Roof protester bids to go in front door

Published: 4 March 2010
by JOSIE HINTON

NOT many politicians can be heard promoting their campaign as a “social experiment,” but 25-year-old Tamsin Omond doesn’t seem to have much in common with most other parliamentary candidates.

A high-profile climate campaigner, she is perhaps best known for being arrested after scaling the roof of Parliament with four other members of her protest group Plane Stupid in 2008, objecting to airport expansion.

Now she hopes she can use her notoriety to appeal to those disillusioned with regular politics, with a little help from social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

Launching her bid as an independent candidate for the Hampstead and Kilburn seat at Swiss Cottage Community Centre on Thursday night, Ms Omond, who is now part of the campaign group Climate Rush, admitted her “youth” and “inexperience”, but presented them as qualities that could help galvanise young ­people out of apathy into action.

“Essentially we’re trying to appeal to the people who are disillusioned with regular politics,” she said. “These are the voters that no one else is competing for.

“More than 60 per cent of under-30s in this constituency didn’t vote in the general election – if you attract all those people you’d have a landslide.”

And by allowing the public to tell her how to vote in the Commons as MP – using internet and text voting – she believes she can give them a reason to support her.

On Saturday, Ms Omond put this plan into action for the first time, asking her supporters to decide where she could best spend her time – marching to save the A&E of the Whittington Hospital or canvassing for the Green Party in Brighton.

She was later seen among the crowds making their way up Holloway Road as Twitter users told her to “stay local”.

But does she think her movement, The Commons – a new party grounded in her climate change agenda – poses a direct threat to the Green Party vote in the constituency?

“That’s a very good question,” said Ms Omond. “I suppose eventually I would want to get votes from all political parties, but the votes we are hoping to capitalise on now wouldn’t harm any other party, as they are people not currently voting.”

She hopes to win support with three pledges, which she set out during Thursday’s launch, the most headline grabbing being her promise to donate a third of her salary as an MP – £20,000 – to local projects.

Ms Omond will also spend one day a week doing community service, if elected. And, lastly, she promises to give people who don’t normally vote a direct say through internet and text voting polls. 

“I asked people who their MP was and what three things they could do that would give them hope,” she said. “The three things they came up with are what I will build my platform around.”