Date: Monday, 23 January, 2012, 17:02

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Dear Friends,

We recently sent out a message asking you whether you thought it was a good idea that an Independent candidate should stand in the London Mayoral elections in May? The candidate would be promoting the government e-petition on War Crimes and supporting human rights in Sri Lanka (and in all small nations).

Of those who responded, 73% said it was a good idea, 13% didn’t and 14% were unsure. Those in favour said they thought it was a cost-effective way of reaching out to the public whilst those against were concerned that we might upset the major parties. We discuss these pro’s and con’s below.

Pro

* Public/Media Interest in the Tamil cause is waning. The Mayoral election address however goes out to over 3.5 million homes. That would cost us over £1.5m if a letter was sent. This will only cost us £25k to get our message out.

* We are much more likely to obtain the necessary 100,000 signatures on the Gov e-petition to get an independent war crimes investigation debated in Parliament.

* For no financial cost we are likely to obtain extra press publicity.

* We are likely to re-energise activists and the Tamil community by such a high profile campaign.

* Ministers know what took place in Sri Lanka but refuse to press Sri Lanka too hard. We need to show them that we cannot be taken for granted!

Con

* It will be a lot of hard work, especially to obtain the signatures required.

* The main parties might be worried that we will take votes off their candidates and may ‘turn’ against Tamils.

We wholeheartedly agree with the pro’s but we also understand the concerns.

Firstly, however, we WILL be able to get the signatures, given the time. Secondly, the only time that Tamils were listened too was when they stood up for themselves e.g. the Parliament Square occupation and Jan Jananayagam’s European election campaign. We have to show the politicians that we will not be taken for granted and be told ‘nothing can be done’.

We are not concerned about the number of votes we get. Under the Mayoral vote only Ken and Boris have a chance of winning. However, they do rely upon all the other candidates second preference votes which can only go to one of those two. If they want OUR voters second preference votes they will have to support or promote the petition! This is how politics works and for once it is in the Tamil causes’ favour!

If you want to help out with the goal of finding a sponsor to fund an Independent candidate in the Mayoral Elections please e-mail me and/or join the FB cause – Calling London to Act on Sri Lankan War Crimes at http://www.causes.com/causes/648144-calling-london-to-act-on-sri-lankan-war-crimes.

G. Williamson

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Dear Friends,

After asking you whether you thought it was a good idea that an Independent candidate, promoting the