Due to watching Spurs playing in the Wembley Cup over the weekend I offer my belated congratulations to Chloe Smith who was the deserved winner of the Norwich North By-election on Friday.
Chloe at 27 will be the youngest Mp in the House of Commons which made me think back when to when I was elected to Southend Council 3 years ago.
Aged just 26, like Chloe, I was also the youngest elected member on Southend Council a position that is currently held by Cllr Ian Gilbert who represents Victoria Ward.
David Cameron has already publicly stated that Chloe is exactly the type of person that parliament needs. I agree that Chloe is extremely bright but I do not believe that just because somebody is young and into politics then should automatically be given a seat to contest either in Parliament or Town Hall's.
I believe that people should be selected and ultimately elected based on ability and not just because you are young, female or an ethnic minority.
Southend is quite groundbreaking in that there are a large number of women who are members, at one point had two members under the age of 30 and has two ethnic minority councillors who, I must say, were elected on ability.
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