Information and links to help you decide…
With virtually all cycling-related policy now a Scottish rather than a UK responsibility, we are not asking candidates for policies or holding a hustings.
However, as always, we tell you which candidates are Spokes members and we give useful links enabling you to contact candidates with your questions on transport or other matters.
Do make sure you are registered to vote – and/or for a postal vote if that is easiest. See the Council links below.
Candidates who are Spokes members
- We have tried to check the full list of Edinburgh and Lothians constituences carefully, but please let us know if there are any omissions
- We will not add anyone who joins after this point, though of course they will be listed in a future election if still a member and standing again
- We also include a link to any mentions of the candidates surname on our website [NB – this picks up one or two links to other people of the same name, but it is obvious where this happens]
- We do not endorse any candidates. The choice is yours!
Edinburgh East
Sheila Gilmore Scottish Labour Spokes website ‘Gilmore’ links
Edinburgh North and Leith
Mark Lazarowicz Scottish Labour Spokes website ‘Lazarowicz’ links
Bruce Whitehead Left Unity Spokes website ‘Whitehead’ links
Edinburgh South
Ian Murray Scottish Labour Spokes website ‘Murray’ links
Midlothian
Ian Baxter Scottish Green Party Spokes website ‘Baxter’ links
Election pages from local Councils
Including registering to vote, full lists of local candidates, important dates, etc, etc…
Election Hustings
Please let us know of any others…
Please also inform meetyournextmp.com who are trying to list all hustings UK-wide and who provided some of the info below
Thu 16 April 7.30-9.00 Edinburgh North & Leith
Mon 20 April 7.00-9.00 East Lothian
Mon 20 April 7.30-9.00 Midlothian
Tue 21 April 11.00-13.30 Edinburgh North & Leith
Tue 21 April 1.00-2.00 Edinburgh South
Wed 22 April 7.30-9.30 Edinburgh East
Wed 22 April 3.00-4.00 Edinburgh South West
Wed 22 April 6.30-8.30 Edinburgh South West
Thu 23 April 1.00-2.00 Edinburgh East
Thu 23 April 7.30-9.30 Edinburgh West
Thu 23 April 7.30-9.30 Edinburgh South West
Tue 28 April 7.30-9.30 Edinburgh South West
Wed 29 April 7.30-9.30 Edinburgh South West
Other useful sites
Your Next MP – Open source website covering candidates in all UK constituencies [also with contact info for most candidates]
Unlock Democracy – Includes a ‘vote match’ quiz to see which parties are closest to your views (on a selection of policy issues)
CTC Vote Bike – Views of individual candidates on cycling, and links for you to contact your own candidates
Sustrans election page – with a link to contact your candidates
Transport and the election – BBC transport correspondent views
Manifesto & policy analyses on cycling and/or transport
The Guardian by @peterwalker99 [cycling only]
The Times by @kayaburgess [cycling only]
BBC transport policy guide – guide to the main transport policies (and other policies) of the parties. Note that this is not a full guide. Indeed, at the time of writing this, party manifestos have not yet been published, so this BBC guide currently is only a very outline guide.
What you can do
- Register to vote if you are not already – see the Council links above. A postal vote is easy to arrange and is particularly convenient if it will be awkward to get to the polling station on 7 May.
- Pedal on Parliament, April 25 – Loads of politicians usually turn up – a good chance to collar them, as well as helping impress them with the numbers
- If you are on twitter, RT our election tweet… https://twitter.com/SpokesLothian/status/586472167220637696
What you have done!
As mentioned above, Spokes has not contacted candidates for this election. However below are letters from candidates forwarded to us by members who have written to them [NB – in the unlikely event we are overwhelmed we may not get round to pdf’ing and uploading all letters received, but will try to do so at least for any really good ones].
Mark Lazarowicz [Edinburgh North and Leith, Lab]
Neil Hay [Edinburgh South, SNP]