Interview with Dominic Atlas, Yorkshire Party candidate for Keighley West, Bradford

 Interview with Dominic Atlas, Yorkshire Party candidate for Keighley West, Bradford

• Why a Yorkshire Party candidate in Keighley West?

The Yorkshire Party is the only party that makes sense to me. It’s easier to stand for a party instead of being an independent candidate, so that’s the main reason.

• What are the main issues you want to prioritise?

I have a bit of a different outlook than most councillors and most of my competitors. My main area is to focus on the school system and bringing up the standards to something that has not been seen for a very long time. The councillors are focused on little things while I think it’s very important to ensure the safety of our children going to and from school, their safety during school. Obviously, I don’t know what it’s like where you are but over here bullying inside schools can be a real problem. We are seeing at the moment the biggest shortage of teachers in years, specially with high school teachers, there’s very little of them, which is making the standards drop even more. The central government just taking money away from them, and at the end of the day they are our next generation.

• Why is the Yorkshire Party the best alternative to the rest of the parties in the area?

One of the main reasons I’m standing is because the councils that we have don’t care, be it Labour or Conservative, none of them care. British politics has all become about money, and it’s very little to do with the constituents. I aim to change that, I want to make a genuine difference in my community. I’m a bus driver, and transport here is quite a big problem as well. I’ve got people who are very close to me saying that “Politicians and councillors are all the same”. They promise stuff, but as soon as they get in they don’t care anymore. People think that will happen to me, but it won’t because I want to make a difference, and that’s why I’m standing for the Yorkshire Party, because the Yorkshire Party is local and is right there with us. In Keighley, which is part of the Bradford district we have a Labour-run administration, and then there’s a Conservative national government, so they’re always fighting and that becomes a problem for the people who they represent, because while they’re busy fighting each other, they’re not solving the actual problems that people care about. The Yorkshire Party, being very local, cares about local problems and ultimately while the other parties have a party whip, there’s none of that in the YP. When I become a councillor, my decisions will be my own: the stuff of what I think my constituents want. It doesn’t matter if people in my party disagree with me, because they’re not representing my constituents, I will be. That’s what we want, local people who want to make a difference. There’s too many councillors and MPs for that matter that just get brought in from some random place to serve the community and they know nothing about it.