Interview with James Tibbitts, Labour candidate in Bradshaw, Bolton

Interview with James Tibbitts, Labour candidate in Bradshaw, Bolton

• Why a Labour candidate in Bradshaw?

I’ve lived in Bradshaw all my life, I went to school there, so I have a strong connection with it and I don’t believe the Conservative Party will get that. In an area like Bradshaw, and generally speaking in Bolton, people are struggling so it’s very different if you were going to speak with a candidate from down south. Bradshaw is one of the more social economically prosperous areas, but even an area like that needs money spent on the pavement, the roads; it needs a sense of community that it used to have when I was a child but definitely not now, it needs money being spent on the green spaces and also a bit of police presence (because some of the residents say there isn’t enough and there’s still crime so the neighbours are keeping an eye on one another in a way they shouldn’t have to). We have a Conservative council in Bolton, and a Conservative government, so Bradshaw needed someone to stand for them and the Labour Party is going to stand for them. If I’m completely honest, I do care about Bradshaw, that is just a seat in my town but I care of all the seats; so that’s why I’m the candidate for Bradshaw. I’m running to try to stop the Conservative cuts.

• What are the main issues you want to prioritise in this campaign?

The main one to me is the 70 million pounds that are going to be taken by the Conservative government from Bolton. That is the main issue because all the other issues will be affected by that. You studied Politics so I’m sure you know that as much as it would be great that money wasn’t the antithesis of everything that’s going on, without money, what can we do? Lots of these issues that we have need investment, and we want to create long-term socioeconomic benefits. The town of Bolton is socioeconomically struggling, and they’re going to take more money away from it, so that is by far the biggest issue. 

I’m very proud of being from Bolton, so I made lots of friends in the area by meeting with people my age, and they weren’t as much privileged as I was in terms of their socioeconomic background. The idea that their communities are also going to be affected by cuts the government wants to implement, that’s where I have a big issue.

Money being taken out of the council means less opportunities for the council to fix issues that are in the community, that’s the main thing I want to run on, but then you would have lots of another things that are more targetted towards the specific area I’m running in that would also be affected by money being taken away. 

• Why is Labour the best alternative to the Conservatives in Bolton?

I think Labour’s the best alternative to the Conservatives anywhere, not just in Bolton, and that is because we live in a country that has a FPTP system that only really allows a choice of two parties. Our ideology is based on caring and sharing opportunity with people. You have to look at what the two parties are offering, as much as it would be lovely for people to have the option of more parties (there is the Greens and the LibDems), you have to go with the Conservatives who operate on a conservationist right-wing approach, or you go to Labour that it was founded on a philosophy of caring for those around you. I as an individual care about those around me because that’s how I was raised, and generally speaking, what life shows is that the sharing of opportunity and resources for caring for one another benefits everyone in the long term. Those principles, those values directed towards the party that I think is most fitting to accomodate my philosophy and influence me as well. The Conservative Party doesn’t have an interest in doing that for me.That’s why Labour is the only alternative in Bolton and elsewhere. 

 

Interview with Tom Morton, Labour candidate for Hayes & Coney Hill, Bromley

 Interview with Tom Morton, Labour candidate for Hayes & Coney Hill, Bromley

• Why a Labour candidate in Hayes and Coney Hill?

I’ve been a member of the Labour Party for 8 years, I joined as soon as I could when I turned 16. My family has a rich history of being members of the Labour Party, my dad was a Labour councillor twice before I was born. I’ve always been Labour, it’s part of my life. I decided to run as a candidate mainly because of the age of the average councillor in the UK, only the 10% of councillors are under the age of 40, and that means that young adults and students aren’t represented in most councils and I think that needs to change. I think we as a party, specially in Bromley, we’re definitely trying to do that with a 10% of our candidates in this local election being under the age of 25, and several more being under the age of 30. The other reason is that, for all my life, the Bromley council has always been Conservative and my local representation has always been Tory as well. How can we have a healthy democracy without accountability? It’s always been like this, the Tories haven’t had any accountability in our local council and I think that should change. 

• What are the main issues you want to prioritise in your campaign?

In my opinion it’s quite plain and simple, everyone’s priority right now should be the climate emergency. My experience on this subject comes from my final degree project in my Physics undergraduate at the University of York, I’m currently researching whether fusion can help to solve the climate emergency, and that means that a lot of my research is based around the climate crisis and all of its components on a political and public policy level. It’s not looking good at all, so that’s my number one priority and it should be yours and everyone’s undoubtedly.

