Bristol Mayoral Candidate selected

June 18, 2012 7:12 pm

Author:

Mark Ferguson

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Congratulations to Marvin Rees, who has been selected as Labour’s candidate for the new role of Bristol Mayor. Rees beat off tough condition and will now contest the election in November. Commiserations to the other candidates.

Marvin is an alumnus of the Yale Global Leaders Programme, and stood unsuccessfully for the Bristol West selection in 2010. He’s not seen as a party “hack” and therefore isn’t tainted with recent party history, which led some to describe him as a bit of a novice (in party political terms).

By winning this selection, it seems he has proved he’s anything but.

Jo Tanner

Fantastic choice by Bristol members. Marvin will be a great candidate and an even better mayor.
- Christopher Riordan
  
  Why? I suspect we will end up with a mayor who is inward and not outward looking. Bristol needs to be put on the map, it is, like the rest of the south west, too often neglected, by the media and central government. The Harbour festival is one of the country’s best attended free festivals, but it hardly gets a mention in the national media. That reflects the fact that culturally, despite the best efforts of Bristolians, we lag behind other cities. No venue for large concerts, so no big bands come to Bristol. The best attended exhibiton in recent years was for Banksy, but let’s face it that was because he was from here. There are no major art or other exhibitions that attract national attention. On the sporting front, no south west side in the top flight of football since the 1980′s and no one is asking why. This may just be sport and culture but the absence of concern about what is going on in this part of the country reflects the fact that the south west is grouped together with the soth east and people then talk about what is happening in the south as opposed to the midlands or the north. It is no surprise to me that it was the south west and the north of England along with other parts of the UK that felt there would be no legacy for them from the Olympics. It goes without saying that there is no olympic events here, not even football. If we do more on these fronts the city would benefit enormously.
  
  I expect though we will have a mayor who will have his own agenda and will deal with issues that the council should be tackling rather than representing Bristol to the outside world.
Brumanuensis

I confess I was hoping for Kelvin Blake. However good luck to Marvin!
Labour right toughie

Why is there NOTHING on parliamentary selections that matter. The Redcar shortlist, Bristol West shortlist, Carlisle shortlist, Cambridge shortlist and the recent selections on Bedford and Dover. Can LabourList start putting forward these things rather than just putting up old news on meaningless Mayoral elections.

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