Building a base to stand in Liverpool Wavertree

DIANA RABY, branch chair and a member of the Respect National Council, is the probable parliamentary candidate for Liverpool Wavertree. She writes:

Wavertree is the seat of Blairite Labour MP Jane Kennedy who is retiring in the wake of the expenses scandal.

Her intended replacement is Luciana Berger, a Londoner with no local connections who is being parachuted in by New Labour with typical contempt for the people of Liverpool. Berger is also, like Kennedy and Louise Ellman of the neighbouring Riverside constituency, an outspoken Zionist.

The last Respect branch meeting on February 10 was addressed by two representatives of Liverpool Friends of Palestine who came along to express their concern about this development and their approval for our solid stand in favour of the rights of the Palestinian people.

As we approach the elections the major issues for Merseyside - as across the country - are the cutbacks in public services, unemployment, the outrage of the ongoing war in Afghanistan and threats of war on Iran and Yemen, the scandal of parliamentary corruption and lack of real democracy.

But there are also specific local issues such as:

• The Edge Lane motorway extension which is ripping the heart out of a solid local community;
  
  
• The opportunism of the Lib Dems who have tried to claim all the credit for saving the burns unit at Whiston hospital, when they really just jumped on the bandwagon;
  
  
• New Labour's imposition of a right-wing outsider as candidate.