Hi everyone.

Full statement

I've had requests asking for a little history about me. So here it goes... Best wishes, Carralyn :)

I am an artist and Art Historian, former Weymouth College lecturer and a Portland Town Councillor for Underhill ward with responsibility for Heritage, Victoria Gardens and Portland Museum.

I have lived in South Dorset constituency for 21 years and have brought up my daughters here, both of whom attended local schools.

My first ‘proper job’ was in Merseyside Transport, working in ‘ticket audit’. From there, I went on to work for the Transport and General Workers Union as a tutor, and as a TUC tutor. I went to University, as a mature student and mum, to study Fine Art as a Painter and Photographer. Following graduation, I have taught in a variety of posts which include teaching art to the parents of small children at Outlooks Family Centre in Portland and charcoal drawing at Weymouth Women’s Refuge. I've also taught Fine Art foundation, Photography, Film Studies and Contextual Studies (Art History) at Weymouth College.

I have completed a Master’s Degree in Art History at the Open University, my dissertation was in Republican Art of the Spanish Civil War, and I am embarking on a history of Military Architecture and Archaeology of the Palmerston fortifications on Portland in conjunction with my daughter, who is studying Archaeology at the University of Wales, the results of which will be published on Researchgate.

I love the community that we live in, and I'm terrified at the prospect of the further devastation that another five years of tory austerity under Boris the Buffoon, and the complacency of our tory MP, Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax, will wreak on South Dorset. Our country is riven with divisions, our people are suffering cuts in health, education, public services, we have a housing crisis where affordable accommodation is non-existent, and a public transport system that is not fit for purpose. In-work poverty is endemic, and we have the scandal of people in the twenty first century forced to use food banks. Our pledge to you is that we will properly fund schools and the NHS, reverse cuts in police numbers, abolish zero-hours contracts, abolish tuition fees, create jobs and build council homes, and protect the environment, to change the fabric of our society so that it is worth living in,'for the many and not the few'.

Boris and Nigel's 'Deal' to Stitch Up the General Election

The pretence that Nigel Farage's Brexit Party was anything but the Tory Party mark II, cheerleading for Boris Johnson, has been blown out of the water. Farage's decision not to stand candidates against Conservative MP's who won seats in 2017, and to fight seats held by Labour and the rest of (as he puts it) the 'Remainer' parties, is clear evidence of the collusion of Farage and Johnson, egged on by Trump, to stitch-up the General Election.
If they get their way, there could be a landslide Tory majority that will push through Boris' dangerous Brexit deal, with its hard border destabilising peace in Northern Ireland, attacks on workers’ rights, and a free-for-all for international profiteering pirates to asset strip our NHS.
Only the Labour Party is capable of defeating Richard Drax in South Dorset. We offer within six months of taking office, a Public Vote, with the option to Remain, or to leave with a deal that doesn't push the country off a cliff.
Voting for any other party in South Dorset, however principled, is to hand our country over to Drax, and a Conservative Government that will cause irreparable damage to its people.

VOTE LABOUR