Other priority that I’m quite passionate about is social housing, I think that currently it’s a big problem in the UK and I don’t believe there’s any chance that any Conservative leadership will ever try to tackle this, Labour’s the only party that has good coherent policy on this issue.

• Why is Labour the best alternative to the other parties in Bromley?

I believe that Labour at a local and a national level is by far the best alternative in my borough of Bromley. The Conservatives are taking us as a joke, they don’t care and we need to start showing people and get them to understand that they don’t care about them. With COVID and the current cost of living crisis the Tories refuse to spend money on the people they represent. As Labour, we would invest in the people that we represent and try to help them in the current crisis that’s come out of Brexit and the pandemic.

Interview with Sheila Simpson, Green candidate in Queen’s Park, Brent

 Interview with Sheila Simpson, Green candidate in Queen’s Park, Brent

• Why a Green candidate in Queen’s Park?

I find myself very surprised to be in this place, because I don’t consider myself someone who is interested in politics. The things that matter to me are social justice and climate change, and those two things need to come together. The climate emergency is the central issue and I’m disatisfied with the other parties’ approach, so I joined my local branch which is a small group of people fairly independently minded, people who impressed me and even though I don’t think I have a chance of winning, I really felt that democracy needs proper opposition. In Brent, the majority of the seats are Labour, there’s 1 LibDem who is doing really well (so we’re not standing against him) and 3 Conservatives. The more I found out about our local politics, the more I realise that the way the Leader of the council and the small cabinet rule the organisation means there’s almost no listening. They make the decisions and tell people what they have done. My experience has been that the ordinary people are way ahead of the government when it comes to wanting action on the climate emergency, if you talk to people they make sense. It’s a bit like with COVID, when you ask them to do something they did it, because they understood that was important. It would be an honour and a huge responsibility to be a councillor. This is the ward I lived in for 30 years, this area has become very gentrified over time, and it’s very prosperous. I’m not interested in power, I’m interested in the climate, in getting something done, it’s all about getting results. I do believe in democracy, it’s the best of the systems but we need to reform it, we need proportional representation (PR).

• What are the main issues you want to prioritise?

I’m not telling the people, I’m asking them what their priorities are. A key issue is air quality in schools, the air we breath is toxic. The other thing that’s happening in our borough is there’s lots of raw sewage going into the local waterways. This year, particularly after lockdown, people began to care more about the environment and to value the green spaces. That really matters to people now, and some of our waters are dirty. Those are immediate environmental things.

There’s also the cost of living crisis, we need to do something about our housing stock, which is old. A lot of people are renting, so they rely on landlords to maintain the buildings, but landlords aren’t necessarily doing what they could to insulate those homes so there’s a huge amount of energy wasted. In terms of activism I spend time with XR campaigning with them and doing some small actions just to keep on keeping on with this, otherwise there’s no future. 

• Why are the Greens the best alternative to the other parties?

We need an active opposition to Labour, that’s my feeling, to challenge the party that’s been there for 10 years, that’s how democracy should work. All I can say is, having never joined a political party in all of my life until five years ago, I’ve always campaigned for social justice through XR and the CND, and when I read the Green Party manifesto I agreed with everything and I thought of joining the party, and that’s what happened. If that was my experience, perhaps there are people out there similarly that don’t consider themselves quite political but they do want change. That change is possible, it’s something about a real alternative but also about working with other people. 

Interview with Brenner Munden, Liberal Democrat candidate for South Weald, Brentwood

 Interview with Brenner Munden, Liberal Democrat candidate for South Weald, Brentwood

• Why a LibDem candidate in South Weald?

In South Weald we used to have a Liberal Democrat councillor named James Shawcross, he was a really good LibDem, he used to knock on the doors of everyone. All the residents remember him, although he is no longer a councillor. Then the Conservatives just got elected and were in power ever since. The LibDem presence in South Weald died off, but last year there was a tie between us and the Conservatives, although the Tories won; but we’re becoming strong again in this area.

• What are the main issues you want to prioritise?

