1. Mary: OK, so thank you, thank you very much for agreeing to be interviewed, wonderful, so you're an MP. Can you tell us what that means?

2. John: Yeah, it's, you're really a representative of the people in one neighbourhood. In Britain there are 650 areas. You put a line on a map and draw a circle round it, so a city like Leeds, nearly a million people, divided up into 8 big [1] a) challenge b) circles c) elected d) unemployment and one of those [2] a) circles b) election c) secondary d) unemployment is called your [3] a) challenge b) constituency c) housing d) ring .

3. You then have an [4] a) challenges b) constituency c) election d) parliament and how you get [5] a) elected b) election c) housing , usually you're in a political party. You have to ask them to put your name forward and they'll be a lot of people wanting the job so you have a competition to see who's the best [6] a) candidate b) election c) housing d) unemployment .

4. You stand as a [7] a) candidate b) challenge c) citizen d) constituency for [8] a) challenges b) election c) housing d) unemployment , you go to the [9] a) circles b) constituency c) election d) unemployment and in the system here of course, the one that gets the most votes wins and you go to [10] a) circles b) elected c) housing d) parliament . And your job then is to speak for everybody in your neighbourhood regardless of whether they voted for you or not, that's for the next [11] a) meeting b) elected c) election d) housing .

5. Mary: So, you say that you represent them. So what does that mean? How do you do that?

6. John: Well, it's a job of two ends being an MP. So you have to listen to the people at home where I live right in the heart of that neighbourhood and listen to them at advice surgeries, I mean on Saturdays I will probably see 100, 150 people who come to me with their problems in Armley Library, Bramley Library, the [12] a) election b) housing c) parliament d) unemployment office in Wortley, across in the Burley Lodge Centre.

7. So I go round community centres all day, every other Saturday. People come with their problems. They write to me, they [13] a) elected b) parliament c) ring d) unemployment me up, they e-mail me. When I'm at home on Friday I go round schools and offices and the health service, the police, I go to community groups. I do the same on Saturdays, even on Sunday and on Monday mornings we try and process from all that, what are the [14] a) challenge b) challenges c) citizen d) secondary to laws and budgets and structures that we're getting wrong.

8. So my job is to get on the train on Monday lunchtime, get down to [15] a) Leeds b) candidate c) elected d) parliament and then [16] a) challenge b) think c) elected d) unemployment what's going on at the other end to see if the people in my neighbourhood are getting what they really need and want.

9. Mary: What would you say are the biggest problems then?

10. John: Well, the [17] a) challenges b) parliament c) secondary d) secondary originally were [18] a) challenges b) housing c) unemployment , 18% [19] a) candidate b) election c) unemployment in my [20] a) circles b) constituency c) election d) unemployment in the 1980s. When I first was [21] a) candidate b) constituency c) elected d) housing in '87, 20 years ago, so [22] a) circles b) housing c) secondary d) unemployment and low pay was another issue.

11. So, I would think the [23] a) candidate b) challenge c) circles d) ring to the government to bring in the minimum wage has made a big difference and [24] a) challenges b) election c) unemployment falling has made a big difference, there were [25] a) challenges b) housing c) improving d) women on education, and there still are, because one of the things that happens in a neighbourhood like ours is that everyone wants to get out and go beyond the [26] a) citizen b) elected c) ring d) unemployment Road.

12. That damages the schools. A third of the people, in my neighbourhood, only live there for less than a year. Now if you imagine a class of 30 kids and a third aren't there for the whole year. How does that affect their exams and their studies?

13. So, we've got to stop this moving out. Now how do you do that making West Leeds a good place for people to live? Improving the schools helps, so a massive campaign when the Labour government came in to improve the primary schools and invest in primary schools. That's happened, but now we need to stabilize the [27] a) challenges b) circles c) parliament d) secondary schools so the next move is stabilizing the [28] a) challenges b) circles c) secondary schools so people want to stay here, not only when their kids go through primary school, but for [29] a) circles b) secondary c) unemployment school as well.

14. Mary: So, obviously you are hugely committed to this area and you obviously know this area very very well, but I know that you've also been involved with quite a lot of other things on a sort of further scale, if you like, for example, [30] a) citizen b) housing c) secondary d) unemployment .

15. John: I went to the council to complain about the disrepair of [31] a) challenges b) community c) housing d) secondary in my own neighbourhood. I remember at the time causing a great fuss in a committee because I spoke when I was in the public gallery and only councillors are allowed to speak.

16. So the Labour Party at that time, I was just a member of the Labour Party, came up to me and said, 'I know you're very young but you seem to be noisy on [32] a) challenge b) circles c) election d) housing , your best place to speak in the council is to be a councillor. Would you like to be a councillor?' I never dreamt of being a councillor.

17. I remember ringing me dad up who was a great trade union activist, sadly died now but, and I said, 'Dad, they want me to be a councillor' and his response was, 'Well, you're too young for that.' But so was the party. But I did stand, I stood in an area where it wasn't Labour, it was a Liberal seat and again the strategy was community engagement, engage with the people. And I was [33] a) candidate b) citizen c) elected d) election very young on to the council and then, by turn of circumstances, I became in charge of the [34] a) constituency b) elected c) housing .

18. Mary: Lastly then, can you tell us what you think a good [35] a) circles b) citizen c) elected d) unemployment is? Or maybe what a good [36] a) citizen b) parliament c) secondary d) unemployment does?

19. John: Yes. A good [37] a) circles b) citizen c) housing d) parliament joins in at every level and doesn't back off and doesn't get panicky about politics and gets underneath the radar of the media commentary, may I say, so don't take it all off the television.

20. And I'm really saying, you know, people come to me to train to be councillors for the Labour Party, to do what I did and they step forward and be a councillor and they say, 'Go to John Battle and ask him what should we do.'

21. Is it all my book collection of the history of the Labour Party, Kier Hardy, in 1906 his manifesto, is it the history of what we had in argument, all the clause 4 over the constitution. Is it the arrangements of meetings and the timings, and the acronyms and the GMC and the DRC?

22. No, it's none of that. Two questions: 1. Do you like people? And the second question is: prove it. And I would say, take someone out onto Armley or Bramley Town Street and I'll say, I'll stand on the other side of the road and see if you've got the bottle to go up to someone you've never met in your life before and say hello. You wouldn't know how hard that is in our society now.

23. You know on the tube, with the terror bombing, it happened for a day after. But people are terrified of even speaking to each other. So what I'm looking for, to be a good [38] a) challenges b) citizen c) election are people who will reach out, literally to other people and not be afraid of being called for doing it, that they're you know, a kind of a freak or mad but more to say, saying hello to people could be quite a revolutionary moment but it's becoming quite hard in our culture. Join in and don't be afraid of the process.

24. Mary: OK, thank you.