Denise Friend — candidate for executive member

Personal statement by Denise Friend, standing for election as an executive member of Brighton Pavilion Constituency Labour Party at its annual general meeting at the Brighthelm Centre, North Road, Brighton BN1 1YD at 10.30am on Saturday, February 4.

Denise says:

“When Jeremy Corbyn spoke about Labour creating a fair and just society, those words resonated with me and I rejoined the Party.

“As someone who works in the community, I see first hand the effects of a government that ignores the plight of some of the most vulnerable people within our society. So, I am determined to become involved in the Labour Party to help them achieve their aims and objectives in addressing poverty and inequality.

“I am putting myself forward for a position on the CLP because I want to ensure that the interests and views of all the people who live within our community are represented.

“I am particularly interested in working on reaching out to, and engaging with, under-represented groups of people and encouraging them to become involved with the Labour party.

“Because we have more in common than not, if we can unite and work together then we can be powerful and bring about change that will benefit us all.

“Originally from Bradford, I moved to London in order to find work as a designer in the advertising industry. Eventually I moved to Brighton, where I worked as a Freelance Designer and lectured part-time in Graphic Design and Advertising for a number of years.

“I have used those skills to devise/run campaigns for various grassroots organisations, which has involved designing printed campaign material and organising protests, marches and outreach events. These are skills that I believe could be useful to the Labour Party.

“For the last 18 years I have run my own business facilitating after school art workshops for children in schools throughout Brighton.

“For more than 14 years I have run art as well as healthy eating cookery workshops for children living in deprived areas of Brighton, giving ‘targeted’ children the opportunity to access workshops that are usually only available to children living in better off areas.

“I believe that all children should have the same opportunities to achieve their potential.

“Just like Jeremy, I want fair treatment for all, a fairer society and a fairer world. What is there to argue with about that?”