By now many Green members in the South of Scotland will have received their ballot papers for the candidate selection  for the Scottish Elections next year.

Here is my candidate statement as it appears in the ballot paper.

My political introduction came through the independence referendum when, early in the campaign, I joined Yes Clydesdale. Throughout the campaign I played an active role within the campaign team on the ground during canvassing, public events and street stalls as well as within the campaign literature regularly writing for Yes Clydesdale’s monthly magazine and helping to run the largest community page on Facebook outside of the official campaign pages.
(https://www.facebook.com/SaorAlbaGuBrath)

I particularly found a niche within the campaign on the topics of the economy, finance and energy policy and became a valued contributor through researching these topics and then sitting on panels during public meetings to take questions on them.

Having been convinced of the Green case and becoming part of the post-referendum surge it is a natural progression for me to help out in any way I can to further our goals.

As a Green MSP I shall strive to put my skills to work to help promote public engagement with and understanding in the important issues faced by our country. I am a great proponent of local and participatory democracy and would make it a goal to encourage as many people as possible to take an active part in the running of their area and to help people regularly stay in touch with their representatives so that the former can put their views across to us and make their concerns heard and so that the latter can keep people informed about ongoing debates and legislation.

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If you’re a Green in the South of Scotland considering who to select for your representatives on next years list I hope that I meet your expectations. This is the largest  candidate ballot that the Scottish Greens have ever carried out in this region and the strength of the pool of candidates is incredible. It’s going to be a tough choice for all voters but the team which we select will doubtless do the party and the country very proud indeed.