New Year, New Start, New Blog!

My name is Jack Evans- I'm 18 and have been a member of the Labour Party since June 2006. I've decided that 2009 will be the year I enter the blogosphere (its been a long time coming)

I am currently on my Gap Year and will finish my eight-month contract at legal firm Pinsent Masons in May 2009. Later on this year I will be going travelling- volunteer work in Costa Rica for two months, followed by 6 weeks backpacking across Thailand (stopping off en-route in Fiji and Australia). Have been saving up for it for over a year now and am dying to get out and discover the world!

In October 2009 I will be going to Oxford University to study History and Politics at David Milliband's old college- Corpus Christi. So 2009 will undoubtedly be a very exciting year for me!

I have been politically active since 16 and the year 2008 has seen my political views change noticeably. I have been close to leaving the party- and then being closer to it then ever before. To be young and militantly Labour would probably be unwise at my age- some of my views still remain quite fluid but I fundamentally believe that if we as one nation work together to overcome our differences we will be all the stronger for it.

I was disgusted by 42 Days, but believe Gordon Brown has really "saved the world" economically. I believe our party should embrace Cameron's proposal for a National Citizenship Service, yet should totally reject Cameron's politically vacuos style of politics. Oh, and Brown would be a fool not to got to the polls in February!

Since May 1997 this nation has grown stronger under the stewardship of a Labour Government and as I look ahead o the challenges of the next decade- Climate Change, the widening gap between rich and poor, making sure the UK has a fully mobilised educated population and tackling knife and gun crime- I believe the only way we can tackle them is though the policies of the left.

Britain is stronger with Labour.