• IT’S election time again and the West Hampstead local election hustings will take place on Thursday April 7 at 7.30pm. They will take place in the Synagogue Hall, Dennington Park Road, NW6.

All candidates standing in West Hampstead and Fortune Green electoral wards have been invited. The hustings are organised by West Hampstead’s oldest amenity group, West Hampstead Amenity & Transport, otherwise known as WHAT.

All are most welcome to attend, and this is a great opportunity to participate in local politics and to put your questions to the parties and candidates.

You are asked to wear a mask at all times during the meeting and the seating will be socially distanced.

You quite often hear people say that politics doesn’t matter and they can’t be bothered to vote or to participate in elections.

Well, if there’s one lesson from the terrible war in Ukraine, it is that politics and democratic elections really do matter, however imperfect democracy may be.

The alternative is dictatorship – as exemplified by Vladimir Putin’s Russia and by so many other countries in the world.

So please come along and get involved, and even join a political party as well.

JOHN SAYNOR
Chair, WHAT