Maggie Chapman to run for Scotland’s Euro seat
Edinburgh city councillor and Bright Green editor Maggie Chapman has been selected by the members of the Scottish Greens as their nominee for the European Parliament election in June 2014.
As a councillor, Maggie has successfully fought against the privatisation of social care services and the Westminster government’s Workfare schemes. She has given residents the right to decide directly on a portion of council spending in the city’s first participatory budgeting project, and argued, as a start, for 1% of all council spending to be decided this way.
Maggie lectures at Napier University in cultural geography, environmental ethics and social justice.
The Green candidate in 2009, Elaine Morrison, received 7.3%, just 3.1% short of her nearest rival, Labour’s Catherine Stihler. Given parliamentary and council results since then, we can expect Liberal Democrat George Lyon’s 11.5% vote share to collapse. As a result, Maggie may need to add only around 3% to win the Greens’ first Euro seat outside London and south-east England.
The full list will be:
1. Maggie Chapman
2. Chas Booth
3. Alis Ballance
4. Alastair Whitelaw
5. Grace Murray
6. Steen Parish
7. Anne Thomas
8. Fabio Viliani
9. Dominic Hinde
10. Johannes Butscher
11. James MacKessack-Leitch
Alis Ballance and Grace Murray were placed 2nd and 3rd on the raw vote, but were moved down the list by the party’s gender-balancing rule, with Chas Booth and Alastair Whitelaw benefiting. The placings of Maggie and Anne Thomas were unchanged.
Brilliant news, Maggie is an inspiration 🙂
Exciting stuff, great opportunity. Good luck to Maggie!