In a guest post for the Harborne Mile, Prospective parliamentary candidate for the Conservative Party Deirdre Alden (pictured) predicts the General Election will bring national attention to the village for her fight for the Edgbaston seat with incumbent Labour MP Gisela Stuart.
Welcome to Harborne's latest community blog! I've lived in the area for over 35 years - so I know what a great community atmosphere Harborne has. Harborne residents really care about
their area. It's attractive, buzzing, with a range of good facilities - altogether an all round great place to live.
Politically, Harborne Ward has 3 Councillors - Cllr Mike Whitby (the leader of the Council), Cllr Peter Hollingworth (a former Estate Agent in the area) and my husband, Cllr John Alden. All three are Conservatives, and all three have served the area for a long time. Mike was elected at a by-election in 1997, John was elected at a by-election in 1983, and Cllr Peter Hollingworth was elected on May 12th 1960. So this year he celebrates a record breaking 50 years of unbroken service for one ward. Quite an achievment!
Harborne is one of four wards in the Edgbaston Parliamentary Constituency. The others are Edgbaston, Quinton and Bartley Green. I've been a Councillor for Edgbaston Ward since 1999 and I am currently Chairman of the Council's Edgbaston Constituency Committee.
I'm also the Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for the area, having fought in 2005 as well, when I reduced the current Labour MP's majority to 2,349. Edgbaston is therefore a key marginal seat and doubtless the TV cameras, reporters and visiting politicians will be flocking to Harborne High Street over the coming months as it is the busiest shopping centre in the constituency.
The Edgbaston Parliamentary seat is unique in having been represented by a woman since 1953. The first lady MP was Edith Pitt (who, like me, had served as a Birmingham Councillor). After Edith's death at a relatively young age, she was followed in 1966 by Dame Jill Knight (now Baroness Knight). She too had been a Councillor - but not in Birmingham.
Jill served as the constituency's MP for 31 years before standing down in 1997. Like many seats across the country, Edgbaston was won by Labour that year and the current MP is Labour's Gisela Stuart. At recent elections the other parties have not been close contenders in this constituency, so probably the only thing you can say with certainty about the forthcoming General Election is that, with me and Gisela battling it out - whoever wins, Edgbaston will continue its tradition of electing a woman!
Deirdre Alden
Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Edgbaston
No comments:
Post a Comment