Election Campaign Diary Day One

Well yesterday was the first full 24 hour period of being selected as the prospective parliamentary candidate for Linlithgow and East Falkirk. So while I wasn't blogging I was busy with other stuff online which may to a casual observer seem trivial are none the less vitally important.

For example no longer am I merely a politico who blogs, I am a parliamentary candidate that blogs so certain subtle changes to my online presences had to be made to keep everything open, honest and legal.

One of the highlights for me in the first 24 hours was after letting the wider world know that I had been selected once again to contest this seat for the Scottish Liberal Democrats to find that when I went to Wikipedia to edit the constituency page that somebody had already beaten me to it. That is something that hadn't happened 5 years ago, much of the online presence outwith the party websites was promoted by myself.

There are, if we are facing a May 6th election only 48 days (and as I type at the Deer Park roundabout 10 minutes) until the polls open. Of course it is not that I haven't been doing nothing in the last 5 years. I have been attending public meetings, knocking on doors and talking to local people about local issues in the constituency, then taking these up with the relevant representative. Anyone who lives in the constituency and wants to ask me a question can either email me at stephen4linlithgow at gmail dot com [correct the anti spamming yourself] or as some did last night ask me a question through my Twitter ID either a DM or an @stephenpglenn.

This is one election where no party is able to take the people for granted. Many of our politicians made sure of that over the revelations of recent months. The Liberal Democrats had campaigned for openness in Government and in the summer of 2008 had voted for changes to the expenses system ahead of the mess that unravelled last summer. If elected I will continue to make sure that our politics at Westminster are properly cleaned up, not the half hearted efforts of Labour and the Conservatives when they were caught out, but giving real power back to the people.