Each week a different PPC provides us with an insight into life as a candidate and gives us a flavour of their own campaign and interests. If you are a candidate and are keen to be featured, please email Jonathan Isaby.
This week’s diary is written by George Lee, who was selected in March 2009 for Holborn and St Pancras, where he is challenging for Cabinet Minister, Frank Dobson. Born in Hong Kong, George came to the UK as a child and served in the police for seventeen years, and was the first Chinese officer to reach the rank of Inspector. Since then he has worked as a management consultant and served as executive Vice President at T-Mobile. Read more about him and his campaign on his website.
We were out canvassing in the Brunswick Estate in Bloomsbury. The area is not natural Tory territory but as in other parts of the constituency we get positive reception. I am followed by a London-based Chinese TV crew. Our campaign has been blessed with excellent support from the Chinese community and my aim is to encourage them to become more active in politics. Part of the reason I’m entering politics, as with my service in the MoD and the Metropolitan Police, is because I want to break the mould of traditional expectations and show that we are not all quiet, studious types who don’t speak out or integrate with our neighbours. If I can raise our profile as committed British citizens who make a valuable contribution to society, I’ll be very happy.
Mid-way through the morning I attended the flower laying ceremony at the Ghandi memorial in Tavistock Square with the Indian High Commissioner and Foreign Affairs Minister. During the ceremony I wondered what Ghandi would have made of the 7/7 bombings on the square and the current revelations at the Iraq War Inquiry.
Sunday 31st January
Spend the day telephone canvassing from home. We were incredibly lucky that Geneva [the CCHQ call centre] agreed to canvass the whole constituency before Christmas and results were excellent. We are now sweeping up numbers that Geneva had not been able to get an answer. Canvassing from home, especially on a Sunday, allows me to spend the day with my wife and two children.
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