The biggest issue this year is overdevelopment, there’s two major development sites along our main street, and this road is a very busy one, so what’s going to be built there adds to the pressures we already have on our local schools and GP surgeries. That’s the biggest concern, we think there’s not enough infrastructure and this is quite a risk to local residents.

Other issues are the state of the roads and pavements, not just the potholes, which are terrible; it’s really difficult to walk around South Weald because it’s been neglected for the past few years. Not enough money has been spent on repairing roads and pavements. 

Of course there’s other issues locally that affect South Weald, for example: there’s no longer a police station in the ward, we want to see our green belt being protected, and I’ve recently done a health survey where residents are very concerned about local access to GPs and high waiting times. More has to be done to improve access to healthcare. 

• Why are the LibDems the best alternative to the Conservatives in South Weald?

I personally live in South Weald, a lot of residents know me, so I’m a local face and any issues directly affect me. In terms of the LibDems, we’re in opposition and we just want to recover our voice in the council, having an extra voice to put pressure on the Conservatives to address all the local issues. That’s why it’s really important to get a LibDem councillor. In South Weald there’s a race between the Conservatives and the LibDems, Labour can’t win here, so we are the alternative. If people aren’t happy with the way South Weald’s been neglected during the past few years then this is the time to change by electing a Liberal Democrat.

Interview with Will Conway, Labour candidate for Bromley Town, Bromley

 Interview with Will Conway, Labour candidate for Bromley Town, Bromley

• Why a Labour candidate in Bromley Town?

Basically because they deserve better than what they’re getting at the moment, and I think we are the only ones who really have the resources (nationally apart from locally). When you are making promises to people in a national level you should be following that policy at the local level. The LibDems and Greens are never going to be the party of national power, they might grow, but when it comes to the cost of living crisis and so on, they are not going to have a reasonable approach to the reality. Single-issue parties like the SNP have it difficult to show unity, they’ve just got one policy. 

• What are the main issues you want to prioritise?

We’ve got various issues, the national stuff on corruption is also one but that’s more of a thing to get votes. On local issues, the council just refused to spend money on things, they’re letting things run away. We have an issue which is fly-tipping, it’s not only a local issue, it’s a central problem because nobody gets prosecuted for dumping rubbish. Potholes will take ages to do because there’s no one doing anything about them. Council houses are old, housing is another important issue.

Bromley is London’s greenest borough: more than 50% of Bromley is park land, but people don’t use that park land very much. They don’t use the spaces as much as they should. The council don’t spend any money on them. They don’t use the money to spend it on tackling poverty. 

The other thing is environment, Bromley has the worst death rate for air pollution in London, and the council calls it “standard air quality”! They do nothing for schools, with pollution around schools.

• Why is Labour the best alternative to the other parties in Bromley?

The minor parties don’t seem to be putting anything in, there’s a purely local issues party in Chislehurst which is about speeding, buildings and these things, but it’s not about the people. Labour cares about the people and looks after the poor in the borough, whilst the Conservatives seem to prioritise other wards. I have a plan for the people, I care about the people. 

Interview with Doro Oddiri, Liberal Democrat candidate in Thamesmead East, Bexley

 Interview with Doro Oddiri, Liberal Democrat candidate in Thamesmead East, Bexley

• Why a LibDem candidate in Thamesmead East?

I am running as a LibDem candidate because the LibDems are the only party that has values I can identify with. It is the only party that has a feasible plan to address the cost of living crisis. The Tory Party is in government, and what has Boris Johnson done to address this crisis? The LibDems are the only alternative, they want to address the issues that affect us, national issues like the cost of living crisis. In my ward we have a Labour councillor representing us. Labour has been dreadful over 20 years. Where I live, our waters are polluted with sewage, because the oil companies, the big corporations are pumping sewage in our rivers day by day; killing wildlife and causing pollution, and we have a Labour councillor who voted against naming the companies that are doing this. They are the friends of big corporations. Why don’t they tax these oil and energy companies that are making profit and benefitting from this cost of living crisis? That way we could use that money to tackle the suffering of the poor, but the government refused to do that. The government is not honest: look at Boris Johnson, who is embarrassing the political elites. He has lied in public, the police has given him a fine, what is he waiting for? Does he want to be there ruling the country with that reputation? He’s creating disillusionment in politics. People are disillusioned with politics because they promise and lie without delivering to the people. What Boris Johnson is doing presently is augmenting that disillusion. During the lockdown people couldn’t visit their loved ones, and Boris Johnson was having parties, then he lied to parliament. He should go. For all these facts, I have come to the conclusion that the LibDems are the only party who has a credible plan for the people. 

