Julia Cambridge PPC Interview in AD LIB Magazine
Since the age of five, Julia Cambridge has been politically active. In 2012 Julia, decided the time was right to put her best foot forward. She signed up to the leadership programme and was subsequently selected as a candidate for Chesterfield.
"Finding out that I had been selected was a surreal moment. When something happens in your life that had been an ambition for so long and suddenly it becomes reality you feel stunned. However I pinched myself, woke up and wore the biggest smile of gratitude. It wasn't a feeling of immediate achievement but more about what I felt I could achieve in the future.
"Chesterfield is an easy place to love. I've been proud to stand alongside community leaders and fight for the concerns of residents. Recently nearly 5,000 people signed a petition against the Labour run Borough Council closing one of two town leisure centres and re-opening it as a much smaller sports centre down the road on an open sports field. The new centre would also be run with money from a local college and facilities would be shared. People simply didn't want this shared usage and downgrading of their community centre. Many letters and articles to the local paper, protests, exchanges with the council leader, petitions later, the wishes of local residents have been ignored and it is heading for full planning. On the evening of the planning meeting I will be outside the town hall shoulder to shoulder with the Save Our Leisure Centre Campaign to make our protest known.
"Aside from the big campaigns, a 'normal' day can include visiting local businesses to talk about the challenges and opportunities they are offering, and getting around Chesterfield to spend time with people like Dawn who I recently met when her worried neighbour and friend got one of my resident's surveys through her door. Dawn suffers from server epilepsy and had been put in a 'Back to Work' club and told to apply for volunteer positions but not tell them about her condition. It was a pleasure to meet her and her neighbour who is a foster carer. Through talking to her we ended up collaborating on a piece for the local paper highlighting Fostering in Derbyshire. Dawn is now much happier and I am keeping in touch.
"I speak to hundreds of voters each week in Chesterfield about how they view the UK's political outlook. It is a mixed bag of 'this country to going to the dogs' to 'well we are doing OK and it could be worse.' The fact is it could be worse if we head back to a majority Labour Government and with it all the economic mayhem we have had to clear up this Parliament, or a Tory win and all the pain that will bring for the lowest paid and vulnerable.
"I would urge people within the party to push for policies that continue to shrink the gap between rich and poor. The cost of living is central to peoples quality of life and we must look to help the real people we represent."
This interview appears in the January 2014 issue of AD LIB magazine. To read more about this brand new publication for Liberal Democrats, including information on how to subscribe, please visit their website by clicking here.