West Bromwich Holme wrote:Re-submitted application:
Character Constituency of Origin: Leigh (born overseas)
Character Constituency of Residence: Leigh
Character Party Affiliation: Independent
Main Strengths: Popular with motorists, good at being able to give speeches and presentations, expert in consumer law and data protection law, automotive expertise, has never been a supporter of the EU, British citizenship despite American heritage. Elise is able to give good constructive reasons for her arguments and uses facts, figures and research to back it up.
Main Weaknesses: Her pro-American/South African stance (for immigration/trade) will probably upset pro-EU loyalists; her anti-EU stance upsets remainers; her stance that job security and consumer issues are of more importance on a day-to-day basis for the average Joe Public than climate change proves controversial; her hybrid Texan/South African accent can be difficult to understand by some. Also, her pro-automobile enthusiast and pro-automotive industry stance would upset environmentalists but it is a firmly-held belief. She accepts climate change is happening, but has said publically in 2018:Climate change is an issue, but on a day-to-day scale, if you can't get a job, worry about finances, or your washing machine's broken and the manufacturer won't do a thing, well, then, it's pushed way down the list. I don't mean that pejoratively. It's happening, but to average Joe or Joanne Public, it's the last thing on their mind.
Elise has no social media - no Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and prefers to "roll your own" websites and WordPress blogs (she has wrote under pseudonyms).
Biography: (Minimum 2-3 paragraphs) Elise was born to a British mother, Marie, and South African-American father, John, in Dallas, Texas on 15 April 1984. Her mother is English, being of Anglo-Dutch heritage, and born in Astley, Greater Manchester, having grown up on what is now Coldalhurst Lane (or at least the estate). Her mother grew up in working-class conditions, but slowly became educated, eventually moving to the U.S. aged 25, and she has never returned since.
Elise moved to the United Kingdom aged 19, and studied business systems and management; eventually she got employment in tourism, before moving into car sales, which she did for around 10-15 years (the car sales work ran concurrently alongside the university work).
In 2013, she went into politics as a researcher (a side job) after leaving her job in automotive sales for a Citroen dealership in 2013, and decided to stand for being an independent MP; she won in a local by-election. Elise has also worked as a Labour Parliamentary Spokesperson 2014-2018 prior to becoming independent. She became independent after the Labour anti-Semitism crisis, deciding that it would be better to roll her own type of politics.
Other Info: Elise has quadruple citizenship - U.S. citizenship by birth, Dutch citizenship (per
where the applicant has "special and objectively assessable reasons" for not renouncing his existing nationality, and being born before 1 January 1985; her father is part-Dutch), South African citizenship (as per special permission) and British citizenship (due to the British citizenship by descent part).
She is also very much noted for her femininity and her strong opinions on the automobile industry (since 2008, she's run a pseudonymous blog on this topic)
She has these political positions:
Brexit: Elise has never supported the EU in any form, and prefers the United Kingdom have a better social, trading and political relationship with the United States, the Netherlands, Scandinavia and South Africa and have their own custom-built trade and free movement agreement. Elise has never been popular with Remainers in any way for wanting the United Kingdom to be on better terms with both nations. Elise has publically stated how she feels that the United Kingdom has never fitted in with the European Union, instead fitting in better with the U.S, Canada, Japan, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
Immigration: Elise would like the right of free movement to extend to Americans, Dutch citizens and South Africans to replace EU citizens post-Brexit and she has friends in London who are American and South African expats (as well as Australian expats too). Elise feels that American and South African expats get a raw deal for foreigners wanting to work here, and says that because she's both in addition to being British she can understand anti-immigrant sentiment. Elise also feels that there should be a new Anglo-Dutch agreement for British citizens in the Netherlands and Dutch citizens in the United Kingdom that requires neither to renounce their citizenship and allows dual citizenship as presently Dutch law only allows it in limited circumstances (Elise's mother is half-Dutch)
Abortion: Elise has always been in favour of allowing the woman to decide if she wants the baby or not, stating that "Do you really want your rapist legally allowed to see your child for the next 18 years?", quoting a Law and Order SVU episode. She feels that pro-lifers do not understand the circumstances women go through psychologically deciding to have an abortion.
Climate change: She says it's an issue, but one that's of lower concern to the average member of the public on a day-to-day scale as compared to job security, economy or consumer rights and data protection issues.
Automotive industry: Feels that the focus on electric cars is too narrow in scope, prefers that a choice of alternative fuels and electric is better than wholesale conversion to electric. She has never supported self-driving cars in any way, having read ample amounts of research on the issue.
Internet censorship: She is a strong privacy activist, and would rather have the United Kingdom noted for a free and open internet.
Law and order: She would like the focus to be more on dealing with car crime, arson, insurance fraud, identity theft, financial crimes than other ones and would like to see more spending on improving police cars and police technology rather than "bobbies on the beat", claiming that what she saw in the U.S. and South Africa works better.
I have read and accept the rules of the roleplay: West Bromwich Holme
Do Not Remove: 84721
[/spoiler]
I'm terribly sorry but as my colleagues and I have considered the matter more closely, we would like to suggest that rather than a Labour spokesperson for Transport that instead she is a outspoken member of the Transport Select Committee. That could actually be more beneficial as it would allow her to still maintain a high profile on Transport policy whilst at the same time still giving her influence after becoming an Independent MP.