• What are the main issues you want to prioritise in the campaign?

In this place we have our rivers filled with sewage, and we don’t have public toilets in the ward. That is an embarrassment. Another local issue is the GP service, to get a GP appointment you wait endlessly because to get a basic appointment you have to make a lot of calls to get it. The LibDems want to invest in the GP service, to bring a reduction in such waiting times. I’m not talking about an operation, I’m talking about basic GP appointments. That’s a very serious issue in my ward, so that is why I came out to address these local issues. I am one of the residents, I am experienced, I know what I’m talking about, I know the issues and I am in tune with the LibDems to resolve them. 

The LibDems will reduce VAT to tackle the cost of living crisis and help struggling families and businesses. We also want to impose a windfall tax on the profits of big energy corporations who have been benefitting from this crisis, so if we tax them, and the money we make from such taxation will be used for a rescue package for the less privileged, for the most vulnerable. 

If you look at all these policies together, we are the only party that has a concrete plan for the British people to deal with this cost of living crisis following the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. 

• Why are the LibDems the best alternative to the Conservatives and Labour?

I’ll tell you why, it’s because we have the best deal for the country in terms of dealing with the crisis and local issues. Boris Johnson has broken the law and he has to resign. The more he seats there, the more he’s embarrassing his party and the country. As for Labour Leader Keir Starmer, he is too stiff, he had hundreds of opportunities to take out Boris Johnson. He’s not given us an effective opposition, I would prefer the LibDems to be the opposition party in this country. The LibDems suffered a lot from the time of the coalition with the Conservatives. Nick Clegg made a u-turn on a key policy (tuition fees) and that costed the LibDems over 40 MPs. We came out of that coalition with less than 7 MPs, so what I’m trying to say is because we suffered immensely for a u-turn in one of our policies, there is more tendency that we won’t change our current manifesto. We rebuilt the party from the bottom up under the leadership of Sir Ed Davey, so I’d prefer they were the ruling party because they’re the only party whose ideas are credible.

Interview with Anthony Molloy, Labour candidate in Kilburn, Brent

 Interview with Anthony Molloy, Labour candidate in Kilburn, Brent

• Why a Labour candidate in Kilburn?

I’ve always been a member of the Labour Party, I’m a socialist through and through, and the reason I’m standing now is because I recently retired and I have the time to do the job of councillor properly.

• What are the main issues you want to prioritise in the campaign?

I have an expertise in a couple of areas, I work with an organisation called the Labour Land Campaign, which tackles land issues, mostly about land value taxation and wealth taxation. My experience with that organisation has given me some some expertise on land-related issues, and one of the main land-related issues in Britain and elsewhere consists in the construction of social housing and the funding of big regeneration and infrastructure projects: that relationship between developers and public authorities is completely asymmetrical, you have a skyscraper of lawyers and accountants on one side (for the developer); and basically local authorities aren’t using the powers they actually have to the full extent, notably in the use of public land. I can bring some expertise in that field and Kilburn is a site of major regeneration plans: there’s one project down in the south of the ward.

The other area of expertise that I have in this outsource times is that I know how to read contracts (a skill that most representatives lack), specially in an unprivileged ward like this one within an average borough, where we see the basic services like rubbish collection not being fulfilled. What you have to do is find out the contraventions, go to the contract, see if there’s a contravention and then if it is, pursue it so they have to pay. Outsourcers have to pay, and they don’t like to do that, and hopefully that will improve services. The point is that the services in my part of the borough are obviously being underprovided compared with other richer parts of the borough. Kilburn is definitely underprivileged compared with close wards like Queen’s Park.

• Why is Labour the best alternative to the other parties in the area?

Because, certainly in my ward, the rents are high; so a Labour councillor is the only one that’s going to construct social housing to solve the housing crisis.

Small interview with Simon Anthony, Green candidate in Northbury, Barking and Dagenham

 Small interview with Simon Anthony, Green candidate in Northbury, Barking and Dagenham

• Why a Green candidate in Northbury?

