Hello everyone, good to be here.
So who I am I? Well my real name is Mike Powell I am 21 years old.
I am from a pretty Labour dominated area, Ellesmere Port in the North-west, however we now have a new Conservative-controlled council (West Cheshire & Chester).
I was brought up in a Labour-leaning family and before I could even understand politics I was brought up to support Labour, baring in mind this was the Labour of John Smith and before Tony Blair won the '97 election. Politics was never a major interest of mine and I learned little about it. I "supported" Labour in 1997 due to family and friends doing likewise, but by the time the 2001 election came around I had heard about the single EU-currency so supported William Hague's Conservatives with their "Keep the pound" campaign.
By 2004 I became pretty interested in politics and started to learn more about it, the media and society in general seemed to paint the Conservatives with a pretty bad picture, and I was subsequently brainwashed into thinking they were the nasty party whilst Labour were the people giving us shiny new schools and the minimum wage however I liked Charles Kennedy at the time. In November of that year I was 18 so old enough to vote at the 2005 General Election where I voted Liberal Democrats. I did not particularly like what Labour were doing and Michael Howard's Conservatives didn't appeal to me. That all changed when David Cameron became leader and was instantly won over by his ideas and charisma.
When Cameron became leader everything seemed to change and the Conservatives for the first time in years seemed to be electable and Cameron seemed to be different to the previous leaders, more compassionate and more in touch with society, so I have been an avid conservative supporter ever since.
Issues that matter to me in politics the most are our relationship with Europe, I am eagerly awaiting the result of the court case in June to see if Gordon Brown has no choice but to give us a referendum on the EU Constitution, er sorry I mean Treaty.
I am also very worried about national security and the out of control immigration sweeping our country. I am all-for immigration but I think the time has come for someone to stand up and say it is ridiculous now and we need a limit.
Crime is another thing which no matter what Labour say, I feel has got a lot worse, particularly gun and knife crime but also people using their hands and feet to kill innocent citizens.
Well I hope I haven't rambled on too much here (probably) but I look forward to contributing to some interesting discussions on here
