Hazel Must Go! Public Meeting with Martin Bell
Posted in Democracy by Salford Youth Council - Sep 17, 2009
Salford Youth Council members met Martin Bell at a public meeting organised by the Hazel Must Go! campaign last night.
The former anti-corruption MP and BBC Correspondent had been invited to the event in Eccles to share his experience of standing as an Independent candidate and engaged in a lively (and at times heated!) debate with members of the local community.
The campaign intends to propose alternatives to reelecting current Salford MP Hazel Blears at the next election and is calling for her to stand down, claiming people have lost confidence in her ability to serve Salford following on from the expenses scandal and failure to improve the lives of local people.
Nadine spoke about how local youth services are deteriorating, blaming a widespread culture of mis-management and lack of investment in quality services for children and young people. Alex expressed her views on party politics as a young person growing up in Britain today, and co-chair David Henry highlighted the reasons for apathy amongst younger voters who feel under-represented and confused by the electoral system.
After the meeting we also got a chance to quiz Martin Bell and members from a variety of political parties including the local Labour Party (including a number of Hazel Blears supporters), Councillor Norman Owen of the Liberal Democrats, Richard Carvath (Independent), the Socialist and Socialist Workers Party, RESPECT and the Green Party. We couldn’t find any Conservatives (although Cllr Iain Lindley stated on his twitter page this evening that he doesn’t see this campaign as “helping the people of Salford”) and not surprisingly the BNP were also no where to be seen!
Towards the end of what was a very packed out evening of discussions and speakers there were a number of public votes on proposals for taking the campaign forward. We were particulary supportive of the campaign’s proposal to engage with young people and reinnovgorate their interest in local politics.
You can watch an exclusive video interview with Martin Bell here.
Salford Youth Council is an indepedent, grass-routes youth organisation run by and young people. We are non-party political and do not endorse any particular political organisation or candidate. We aim to engage young people in local democracy and provide opportunities for our peers to get involved in the decision making process.
