This is the information sent to The Argus. It should appear on Thurdsay 22 April 2010, two weeks before polling day
PARTY Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition
MARRIED/SINGLE just remarried
WHERE BROUGHT UP Brought up in St. Martins Street, off the Lewes Road, Brighton since teenage years
OCCUPATION: Now a University teacher
INTERESTS: ie hobbies: writing/editing books on equality (17 so far, arguing for more equality, and arguing against racism, sexism, homophobia, and the wholesale discrimination against the working class). Seeing my children and grandchildren. And, I’m a finger-picking guitar player. And photographer. I was a (not particularly good) photo-journalist for a time.
WHY I WANT TO BE MP: (In no more than 250 words) Why do you want to be MP?/Local issues that matter/why should our readers vote for you/what is the policy that could win you the election/what would be your number one priority for change?
I’m standing to fight the jobs massacre and cuts in public services that all the main parties promise. Already in Brighton there are plans to slash police, lecturers, council workers. Every school in Brighton will lose teachers. But these cuts aren’t necessary! Instead- scrap Trident, PFI and ID cards, bring home troops from Afghanistan, and tax the rich!
Since working on building sites with my dad and brothers, I have spent my lifetime as a teacher- and tradeunionist- in `challenging’ primary and secondary schools and in higher education trying to tackle inequalities in schooling.
I am standing as a Workers’ MP on a Workers’ Wage- the only candidate to do so. I was Labour for 44years- standing for Parliament for Labour in Brighton, and leading the Labour Group of Councillors. But I’m against New Labour, dancing to the same big business tune now as the Tories and LibDems.
The groups involved in the Brighton Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) led the Defend Council Housing campaign, successfully keeping Brighton’s council stock in public ownership- was despite all political parties voting (one way or another) against full public ownership.
I, and TUSC, disagree that ordinary working and poor people must pay for the crisis caused by the bankers, big business and their politicians. We say `improve public services, create a much more equal society, increase the minimum wage, raise pensions, reverse anti-trade union laws, and encourage a movement of ordinary people to set up a new left party to replace Labour’.
See the campaign website at www.brightontusc.blogspot.com
