Dr Martin Parsons
Colchester City Councillor for Mersea and Pyefleet ward
(East and West Mersea, Peldon, Abberton, Langenhoe and Fingringhoe)
About Martin
. Martin grew up in Suffolk and North Norfolk and after teaching Geography in two Essex schools became an overseas aid worker first in Pakistan, then in Afghanistan.
Aid worker in Afghanistan
In Afghanistan, he and a Norwegian colleague were the first westerners to ever visit a remote region 10,000 feet up in the Afghan mountains which was then literally just a ‘blank’ on the map. He subsequently spent 10 years working without a formal salary to set up a literacy and community development project there. This involved having to negotiate in local language with senior members of the Taliban and other warlords - so he has a bit of experience of dealing with awkward people!
Senior leadership roles in education
He has also held senior leadership roles in education both in the UK and overseas, including being principal of an FE institute in Pakistan and a member of the NGO committee which functioned as the national education committee for Afghanistan during the first period of Taliban rule. He was subsequently part of the senior leadership team establishing a new sixth form college in an East Anglian port town with underachieving schools which significantly improved A level results, as well as the number of local young people going to leading universities, which was one of Martin’s particular responsibilities.
Charity founder and author
He later worked in higher education - setting up a new course in Research Ethics at Anglia Ruskin University. Then founded a charity which undertakes research on persecuted Christian minorities in the Islamic world. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and is also the author of three published books – one on Christianity and Islam, one on Conservativism and one on local history.
Expert on freedom of religion/speech and the challenge of Islamic extremism
Martin is also a recognised expert on the challenge posed by radical Islam to freedom of religion/speech. He did his PhD on Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region and has undertaken multiple interviews in both print and broadcast media. These include live interviews on BBC – including more than a dozen back-to-back BBC local radio interviews in just three hours when the Taliban seized Kabul in August 2021. In 2023 he was interviewed on US TV network CBN News on al-Qaeda’s return to Afghanistan. He has been quoted on multiple occasions in the national press, including the Sunday Times, Daily Mail, Daily Express (main front page story) as well as having had letters published in both the Times and the Daily Telegraph.
Martin has also been a public speaker on how Britain developed freedom of religion/freedom of speech across the UK, recent examples of which include
Martin writes a regular monthly column for Mersea Life and has also written for a number of national publications including The Critic, Brexit Central (the national think tank on Brexit during the referendum) and Conservative Home – particularly on the challenge of tackling Islamic extremism.
Aid worker in Afghanistan
In Afghanistan, he and a Norwegian colleague were the first westerners to ever visit a remote region 10,000 feet up in the Afghan mountains which was then literally just a ‘blank’ on the map. He subsequently spent 10 years working without a formal salary to set up a literacy and community development project there. This involved having to negotiate in local language with senior members of the Taliban and other warlords - so he has a bit of experience of dealing with awkward people!
Senior leadership roles in education
He has also held senior leadership roles in education both in the UK and overseas, including being principal of an FE institute in Pakistan and a member of the NGO committee which functioned as the national education committee for Afghanistan during the first period of Taliban rule. He was subsequently part of the senior leadership team establishing a new sixth form college in an East Anglian port town with underachieving schools which significantly improved A level results, as well as the number of local young people going to leading universities, which was one of Martin’s particular responsibilities.
Charity founder and author
He later worked in higher education - setting up a new course in Research Ethics at Anglia Ruskin University. Then founded a charity which undertakes research on persecuted Christian minorities in the Islamic world. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and is also the author of three published books – one on Christianity and Islam, one on Conservativism and one on local history.
Expert on freedom of religion/speech and the challenge of Islamic extremism
Martin is also a recognised expert on the challenge posed by radical Islam to freedom of religion/speech. He did his PhD on Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region and has undertaken multiple interviews in both print and broadcast media. These include live interviews on BBC – including more than a dozen back-to-back BBC local radio interviews in just three hours when the Taliban seized Kabul in August 2021. In 2023 he was interviewed on US TV network CBN News on al-Qaeda’s return to Afghanistan. He has been quoted on multiple occasions in the national press, including the Sunday Times, Daily Mail, Daily Express (main front page story) as well as having had letters published in both the Times and the Daily Telegraph.
Martin has also been a public speaker on how Britain developed freedom of religion/freedom of speech across the UK, recent examples of which include
- Exeter University Debating Society
- Men’s breakfast meeting in Worcestershire
- Suffolk and North Essex branch of the European Union of Women
Martin writes a regular monthly column for Mersea Life and has also written for a number of national publications including The Critic, Brexit Central (the national think tank on Brexit during the referendum) and Conservative Home – particularly on the challenge of tackling Islamic extremism.
Mersea and Pyefleet
(East and West Mersea, Peldon, Abberton, Langenhoe and Fingringhoe)
It is a privilege to live in this area – one of the best places in the world to live (though we try to keep that just a little bit quiet so it doesn’t get spoilt!).
I grew up in an area near the Norfolk coast and the sea becomes part of you! After university I got my first teaching post in a challenging school in an Essex seaside town and came back here after spending a decade setting up an overseas aid project in Afghanistan.
I am married to Lesley a former QARANC nurse and health visitor and we have two boys, two dogs and am very much involved in our local community including being a local councillor, volunteering on safety boat for Mersea Week and Round the Island Race; and getting involved in Mersea Museum – which has got to be one of the best local museums in the country.
I have a passion for history and my new book on local history in the Roman, Anglo-Saxon and Viking periods has recently been published by Mersea Island Museum Trust.
I also have a particular interest in coastal erosion and flooding, with the issues on Mersea and nearby villages being extremely similar to those I dealt with when I was previously a councillor for a rural and coastal area on the Suffolk coast.
I grew up in an area near the Norfolk coast and the sea becomes part of you! After university I got my first teaching post in a challenging school in an Essex seaside town and came back here after spending a decade setting up an overseas aid project in Afghanistan.
I am married to Lesley a former QARANC nurse and health visitor and we have two boys, two dogs and am very much involved in our local community including being a local councillor, volunteering on safety boat for Mersea Week and Round the Island Race; and getting involved in Mersea Museum – which has got to be one of the best local museums in the country.
I have a passion for history and my new book on local history in the Roman, Anglo-Saxon and Viking periods has recently been published by Mersea Island Museum Trust.
I also have a particular interest in coastal erosion and flooding, with the issues on Mersea and nearby villages being extremely similar to those I dealt with when I was previously a councillor for a rural and coastal area on the Suffolk coast.
Promoted by Jim Musk on behalf of Dr Martin Parsons, all at Harwich and North Essex Conservative Association, Unit C2, East Gores Farm, Salmons Lane, Colchester, CO6 1RZ