Congratulations to Peter Welch…

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Congratulations to Peter Welch…

By Stephen Tall | Fri 23rd January 2009 - 7:51 pm

Follow @stephentall

… on being selected as Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for Southend West, the seat of David Amess (the chicken-runner from Basildon).

Peter is a Lib Dem blogger, formerly with Liberal Review (in many ways the precursor to LDV), and latterly at his own Eastern/European blog.

The Southend Echo reports:

The Liberal Democrats have appointed Peter Welch to contest the Southend West seat. The party believes he will bring wide experience of politics at national and international level to a parliamentary seat they have always had hopes of winning.

Mr Welch said: “I am enormously pleased to be part of a team which is battling hard for the residents of the town. There is a very strong Liberal Democrat tradition in Southend West and it is a privilege to be taking that forward.”

In 1997, the Lib Dems were just 2,615 votes behind the Tories; at the last election, the Lib Dems were runners-up, with 24% of the vote to Mr Amess’s 46%.

Good luck, Peter!

Read more by Stephen Tall or more about peter welch or southend.
This entry was posted in News and Selection news.

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4 Comments

Peter Welch 23rd Jan '09 - 8:11pm

Stephen

Thanks for all these kind words. I’m in the middle of entering an enormous sheaf of survey forms into Liberty Research – reading this was quite a welcome distraction, as well as a surprise.

Southend West is a seat with a great Liberal tradition – and a lot of potential. Campaigning visitors are always welcome!

I’m blogging on yet another blog now “A campaign diary” (address above).

See you in Harrogate hopefully…

PS: personally I try to avoid mentioning chicken runs or cake 😉
Alix 23rd Jan '09 - 9:39pm

Congratulations, Peter! This is great news. Lucky old Southend West. I’ll check the train times…
Tottenham Observer 23rd Jan '09 - 10:01pm

If he is to do well here then he needs to stop messing around in unwinnable Lib Dem wards like Seven Sisters in Tottenham.
Peter Welch 23rd Jan '09 - 10:50pm

TO: amusing comment. I used to live in Seven Sisters (many years ago), and wanted to get back there for the recent by-election. Sadly I couldn’t make it. Will do so at some stage though. I guess you are a Flock Together reader…

Alix: Thanks (There are lots of trains, so I look forward to seeing you. About a tenner for a day return.)