Well, it’s the same reason there should be Green candidates in any borough and anywhere on the planet. We all face the problems of environmental degradation and the catastrophe of the COVID attack that has forced us all to think about our lifestyles. The war in Ukraine at the moment is another example of resource force: people scrambling over the remaining oil. Greens are saying we should use alternative energies like solar power, which is particularly easy to use. We’ve been waiting forever for people to know that there is an environmental cost to everything we do, but individuals should not need to change their lifestyles. It is perfectly possible for everyone to have as much as they need and a little bit more if things are distributed correctly and not wasted. Things can be maintained and recovered, reused, and when they can’t be, they can be recycled to be turned into something else. We have all the knowledge we need to put this planet right, we just need to do it. The reason we don’t do it is because there’s an amount of money and effort put into generating the infrastructure which got us to this level of civilisation. The infrastructure that got us here is still working, it’s getting harder to maintain and to fuel and the big businesses are still trying to scrape the last pennies or billions out of the stock they invested in existing infrastructure, but they are changing. 

• Why do you think the Greens are the best alternative as a party?

We know that minor parties are only minor if the media considers us to be. The fact that I had been doing things like these, moving from being completely ignored through being laughed at to now being thought of as dangerous, and people realising we were right all along, shows there’s no alternative but to follow the Green lead. We’ve known these problems were coming for decades literally, and we’ve been doing our best to help people avoid them, but we failed and I’m very sorry, because we couldn’t make people understand or believe the dangers we were heading towards, and now we’re all suffering because of that. 

Interview with George McMenemy, Conservative candidate in North Baddesley, Hampshire (The election took place in March 2022)

 Interview with George McMenemy, Conservative candidate in North Baddesley, Hampshire

• Why a Conservative candidate in North Baddesley?

I think it really boils down to change. North Baddesley had been Liberal Democrat for 27 years and I’ve always lived around the area. I’ve really integrated myself in the community, loved it and also heard a lot about what had gone wrong in terms of local representation. I’m a moderate conservative and I’ve seen the good work the Conservatives have done on Test Valley Borough Council and how there is a big appetite for change and new energy and that’s why I thought it was worth standing in the by-election campaign as a Conservative candidate, to just offer a viable alternative. It’s not even about winning, it’s about offering something different for people.

• What are the main issues you prioritised in the campaign?

The biggest thing in the area I live in and in Test Valley is development of houses (new houses schemes). The Liberal Democrat team came to the decision to develop over 300 new houses in an area called Hoe Lane and the issue I have it’s not a problem with housing, we need housing; but the problem is what it does to the character of the villages we live in where these developments won’t change a single thing to the infrastructure in the village, so for example, the school places won’t change when these houses are built, the local doctor surgery won’t change in terms of the number of doctors and staff it has; so the strain it puts on local services is unbearable and what it would do with the traffic on the roads will just change the whole character of the village that people live in, and their voice wasn’t being heard. That’s what I felt that was the voice of residents and that wasn’t being heard in any election debate or campaign I’ve heard in the area for many years, so talking about that sort of thing that isn’t normally spoken about is probably the most key issue to people in terms of what the borough council can do, and that’s an issue that people really care about to ensure that our green belts and the countryside we live in is protected and that local services are also protected. That’s the main thing we prioritised, and I’m really glad I did it because I realise speaking to people that it is an important issue for residents. 

• Why are the Conservatives the best alternative to the other parties in your area?

The record for the Conservatives in the local area speaks for itself, we come from a very Conservative area, so I think the fact that we can cooperate with other parties is really important, so I would never say that I always have a monopoly on anything that’s better than them but what is important is that on issues that matter to people, the Test Valley Conservative borough council has one of the best records in the country for a “zero tolerance” approach for people that has been prosecuted for dumping illegal substances that are causing harm to people; also in terms of protecting local services, keeping things open… They’re the only party on the local government of Test Valley which makes me feel a connection between myself as a resident and my local government officials. I always say: “What is the point of having local government if you don’t have that connection with people?” and what I’ve realised from standing as a candidate is that they (the Conservatives) gave me so much free range to decide what my priorities were and what I wanted to bring in terms of mental health support for people, highlighting community support and togetherness; the way they gave me the ability to stand up for what I believed in showed that they want individuals of all different types and that they want the council to be more than just approving housing, they want it to be more than that  and that really appealed to me. 

Interview with Sachin Patel, LibDem candidate in East Finchley, Barnet

 Interview with Sachin Patel, LibDem candidate in East Finchley, Barnet

• Why a LibDem candidate in East Finchley?

