Setting out on a tour of the Region!

 Tomorrow I begin a 10 day tour of the Region in which I am standing for election to the European Parliament. The tour is being dubbed 'the listening tour', because I will primarily be listening to the views and experiences of constituents all over the Region. I need to hear the views of more area residents so that I can help them more effectively when elected.

 

 I feel too many people in the Eastern Region have not been listened to by politicians. I hope to learn from this tour about the aspirations and concerns of folk all over this great and large area from Peterborough to Southend, and from Hemel Hempstead to Great Yarmouth… Especially, I hope to hear of people's experiences of the financial crisis and of the rising cost of living.

 

 I start by visiting Diss (South Norfolk) tomorrow morning, to meet people at the market and to listen to the concerns and needs of small business-people, including those who run cafes such as Amandine's and the Angel Café, establishments which endeavour to source food locally and to work as ethically as possible. In the afternoon, I will move on to Mid-Suffolk, to look at affordable housing projects and to hear from the builders about their work to create local and green jobs.

 

 Over the weekend, I will spend time with the Green Party Councillors and the people of Watford in Herts. On Monday 19^th, I visit St. Alban's to engage in a listening-exercise on the doorsteps alongside members of St. Alban's Green Party. On Wednesday 21^st, I will be visiting Cambridge and Hitchin (East Herts) where I will be meeting with community leaders, small business-people and shoppers to discuss the economic downturn. I will back in Norwich on 22^nd Jan. for a Council Committee meeting. On Friday 23^rd I will visit Welwyn Garden City to look at a site threatened by inappropriate development and consider alternative options for Welwyn to both retain its character and flourish economically. On the 24^th I will be travelling to Colchester and Wivenhoe to meet with fellow Green Party members and talk with local people there. On Sunday 25^th Jan. I will visit Ipswich to doorknock there and speak with local residents, and in the evening I travel to Beccles (in Waveney District) to address a public meeting, at which I will be speaking about what I have learnt over the last 10 days. Finally, that night, I will return to Norwich once again.

 

It may be tiring, but I am convinced that it will be worth it!... I am really looking forward to listening to what the people of Eastern Region have to say about our current economic predicament, and to talk with them about how we might best get out of it in a way that actually works, and doesn't just land us all soon into another maybe-even-worse crisis…