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Politics!! Politics!!

I never thought I'd try to be a politician - I'm a journalist and as cynical as the best of them. But when I took redundancy from the BBC in 2009, I thought I'd have a go at doing something to try to improve my home town.
I've lived in the Greenwich area all my life, and over the past few years I began to get frustrated about how little say people had in how their neighbourhoods are run. The streets aren't cleaned properly and decisions are taken with minimal discussion with local people.
For years I was the typical angry person on the internet, ranting and raving about everything; but came to realise there was only so far that could take me.
I met some people involved with the Green Party in Lewisham a couple of years ago, and seen what a difference they'd made to their areas - sticking up for local shops, making streets safer and just making an effort to talk to people about what was going. In Greenwich, it's been the same party in charge for nearly 40 years - and it patronises the people who live there. The opposition parties are no better.
The Greens had done well in the last council election, so I signed up and helped the local party improve its newsletter and its website.
When the chance came up to run for election in Peninsula ward, I jumped at it - something like this might not come again. It's a diverse area - roughly from the Royal Naval College to Charlton Athletic's stadium, taking in the O2 and miles of waterfront along the Thames. Even when I was a child, there was lots of industry down here - now it's giving way to huge developments, and nobody's quite sure what to make of the changes. This is my home, and I want to make it better, and give people a real say in what goes on here. The other parties seem offended that we're even daring to campaign here - but it's been heart-warming to see people responding so well to us. The Greens came a close second in this ward last time - and we're putting a huge effort into going one better this time. Polling day coincides with the general election, so it's anyone's guess what will happen. I've learned a hell of a lot so far, but the hardest work could be yet to come...