It has been a busy election season for me, and even though we've been going as a party for nearly 5 years the first time operating at more than one level at the same time. A typical week saw me talking to voters in the tower blocks of East Manchester, doing a press call for the North West Euro region and going down to London to help out with Lambeth leafleting.
Once again, I stood in the council elections for Manchester in the Ancoats and Clayton ward. Really untypically this is the 3rd time we have fought this ward within 9 months! The end of 2013 saw 2 by-elections as well as the regular election this May.
A lot of the issues we deal with play out on the big stage – net neutrality in the European Parliament, mass surveillance taking in the whole globe. But there is nothing like council politics to see why transparency and democratic engagement are vital.