I READ the article concerning potential candidates for Leigh's future MP on the front page of last week's Journal.

It was of great concern to hear of the potential for so many people from outside of the area standing for selection. This has nothing to do with any particular political party but is about the potential effect for Leigh and its voters.

Leigh strives to be seen and represented as a community with people representing the views of the local electorate. Virtually every week one reads in the local papers of "Wigan and Leigh".

We are LEIGH and anyone who is selected by any of the parties to stand for election as our next MP should be at Westminster to represent the local electorate.

In order to properly represent local people the potential candidate should be someone who really knows the local area and not the general locality. In the ideal world the person chosen should already be working and living locally. They should be involved with the local community and preferably would already be involved with the local branches of their respective political parties.

With this in mind I ask both the local party branches and the people of Leigh to make themselves heard and not let people from outside of the area pressure us voters in to accepting a candidate that will not be able to truly understand and represent LEIGH in Westminster. Remember, it's our future, so speak out now before it's too late.

John O'Brien

Moreton Drive

Pennington

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.