I'm not complaining about his attempt to engage with the students, but rather about his complete failure to engage with any of the other residents in this ward. Even though there are a lot of students in Swaythling, they're still the minority. The part of the ward I live in is predominantly working class with a fair proportion of social housing - fairly rich potential for a Labour candidate - yet I saw *no* election material from Labour.
It's clear that the local Labour party consider this ward to be a lost hope. I'm a little disappointed that they chose to select a single-issue (and dare I say lame duck) candidate; it's just not the good way to encourage the electorate to vote for you.
I'm appalled that Wilson's Facebook election poster wasn't vetted or proofread by anyone from the local party. Yes, he's trying to engage with students rather than ranting in the Echo. As a recent former SU president, I'd expect him to be both student-friendly, and have a good understanding of the local issues that affect students. However, his Facebook election poster was incredibly student-centric, and quite dismissive of anyone else in the local community:
Better student accommodation when you leave halls? Yes, but why not phrase this as a campaign to improve the standard of rented accommodation in general?
Affordable housing for after you graduate? Why should graduates have any special treatment over that received by other prospective homeowners? There's a general issue of affordable homes, but this struck me as a pretty elitist take on the matter. Also, how many Southampton graduates actually stay in the city after they graduate?
End the blame culture [directed at students]. Yes, but you don't do this by pointing the finger at the local youths and claiming that they have nothing better to do than beat up students.
As I said above, I've also a bit disappointed that he chose not to respond to the questions I put to him via Facebook. clarehooper received a response soon after sending her mail, mine remained unanswered; given the state of his election materials, and the line he was taking on Facebook, I have to ask myself if that was because I identified myself as a non-student.
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zvi and
no subject
Date: 2007-05-05 05:12 pm (UTC)I'm not complaining about his attempt to engage with the students, but rather about his complete failure to engage with any of the other residents in this ward. Even though there are a lot of students in Swaythling, they're still the minority. The part of the ward I live in is predominantly working class with a fair proportion of social housing - fairly rich potential for a Labour candidate - yet I saw *no* election material from Labour.
It's clear that the local Labour party consider this ward to be a lost hope. I'm a little disappointed that they chose to select a single-issue (and dare I say lame duck) candidate; it's just not the good way to encourage the electorate to vote for you.
I'm appalled that Wilson's Facebook election poster wasn't vetted or proofread by anyone from the local party. Yes, he's trying to engage with students rather than ranting in the Echo. As a recent former SU president, I'd expect him to be both student-friendly, and have a good understanding of the local issues that affect students. However, his Facebook election poster was incredibly student-centric, and quite dismissive of anyone else in the local community:
As I said above, I've also a bit disappointed that he chose not to respond to the questions I put to him via Facebook.