The selection process is an intense time for any candidate. There is, of course, a great deal of research to be done on the constituency and its needs as well as Party policy on a wide range of subjects. The Coalition government adds a further challenge: to support what we are doing in government and yet take a view on what we would be doing if we had a majority Conservative government.
Perhaps more important than policy detail is the understanding of my own values and my motivation for wishing to stand for Parliament and to represent the People of Bolton West. This is something I thought a great deal about in the run up to the selection and I continue to do so.
I come from a traditional working class background which, I believe, is under represented in Parliament. As my dad was in the army, I was born in Northern Ireland and settled in Liverpool after he finished his twenty two years’ service. My dad went into catering and my mum worked as a school dinner lady to raise me, my three brothers and sister.
I moved to Manchester nearly twenty years ago to start work for a mass spectrometer manufacturer as an engineer and I have stayed working on laboratory instrumentation since then. I initially worked for a medium sized manufacturer, then for a large pharmaceutical company and now work for a small service company based in Warrington.
Getting involved and playing sport has always been important to me and it is good to test my fitness once in a while. When I booked my place in the Wilmslow Half Marathon I didn’t realise that it would be a week after the Bolton West selection. Suffice to say that my training for the run wasn’t as focused as I would have like though I did finish in a respectable 1hr 45min.
The third great weekend in a row was Easter. I always look forward to this long weekend as a time of rest and to catch up with friends and family. As a Catholic, it is especially important to me as Good Friday and Easter Sunday are the high point of the Christian year. Having had three good weekends in a row, I am now looking forward to the campaign ahead, to win Bolton West and ensure a Conservative majority government in May 2015.