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.

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 Lynne Devine, SNP candidate for Forfar, Angus

 Interview with Lynne Devine, SNP candidate for Forfar, Angus

• Why an SNP candidate in Angus?

We had had quite a lot of support for the SNP, not just in Forfar but in Angus. The last time we lost the administration because the Tories had such an upsurge and there was a huge anti-SNP campaign about opposing IndyRef2. That seemed to capture a lot of people’s feelings in this part of the world, it didn’t do so well in other parts of the country. We’ve got two candidates standing in Forfar: two women; there’s 8 people standing so with that kind of voting we’ve got that can go anywhere.  

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

There are so many things to deal with! Clearly the cost of living crisis is very important for us, for everybody, the costs are going to be enormous but in our more vulnerable parts of the town we normally see people having lots of difficulties to buy food and heat their homes, buy clothes for their kids, all of these things; so it’s going to be so worrying for people, their anxiety levels will go through the roof. We have very good links and partnerships which came out of the pandemic actually, in terms of providing people with food and support, and we need to build on this to overcome this very difficult period. Let’s hope that the government in Westminster tries to do something decent for a change and help people with their fuel bills, taxing the big fuel companies. We’ve got to try and do something, there’s been quite a deliberate austerity program that the Conservatives have carried out for the last 10 years.

We also have to address the climate crisis and that’s high up on my agenda

 because we just have to get moving. It is such a crisis and I don’t feel the administration that has been in power over the last five years has prioritised the climate emergency. We were the ones who brought forward the measure about it. That is absolutely vital for the SNP. If you work on the climate emergency and the poverty issues together, they just much, because fuel poverty and conserving energy go together hand in hand.  

The population is ageing, so I want to make sure that Forfar is a dementia-friendly town, we have a town near us that has done that (Kirriemuir) and I would like to emulate that. We’re opening a meeting centre in Forfar based on a Dutch methodology of working with people with early dementia, it has been very successful in keeping people at their homes, so that’s very exciting.

The council has been doing a lot on housing, implementing energy efficiency measures and that is very successful, but it’s expensive. The government has given money for that, but I think it could be done more quickly. There is also the big problem of private housing, because in some cases, particularly in our rural areas, is not in a very good state. 

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

I think we can bring a much cohesive administration, for the last five years we’ve had an administration of Conservatives and independents (who constantly voted with the Conservatives). They have lost some people, they have had several leaders and they have not trusted the people (they haven’t done very good consultations, they haven’t believed in participatory budgetting); and we would change that, we would try to bring about community empowerment and to listen to the 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.

Interview with Linda Clark, SNP candidate for Forfar, Angus

 Interview with Linda Clark, SNP candidate for Forfar, Angus

• Why an SNP candidate in Forfar?

For me, Forfar is a new area because my husband and I retired here after being councillors in another part of Scotland, so we retired and came here, and we did some voluntary work, which is how we started in the first place. The necessity for an SNP candidate on the Angus council, which is where Forfar is within, is because I firmly believe that the SNP will produce an egalitarian and humanitarian approach for the people of Forfar. I don’t have anything against the people who are running the council right now, but they don’t have the same values that I have. I formly believe my values are correct, to look after the vulnerable people with a socialist attitude that I have. 

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

The main things I want to see are in planning and development: I want to make sure that developers ensure that people live within a 20 minute radius of services, which includes getting to your doctor without having to use cars all the time (because I have an environmental attitude to things), getting to school; and that there’s not too many houses built, which makes the numbers for schools too much; and I want to make sure that when planners / developers ask to have their planning applications granted, they hear to Scottish planning policy, which is a good one and endorses all the things that I’ve said; and because I’ve been a councillor before planning was very important to me.

I also want to make sure that people have local jobs so that they don’t have to travel too far. I want to make sure that people who are poorer have a better start in life, that young families get a better chance; and we can’t do that unless we produce good housing, opportunities for jobs, good food, etc. These are priorities because with COVID and coming out of Europe we have to make sure that our money goes as far as it can. The economy is suffering at the moment. 

I want to see solar panels, we do get some sun in Scotland, believe it or not, so I want to use the sun to get away from fossil fuels, and we also have plenty power in the seas of Scotland that we could be using.

• Why is the SNP the alternative to the other parties in the area?

I have nothing against them personally, I want to work with everybody, if I get elected I will work perhaps in coalition, but I do believe that if the SNP gets in, it has much more concern with Scotland and all who live in Scotland. The Westminster government’s interests are very different to ours. Scotland is autonomist in its belief of its people, we are very jealous of our NHS as an example. I really feel that as an SNP candidate that my values are the ones which I feel are better for Scotland.

