General Election 2015
I recently completed a 5 day reportage trip around Britain for Sweden’s largest daily morning newspaper Dagens Nyheter together with their London correspondent Pia Gripenberg.
Brighton – The Green Party
We went to the Hanover the Green heartland area in Brighton affectionately known as ‘Muesli Mountain’ and spoke with local residents about their opinions of The Green Party. We also met with Jason Kitcat leader of the Council & Convenor of the Green Group.
Ramsgate, Broadstairs & Deal – UKIP & The Conservatives
It is difficult to interview anybody from UKIP at their campaign offices as everyone has been told by their headquarters not to speak to the media. The main story in Ramsgate was not UKIP itself but its former deputy leader Craig Mackinlay who in 2005 defected from UKIP to the Conservative Party and was now their candidate for South Thanet against Nigel Farage who is also standing for election in South Thanet. We met up with Craig as he was door knocking in the St Peter’s district of Broadstairs.
We also met with local film-maker Christine Tongue at the newspaper Thanet Watch which is a monthly independent investigative magazine that keeps a critical eye on events in Thanet. Further down the Kent coast in Deal we met with UKIP supporters in one of Nigel Farage’s favourite pubs.
Annan & Glencaple – The Scottish Nationalist Party
We met with nurse and SNP candidate Emma Harper and her campaign manager Robertson Wellen and followed them canvassing in Annan and Glencaple. Emma is a Candidate for the district of Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale & Tweeddale.
The interesting story about this district is that its current MP David Mundell is the only Conservative MP representing a Scottish constituency, Emma used her maiden SNP conference speech to highlight the fact that she is the nurse who will kick the last Tory MP out of Scotland.
Carlisle – The Labour Party
In Carlisle we met with Labour’s candidate Lee Sherriff at her campaign shopfront office and then followed her when she went out door knocking. There has never been a female MP in Cumbria and single mum of three and would-be Labour MP Lee Sherriff hopes to change that on May 7th.
Video taken on the English-Scottish border in the Northumberland National Park
