Gordon Munro is a Labour councillor on the City of Edinburgh Council. He is forthright and hard working on behalf of the people of Leith.
The Labour Group leader on the council, Cammy Day suggested at the most recent full council meeting that the City Chambers would be less interesting if Gordon Munro does get elected. He regularly makes speeches with colourful music and poetic references.
He told The Edinburgh Reporter about his passionate campaign to win a seat for Labour. Mr Munro said : “I’m standing to win.
“I’m standing to win to get a Labour Government. This is the 29th most marginal seat in the whole of the UK. It’s one of the seats that Labour needs to win to form a government that the UK desperately needs.
“The first thing we’d do is actually go back to Europe, negotiate a deal and have a deal that is real versus lies on a bus.
“We’ve got 20,000 people on the waiting list in Edinburgh 19,000 council houses. That does not compute. We need to build a new generation of council houses.
“I voluntarily work on the board of Port of Leith Housing Association and I work on Citadel Youth Centre Board, where we work with some of the hardest to reach people within the Leith area and greater Leith area as well.
“People are wanting to talk to us about things beyond yes, no or remain and leave. They want to talk about poverty. I represent an area of the city where 27% of all people are in poverty.
“The Ward next door to me, Forth Ward – 27% of all people in poverty, 2,302 children in poverty in Forth alone. Even in City Centre Ward with the New Town in it 8% of all people are in poverty. People are wanting to talk about that because they don’t like seeing banks disappear from the high streets and food banks replacing them.
“Labour wouldn’t just be good for Britain, Labour would be good for the world with our carbon target of 2030. And we are looking to do the green New Deal. We need to generate energy in a different way both at a macro level and at a micro level.
“That will include housing and it will also include large scale production such as barrages such as wind power, such as solar power, such as wave power and also Passiv Haus building. Retrofitting building will actually reduce the carbon impact of housing in the city which is a major contributor, along with road transport to the pollution in our country. That contributes to what we need to do to play our part in the world meeting this climate change challenge.
“The thing I find disappointing about this campaign is the mendacity of the political opponents I’m facing They’re all using graphs that do not reflect the result last time. And I think that this does not do the body politic any good. We will show the graph of the result last time people will be able to make that choice based on policies, not on mendacious graphs and I think that’s most important.”
Edinburgh North and Leith candidates :
ASTBURY, Heather Jane – Renew
BROCK, Deidre Leanne – Scottish National Party (SNP)
BURGESS, Steve – Scottish Green Party
MCGILL, Iain – Scottish Conservative and Unionist
MUNRO, Gordon John – Labour and Co-operative Party
SPEIRS, Robert – Brexit Party
WILSON, Bruce Roy – Scottish Liberal Democrats
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