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 Cllr. George Carr, Scottish Conservative candidate in Mearns, Aberdeenshire

 Interview with Cllr. George Carr, Scottish Conservative candidate in Mearns, Aberdeenshire

• Why a Scottish Conservative candidate in Mearns?

I suppose the Conservative Party stands for certain values, it is a party of aspiration, we are people who want to do things for themselves, we don’t want the government to be controlling everything and spending everything on your behalf. People that vote Conservative will be looking for a councillor, a representative who is going to be careful with the finances of the council and who doesn’t want to see money wasted in all sorts of projects. We tend to focus more on where that money is generated, which is businesses and individuals, and to spend the money wisely and carefully rather than being used to subsidise all types of projects that people in general might wish for but those who are actually paying through taxation disagree. 

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

We are seeing reduced budgets from the Scottish government, they are not generating wealth through the wider economy and police, fire and councils are all suffering at the moment because they’re not seeing their budgets being increased. We’ve seen the cut of significant amounts of the budget last term and we’re likely to have to see some more cuts this next term. We need to spend that money more appropriately on just the priorities: making sure the grass is cut, the roads are repaired, we don’t have potholes, our infrastructure is up to standard and also making sure the schools have the resources they require and our services are addequately funded and maintained.

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

The Scottish Conservatives are the party of aspiration, it’s the party of the people who are prepared to go out there and do well and want the money from the country to flourish, because that’s the way we generate the resources to spend in all the things we wish public money to be spent on. We encourage the brightest and the best and we give them the opportunity to keep a bit of the money that they earn through the businesses or whatever, they’ll invest it and create jobs. Currently we’ve got higher taxation than England, we seem to want to spend a lot more than England in all sorts of projects, but there’s very little emphasis on generating that wealth in Scotland. The Conservatives in general we tend to focus on income and wealth generation and job creation, growing the Scottish economy. The Scottish government have not succeeded in advancing Scottish education, they do not want comparisons with other countries, they have closed down a lot of benchmarking that would highlight how good or otherwise Scottish education is. At the moment it’s not doing as well as it should be, and there’s no way of comparing the standards of education unless you’re prepared to open up your system to international scrutiny.

Interview with Blake Sharp, ALBA Party candidate in Monifieth, Angus

 Interview with Blake Sharp, ALBA Party candidate in Monifieth, Angus

• Why an Alba Party candidate in Monifieth?

This is a very SNP area and at the moment I think the SNP are failing to deliver on a lot of fronts, and I think that having an alternative option with a similar viewpoint is good. There’s a lot of people who are not happy with a specific party for various reasons and they have an alternative which is similar to a certain extent, but maybe slightly more family-oriented, for women’s rights, etc. I think having options is always good, having a monopoly is never a great thing.

That area is where I grew up, my family still stays there so I’m still very much involved in the community.

• What are the main issues you want to prioritise?

Because it’s a local council, all the issues are local issues, not national ones. There’s been a big push to expand the population, there’s been a new housing estate put up. It’s one of these areas where people like to live in, so it’s sort of a middle class area, where housing estates have been thrown out to try and offer new houses for people who want to stay there. The only problem with that is they’re not expanding the infrastructure. They’ve expanded the area so much without considering the actual population that lives there, so the schools are beyond capacity, there’s no banks, we’ve got one doctor surgery that was designed for the area prior to the expansion. After the COVID situation there’s been lots of mental health issues, so we have a population that does require health services. For me, it’s about getting infrastructure for the people.

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

Well, you obvously have the basic parties: Labour, Conservatives, SNP, Greens and Alba, those are the five big parties. Labour haven’t done very well in Scotland for quite a long time (after Ed Milliband’s leadership), the SNP stepped and filled that void; the Conservatives have done quite well, but they’re not very well received in Scotland to be honest; the Greens generally don’t get a lot of votes, possibly because Scotland is quite a big oil and gas place, so it doesn’t always do very well; the SNP have done very well being the alternative to Labour and the Conservatives, that’s how they came into power and whether you’re a nationalist or not a nationalist that was essentially the alternative.

I think the SNP have a lot of failings now, there’s been a lot of scandals associated with them, they don’t seem to care about women’s rights and education very well. There’s a lot of reasons why I don’t think they’re the best party for the job, so I think the Alba Party being an alternative to that with a maybe more traditional SNP values is required and always a good option.