ‘hard Brexit’ position UKIP has disappeared leaving a new set of choices for voters in a post Brexit world.
Town Leaders Support
Bridgwater Town Council Labour Leader Brian Smedley said “Labour has a strong local government base to build on in this part of Somerset and a proud history. The Lib Dems only hope is to con people into thinking they are the ‘tactical vote’ but that’s simply not true. For every one councillor they have on Town we have 14, for their one on district we have 10 and on County we’re 2.1 ahead. But we also know that Lib Dems when given the chance of power are simply not an alternative to the Tories. In fact in order to gain a little bit of power in 2010 they just put the Tories back into government and ditched their own principles to do that for pretty much no gain. We can defeat Liddell-Grainger by the voters rallying around the Labour candidate and by the many people who don’t turn out at elections actually getting out there and voting Labour. And this time the consequences of not doing so are more serious than ever.”