• THE CNJ has done a sterling job covering the issues that are relevant and important to the borough’s residents throughout this general election campaign.

It has provided a platform to share stories of the incredible energy that has built up around my challenge to Sir Keir Starmer in Holborn and St Pancras.

Sadly, the mainstream media has barely acknowledged our insurgent campaign, despite us having hundreds of volunteers coming out to leaflet and door-knock and join canvassing events with prominent local community leaders and celebrities such as Alexei Sayle.

These volunteers have come to us in numbers that appear to exceed the local Labour Party, and it’s likely that we will have more people on the streets and doorsteps on polling day than Starmer will.

I’ve spoken to a lot of council and private tenants, along with leaseholders, in dire housing situations, during these past weeks and a common theme has emerged. Many complain that their MP has been invisible during this election campaign and has rarely been seen since he was elected nine years ago.

Letter after letter, email after email, are ignored. There is a lot of anger.

One elderly council tenant, John, told me how a loose screw was causing a banging noise when he flushed the toilet. “I had to go through this complicated system of reporting it and they even asked me to ‘attach a picture of the banging’. All it needed was a bloody screwdriver!” It took seven weeks to be fixed.

But while local concerns loom large, so many people in this diverse and vibrant community are moved by international affairs, particularly the deaths in Gaza.

Save the Children this week estimated that 21,000 Palestinian children are missing in Gaza, many dead under rubble or uncounted in mass graves. This is over and above the 17,000 children already confirmed dead.

Many constituents remain horrified that no real action has been taken to stop the violence they see every day on their phones, while many are understandably angry at Labour’s refusal to immediately recognise a Palestinian state.

How this sort of anger will translate in terms of votes next Thursday is uncertain. But I am sure that this campaign is the beginning of a community movement that will continue to build long after election day.

It’s a movement that has the momentum to tackle the issues that come up on the doorsteps every day; crumbling housing estates, spiraling rents, youth service cuts, the inability to see a GP, and global concerns like climate change and our endless forever wars.

We will go on building this community that we have come to cherish even more over these last weeks. We are not going anywhere.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us, joined us, spoken to us, and helped us these last few weeks. See you on the other side, whatever the outcome!

ANDREW FEINSTEIN
Independent Candidate for Holborn and St Pancras