I’ve lived in East Finchley for some time, a number of years, I know the area well and I got to know it better in the last general election (2019) we had in this country, where we did a lot of campaigning in the area. It forms part of a constituency called Finchley and Golders Green, which was very contested in the general election, including by the Liberal Democrats, who finished second; and over the course of that election I got to know the individual kind of neighbourhoods in that area, and it felt that at some point I’d like to represent it myself at a local level. I’m the chair of the Barnet Liberal Democrats. Barnet is one of the largest boroughs of London, and the LibDems are the only political party I’ve ever been a member of, I actually joined some time ago during the era of the coalition, which was between the Conservatives and the LibDems. At that time I realised having not been party political until then, I thought the Liberal Democrats were a moderating force in politics; they were offering centrist pragmatic solutions. They have a strong credibility but also a great sense of equality and opportunity for all. 

Our values are civil liberties and individual freedoms, which are very important for me. I couldn’t imagine being a candidate when I joined the party and I think actually that the values we have as Liberal Democrats are very much in tune with the values many people have in this area of London; to give you one example, I think we were one of the top 30 constituencies in the country in terms of percentage of people who voted to remain in the EU in the 2016 referendum, that generally tells you something about the demographic, because people generally have an open attitude to other cultures, economies, trade and globalisation. They are welcoming of many communities, we have a very diverse community where we live. For so long people hadn’t really thought of the Liberal Democrats as being a force in our area, but the last general election changed people’s attitudes.

• What are the main issues you prioritise in this campaign?

There are three things, I’m glad you ask me about it at this point because we just finished writing our local election manifesto, so the number one priority for us is a strong approach for the environment and the climate emergency. This is the thing that’s in most people’s minds leaving aside near term priorities, it is the looming challenge of our time and I really believe that the other two national parties (Labour and the Conservatives) are nowhere by comparison on this issue and I feel when we talk to voters of all generations, they are very aware of this burning platform in terms of climate change and the environment. They know that people need to take radical decisions and implement radical proposals if we are really going to make headway with this, so in this election for us, having a strong package of ideas for what we will do on the environment side of things and in a local setting is really important, and we try to be realistic and focused it on what will work in the community, but crucially we are getting out there and saying we would do certain things like insulation and those kinds of home energy efficiency measures that are very tangible for people because it’s not just important in terms of climate change but also in terms of cost of living and health. It’s things like a local infrastructure for cycling, walking and electric cars, these are the things people want. I’ve talked to people who bought electric cars and can’t find anywhere to charge them, because the infrastructure is not in tune with what people want to be doing in terms of individual decisions. We see that in terms of cycling, people want to take alternative methods of transport but they don’t see the infrastructure to support that. It’s really tangible things we are talking about in terms of the environment and climate change and it’s also about things that we can do as a council, like leading from the front whether that’s about our food and drink or being more planet-friendly, it’s working with other elements of the public sector to put in place small changes that can make a difference in terms of how we get around, like schools (what they can do to work with neighbourhoods to encourage people to travel to school by bike or bus); so environment is the number one priority.

The second big thing is to focus on local priorities, it’s the things people see around them that they feel maybe are overlooked or ignored: the state of roads and pavements, the way that traffic and parking on roads are seen by people in their particular neighbourhood and what it feels like to me when I talk to people in this area is that they have ideas on how to solve these things but instead what they experience is a top down approach from local government, so I think there needs to be relentless focus on those local issues people can touch and feel and not just the things for the communities that shout the loudest. We’re seeing the steady erosion of green spaces in areas where there’s social housing, I think this is a real problems because these are communities that actually don’t have so much of a voice and I want to make sure that if the council is trying to build more homes on top of existing green spaces this community has to have more of a say, because you can’t have your rights and freedoms trampled over for the sake of a top down target in terms of the necessity to build a number of homes. 

