Jenny Wilkinson (age 49) has been appointed as the Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (PPC) for the Kenilworth & Southam constituency at the next General Election. In accepting the role, she has outlined her intention to be more proactive in protecting the interests of constituents and helping create a brighter future for residents and businesses in the constituency.
Midlands-born Jenny, a chartered accountant who specialises in tackling fraud and corruption, brings a wealth of experience to the south Warwickshire constituency. She stood as the Liberal Democrat candidate for West Midlands Mayor in 2021 and was previously a Parliamentary Candidate in Sutton Coldfield. Outside of politics, she is a mum to three boys and is actively involved in the community as a charity trustee and school governor.
Commenting on her appointment, Jenny said, "I am delighted to have been selected to represent the Liberal Democrats in Kenilworth & Southam. I am already meeting with and listening to residents across the constituency and will continue to work with individuals, community groups and businesses to build a brighter future for us all.
"We are living through the most challenging times and people across our towns and villages need a strong voice to stand up for them and represent their interests. It took Jeremy Wright more than two weeks to issue a bland, non-committal statement about the 'party-gate' fines and the lies of the Prime Minister, urging us all to continue to wait for the Sue Gray report. In the meantime, his Conservative Government is devising inhumane and costly proposals to send asylum-seekers to Rwanda, while spectacularly failing to adequately respond to the cost-of-living crisis and climate emergency.
"With local election results across England showing the Liberal Democrats gaining 192 additional councillors, contrasting with significant losses for the Conservatives, it is clear that voters are ready for a change."
John Kelly, chairman of the Kenilworth & Southam constituency selection committee said: "Congratulations to Jenny on her appointment and commiserations to the other candidates. I'd also like to thank Councillor Richard Dickson who represented the Party in the last three General Elections, coming second in 2019 and re-establishing the Liberal Democrats as the principal challengers to the Conservatives in Kenilworth & Southam."
Updates on Jenny's activity can be found on either her Facebook page 'Jenny Wilkinson - Liberal Democrat' - @jennywilkinsonlibdem - or on Twitter as @jennywlibdem.
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'Judge Softly' a poet wrote more than 100 years ago. Words that are still appropriate now.
According to Warwick District Council data, 17% of our local population is classified at non-'White British'. So this week's report from the Commission on Race & Ethnic Disparities is very relevant to our area.
The Commission was set up by our government in response to the Black Lives Matter activities last summer after the murder of George Floyd in the USA. It was asked to review how factors such as poverty, education, employment and health impact different ethnic groups in Britain.
The report has been published in the week when Derek Chauvin is on trial in the USA for the murder of George Floyd and a Police Officer in London has been charged with being a member of a far-right extremist organisation. Also, it coincides with the departure of Samuel Kasumu, the Prime Minister's Special Adviser on ethnic minorities, without his replacement being announced. Even the Church of England has this year been accused by more than 100 of its own clergy for its racist action towards one of its own employees.
The report says that family structure and social class had a bigger impact than race on people's life chances. That may be true.
It says racial discrimination has often been misapplied to "account for every disparity" between ethnic groups. Also possibly true.
And it says that references to racism in the UK being "institutional" or "structural" have sometimes been used without sufficient evidence. Wow, it would be surprising if this hadn't happened.
But all of this misses the point. Instead we should be asking ourselves why are there so many Black and Asian children in poverty? Why is there an over-representation of Black and mixed-race people in prison? Why are our courts, company boards and our councils dominated by white people? And why has COVID had a disproportionate impact on ethnic minority communities and our vaccination programme fallen short in vaccinating members of these communities?
2) end disproportionate use of Stop and Search, and
3) develop a proper Race Equality Strategy.
But above all else we should learn to see things through the eyes of others. Instead of focussing on the acronym of BAME, perhaps we should focus on PWER, People Who Experience Racism. Because if someone experiences racism, it matters not one jot whether it's intentional or systemic, to the recipient it's still discrimination based on race and ethnicity and it has a negative impact.
As the poet wrote, if we walked in the mocassins of others, if we experienced life the way others do, then perhaps we'd see the world differently and act accordingly.
