Politics students attend Homerton Changemakers event
On Tuesday the 21st of January I had the pleasure of accompanying a small group of politics students to the latest event held by Homerton Changemakers at the University of Cambridge to hear from Jovan Owusu Nepaul, the Labour candidate for the Clacton constituency in last summer's general election.
Jovan was talking about his experiences in politics to date and about his running as a parliamentary candidate in the election against the leader of the Reform Party, Nigel Farage.
In an engaging discussion hosted by a former Cambridge Politics student, Jovan discussed the nature of campaigning and reasons for why he became involved in both local and then national politics with the Labour Party. He did discuss the conflicts that can sometimes occur between a local campaign and the national campaign, including his being asked to help another campaign in his home city of Birmingham that gave his high-profile opponent a chance to accuse him of abandoning his campaign whilst appearing on Question Time. Jovan was open about the challenges facing the current party and was able to give sound advice to questions on how to best get involved in politics. He left the majority of the audience in no doubt that, despite his disappointment last year, that he would be a very good candidate for the party going forward.
The students involved were Grace Prasher, Lennon Wing, Conor Runswick, Jasper Kyne and Chloe Crick. As ever, these events are a vital enrichment for our students, enabling them to listen to and engage with people across the political spectrum and my thanks go to Jovan, Dr Robin Bunce and the Homerton team for inviting us to take part once again.