A third priority would be looking at the widening gaps and inequalities, specially for our younger people. As a political party we’re very focused on early life chances and educational opportunity, I think what we’ve really seen (that the pandemic has shown) is that there’s a lot of inequality in terms of what provision there is and how different families have been able to pick up the Slack when schools weren’t running. There’s such a gap between those who don’t have internet, digital devices in their homes or quiet places to work from and the rest, and now businesses have gone back as usual without thinking about what are the measures that are going to recover what’s been lost, so what we want to see is what can we do in terms of better use of available sources of funding to target those who have really been hit hard by the pandemic, not only providing additional resources for education but also what can we do to make sure that those schools aren’t being disrupted in the future. One of the things we want to look at is how schools can invest in stuff to improve the air quality in their environment. That’s just one example but we generally want to do more in terms of the opportunities we are providing for younger people. We’ve seen an erosion of youth services, things that occupy the time of our young people and I think what we can do is really empower and join the dots between the voluntary sector (charities and organisations working in the area). 

• Why are the LibDems the best alternative for the other parties in the area?

At this election for us it’s really about continuing the momentum from the last general election in 2019. It was the Liberal Democrats that posed a challenge to the Conservatives and we want to demonstrate that was not a flash in the past and that many people who lent us their vote in 2019 and helped as come second are not abandoning us now and going back to their old political homes. The should know that we’re actually there, we’re listening, we want to do more for the community basically and continuing with that support the LibDems will achieve those outcomes. 

The other thing I would say on this that we are the party that is building the bridges to people from different political perspectives, if I look at people who have joined the party whether it’s ordinary members locally or even councillors leaving their previous parties and moving over to the Liberal Democrats, it’s people from both sides; and what that tells me is that when we’re talking to our voters people might be a traditional Conservative voter but they might be really angry at the national government and Boris Johnson, they’re probably not ready to jump completely to the other side and vote Labour: we really are that kind of centrist moderate party that people who are disillusioned with either of the other big parties can actually turn to, and also people who are not themselves party political and just want to see stuff get done. It is the Liberal Democrats that actually are the best place to take the challenge to the Conservatives at the next general election and therefore we want to send a really strong message at this local elections that there is that sustained trajectory from 2019 by this local elections through to the next general election whenever it happens, and I think at that next general election there is a great opportunity to finish what we started in 2019 and unseat a Conservative MP which is growing less and less popular by the day because of his association with an extremely unpopular national Conservative government.

Interview with Michael Swadling, Pro-Brexit activist and Croydon Constitutionalists campaigner

 Interview with Michael Swadling, Pro-Brexit activist and Croydon Constitutionalists campaigner

•            Why a constitutionalist alternative in Croydon?

The Croydon Constitutionalists are a nonpartisan events and campaigning group.  The group’s purpose is to promote a Classically Liberal set of ideas and encourage others to campaign and promote individual freedom.  The name comes from a label used by some British politicians standing for Parliament in the 1920s, instead of the more traditional party labels.  The term was meant to signify that the adherents believed in the principles of English constitutional government through electoral politics.

 

•            What are the main issues you campaign for?

As a group we aim to run events promoting Classical Liberal ideas and promote parties that are broadly pro individual liberty.  In practical terms this means we host a libertarian drinks each month, we have held street stalls with the TaxPayers’ Alliance asking for restraint in council spending.  We have held hustings with parties including The Heritage Party, SDP, Christian Peoples Alliance, UKIP, Libertarian Party and others.  Broadly we are in favour of Brexit, Low Taxes, Free Speech, Free Markets, and Rational science not climate alarmism.  We try to find national organisations or groups we can partner with on a local level to campaign for these things. 

 

Our local borough council (Croydon Council) has gone onto de facto bankruptcy over the past couple of years with the issuing of a Section 114 notice (basically a requirement to be bailed out by central government).  We have spent a considerable amount of time campaigning against the overspend and misspend of Croydon Council.   

 

•            I see you have been involved with the Leave campaign, how would you analyse the government's approach to Brexit and the deal they have secured?

I ran the Croydon Vote Leave campaign and with the help of many others we ran a large campaign across the borough.  The Johnson government came in having to secure a deal from the appalling negotiation May’s government had undertaken.  I would have preferred a clean break from the EU, and a new relationship on WTO terms.  I don’t believe it’s possible to negotiate a reasonable deal with a party that doesn’t believe you are an equal.  I believe the EU regards the UK as someone of a renegade province and it these circumstances it is not possible to negotiate as equals.  Johnson’s government was elected to ‘Get Brexit Done’ and given the backdrop of a parliament and wider establishment determined to stop the will of the people he needed to make the best of the situation at hand.  For all the problems of the deal, Brexit has been ‘done’ for Great Britain, it however has not been completed for the United Kingdom, with Northern Ireland staying inside the Customs Union and in effect in the EU.  The EU has shown time and time again that it does not want to act in good faith regarding the movement of goods between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.  We need to invoke article 16 and withdraw Northern Ireland from the Customs Union, to finally get Brexit done.  This will create some problems for trade within the island of Ireland, but we have two separate countries here, and some problems relate to separate tax regimes exist already.  It’s common for friendly governments with separate customs regimes to operate along open borders (see most of the US/Canada border), there is no reason why Northern Ireland / Republic of Ireland could not be the same. 

