Know your politicians

Do you know which district you are in? (I confess I did not know, and guessed wrongly before I checked). Wards can be a bit counter-intuitive, being more about the numbers than the geography.  If you visit https://www.writetothem.com/ and enter your postcode, you can see who your representatives are at district, county, country and European levels. It’s also a very handy site if you want to contact any of your representatives to make your opinion known.

The district council has a third of its seats up for election each year. Is your ward being contested this year? You can find out here - http://www.stroud.gov.uk/docs/democ/elections.asp#s=sectioncontent10&p=notices,forthcoming and also see if there are seats available on your Parish council.

On the 22^nd of May, we also have European Elections. If you’d like to know who is standing for those and which parties they represent, there’s some good information here - http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/2015guide/south-west-european-candidates-2014/

Finally, if you’d like to find out more about what your existing representatives get up to, you may find this site helpful - http://www.theyworkforyou.com/

Democracy works a lot better when we can make informed choices about the people who represent us. Politicians should be accountable, and the internet makes it a good deal easier to check up on them!