It’s the general election in May here in Blighty, so last night we travelled to the West Oxford Community Centre to listen to Dr Helen Salisbury outline her plans for the big day when it dawns.
Dr Salisbury is an engaging individual with an obvious passion for the National Health Service. She’s standing as a candidate for the National Health Action Party for the Oxford West & Abingdon constituency. She is a doctor of medicine.
This is a marginal seat. Nicola Blackwood won it at the last general election from the Liberal Democrats, in 2010, with a very slender majority indeed. Dr Salisbury believes that all of the three main English parties have an interest in an NHS being “run down” and “sold off”, and she wants an end to privatisation, the price finance initiative (PFI) scheme and TTIP.
Dr Salisbury is far from oblivious to splitting the vote in the marginal – but as an outsider, or rather a voter in this constituency, I can see her taking votes away from the Liberal Democrats and the Labour Party and so helping to put incumbent Nicola Blackwood back in place as the standing MP. You can find the National Health Action Party here. ♠