 

•            What would be your analysis of the current situation of the Conservative Party?

From the moment the Conservatives won an 80-seat majority in 2019, they were always likely to win the next election (likely to be in 2023 / 2024).  Even recent setbacks in the polls have owed more to 2019 Conservative voters moving to undecided than moving to Labour.  So, no matter what else happens, it is still likely that the Conservatives will win the next election.  The question I would ask is what is the point of the Conservative Party?  What is the purpose of the Johnson government?  Initially the Johnson government ‘got Brexit done’, this mattered but they have been reluctant to move beyond the initial phase of this and failed to invoke Article 16 to release Northern Ireland from the EU. 

 

Lockdown was a disaster, we had a plan for pandemics and similar to Sweden it involved no lockdown. The Conservative Party choose to steal our freedom for 2 years, destroy our economy, create huge NHS backlogs, set back childhood development for all ages, and massively worsen the countries mental health.  All of this was done possibly with the best intentions, but with no good outcome.  When you compare countries with harsh lockdowns to those without lockdown, death rates have no correlation.  Lockdowns didn’t work on Covid, they did however cause untold damage to the nation.  We are now seeing the Conservatives preside over a period high taxation, high public spending, record house prices (leading to fewer homeowners) and high costs of living (due to Net Zero policies they have pursued).  What is the purpose of a Conservative Government if we have high tax, high spend, high cost of living and low home ownership?  The Conservatives risk losing their core support and in the long term this will damage them with fewer activists coming forward, and a smaller base to rely on.

 

More recently Partygate is damaging to the Johnson regime.  PM Johnson has proven he thinks the rules do not apply to him only to us.  It’s not clear why in the future anyone should follow a law from this government, since no one believes the government will follow them, themselves.  Johnson has found popularity again with his handling of the Ukraine crises, but I do believe this will be temporary as it becomes clear his government still suffer from a basic contempt for the British public.

Interview with Gavin Hawkton, Green Party candidate in Castle ward, Carlisle

 Interview with Gavin Hawkton, Green Party candidate in Castle ward, Carlisle

Why a Green candidate in Castle?

Castle Ward is the ward that is right in the heart of Carlisle, yet it’s also a ward that continues to be largely ignored by the major political parties who only show up at election time when they want votes.

At this level of politics, the standard of councillors is pretty poor, they have little imagination or any real ideas how to improve the wards they are representing. It’s a shame because in the centre of the city this is a ward with huge potential.

This is also a ward that the Green Party has performed well in the past. It’s a ward we can win, despite our difficult first passed the post system. While Labour Party in Carlisle continues its slide into dysfunctional irrelevance, we need a strong Green Party to provide real opposition to what is increasingly a cruel and backwards Conservative Party. To provide a positive and progressive voice on the council, the Green Party needs to win seats and Castle Ward is a great opportunity to do so.

 

What are the main issues you want to prioritise in this campaign?

I am prioritising the need for hard working councillors, those who work with residents around the year and don’t cynically show up at election time with dodgy leaflets that contain false promises. Local elections should be about local issues, that is our central message, politicians should work with residents throughout the year and not just election time.

There is a range of issues in the ward itself, the main one is really neglect with dirty streets and anti-social behaviour on the rise. To tackle this issue our message is that a stronger voice is needed, one that works with the community and presents a positive vision for a cleaner and greener city.

Why is the Green Party the best alternative to the other parties in your area?

The trap that most politicians fall into here is wanting to ‘be somebody’ instead of ‘doing something’ for the community they will represent. As a result, nothing gets done and communities are ignored.

The Green Party is active, engaged and listening to residents. Most importantly we are getting things done for them. In that respect we are the only real alternative to politics as usual in Carlisle.