THE Central Devon Labour Party has announced that Moira Macdonald will be its prospective Parliamentary Candidate at the forthcoming General Election.

Born in South Africa, and having lived in various countries in central Africa, Moira emigrated and settled in Devon in 1980.

She became a Labour supporter and worked for a number of organisations to improve people's lives, especially women's lives, during the Thatcher era.

In particular, she helped form the first Exeter Women's Centre and was, and still is, very involved in trades union work with Nalgo and its successor UNISON.

She is currently a co-ordinator and speaker for Fawcett Devon, a local action group affiliated to The Fawcett Society, a national charity which campaigns to close equality gaps between women and men.

At present she lives with her partner in Exeter, a city from which her working life, with employers as diverse as Renwicks, South West Water and Exmouth Community College have taken her to many different parts of the county.

She says she finds great pleasure in Devon's attractive landscapes and the features that make our county such a popular place to live and work but she appreciates how anyone living on a low or moderate income can face hardships.

Moira is particularly interested in how rural areas can revitalise themselves as the 21st century advances. She says she believes major factors such as global warming will affect us all.

A lifelong cyclist and a volunteer ranger with the sustainable transport charity Sustrans, Moira says she believes that access to work, local services and leisure is overly reliant on the motor car and that people need more choices available as to how they travel.

She holds positive views on modern society and said: "To connect meaningfully with people we need a different political landscape.

"The old left wing/right wing is now too simplistic.

"Problems of population, water supply, environmental degradation, climate change, sustainable energy and the impacts of ever more intricate science, medicine and technology: these create global issues that affect us locally."

She continued: "Local people who just want a decent place to live and the chance to earn a fair income are faced with barriers that are complex and stubborn.

"Only the Labour Party has the skills and commitment to recognise and remove social barriers. "Only Labour can deliver on equity and diversity, ecology and bio-diversity, with the growing power of social economics, as opposed to fat-cat economics."

"Those who know their history know Labour played a huge part in improving rural livelihoods in the past. I want a chance to continue in those footsteps."

alan-quick@crediton

couriernewspaper.co.uk