LETTER: Vote for the party that best represents you

Perhaps it is why, and properly so, that more people are voting, with higher than normal turnouts in the General Elections of 2015 and 2017, and proudly so, in the referendum 2016.

This interest is set to rise. Mansfield now has a Conservative in MP Ben Bradley so, and not before time, ending the “red rose on a donkey” era. 
Change and choice I believe was the key to this new found interest, which included a surge in UKIP’S vote. The Conservatives know they will have to be seen to work hard for Mansfield if they are to have any chance of holding the seat at the next General Election, whenever that is.

Mr Bradley is enjoying early recognition within the party, deservedly so. 
He is articulate, visible and keen, in my view attributes that could not be said of Sir Alan Meale, the previous Labour MP, over his 30 years.

So Labour, for the first time ever, have a real fight to win Mansfield and its people back.

I predict much infighting in Labour’s process of choosing a candidate. 
Mr Bradley is young, ambitious and almost local. 
Labour’s candidate will have to match this, and the local branch has people who can. Don’t forget it is the local branch which chooses. 
But I believe that Labour will do the normal trick and bring in an outsider. Indeed John Prescott’s son has been mentioned. 
Does Labour really think Mansfield needs a Westminster elite-trained candidate?

We will have to see who the branch adopts, but in the end it will be the people of Mansfield who will decide, a decision made a little easier since I will not be standing for UKIP.

From my short but enjoyable time in politics, it has become increasingly obvious only an MP from the winning party is of any value, as it is the Government which decides how to distribute monies/grants, and it is your MP who has to win it.

Please continue to vote, weigh up the options and your choices, that is what elections are about. 
Vote for the party that best represents you, ignore the arguments that if you vote one way it will allow another party to win. It is the measurement of your vote, in the end, that will change politics in this country.

Sid Pepper

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