Tonight the Hazel Must Go Campign! is choosing a candidate to stand against Hazel Blears at the forthcoming General Election, representing the Salford and Eccles constituency. Nominations opened back in Novemeber last year, and at the same time, the Salford Star ran a poll to see who Salford people would like to see stand as their ideal candidate.
All sorts of potential candidates were highlighted in the replies we got – community activists like Tom Warmsley, Graham Cooper and Bernadette Wright got votes, as did Hazel Must Go! secretary Steven North and Salford City Radio presenter Chris Brophy. There were also some strange nominations like David Beckham, Guy Fawkes and even Will Smith got a vote…
Second favourite in the poll was New Order's Peter Hook who does loads for the city, but Salford's choice by an absolute mile was Christopher Eccleston, who people thought had the credibility and integrity to be both a household name and a serious political person.
Christopher was born and bred in Salford, firstly in Blodwell Street in Langworthy (the family home now bulldozed by the Council), and later in Little Hulton. When the Salford Star interviewed him in our first ever issue his sense of Salford and injustice was obvious, from fighting Daleks as Dr Who, to starring in the seminal dramatic exposure of council corruption, Our Friends In The North…
"I've not just gone off and done `entertainment'" he told us "I've done Hillsborough…I've done Our Friends In The North…stuff that to a certain extent has a political content and that comes directly from Salford…even down to the Doctor, who was traditionally an aristocratic authority figure, sound like someone from Salford."
Rating some of the key values instilled in him from Salford, Christopher rated "a healthy disrespect for authority" as one of the top virtues. And speaking about the city's Working Class Movement Library, on which he narrated a documentary, he added "anything that goes to further the interest of the working classes who basically built this country is important to me…"
When we approached Christopher to see if he would stand against Hazel Blears at the General Election, amazingly he didn't rule out the prospect, saying that he "didn't want to comment at this time"…
Our poll shows that if Christopher Eccleston stands against Hazel Blears he would romp home to become the new Salford MP – and Hazel Blears would be history…
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"We're not looking for a New Jerusalem, we're looking for an MP with a measure of integrity and a measure of competence, all over the country. It's a work in progress. I think I'm suited to your kind of politics but you're going to find one of your own…" Martin Bell
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For further reading on Hazel Blears' expenses scandal etc click here and here
For Hazel's Salford Star Mary Burns Awards click here and here and here and here and here and here
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