Talks with Andrew, Labour Counciller

I knew at some point a very valuable contact would be a friend from back home where I'm from in Workington, Cumbria. Andrew has been a Labour councillor for a few years now and was also the Mayor of my town. To get the point of view of a politician on the themes I've talked about was always going to be helpful; on that note it's worth mentioning I did also attempt to contact other more prominent politicians such as Jeremy Corbyn with no success. Nevertheless Andrew's response was fantastic, I'm thankful for his engagement and I'm pleased he's drawn upon issues I've noticed in my research. Here's the full email correspondence:

Hi Declan,

See my views on what you asked below:

In 2008 I started to pay more attention to what was happening in politics, who was making decisions for me and why, which eventually led me to join the only party that believes in equality and social justice for all; the Labour Party. Upon joining Labour in 2009 I started campaigning on local and national issues in the run up to the 2010 General Election, not Labour's finest hour.

My views on how we vote in national, EU and local elections are simple; how we vote is outdated. In 2015 we still expect people to go to the voting station and vote using a paper and pen? That is fine for people who choose to do that, like the elderly and disabled but we should be opening the options for voting much wider.

Take the view that young people are not engaged in politics and simply "can't be bothered to vote". Doesn't it make sense in a 21st century democracy to allow secure online voting? Political parties Labour and Conservative's use it for their own internal party elections so why not all UK & EU elections? It's my view that the current Government will never allow this to happen because it will rightly increase voter turn out among young people, whom are traditionally left wing; not ideal for the Tories.

I do, however believe that there should be more than one option for voting, not everyone can use a computer or feels comfortable using one. We currently let people vote by a postal ballot. We could use that as a second option and the third being the traditional way of voting. Having 3 options for voting in elections would increase democratic engagement and give the people a better say in how our country is run.

Councillor Andrew Lawson
Labour, St. Michael's Ward