‘What have the kids got left? Nothing!’
Steve Score, Leicester Socialist Party
A very lively demo, full of young people, was organised by supporters of Leicester’s threatened adventure playgrounds. Council funding is to be ended, threatening the existence of these vital youth facilities in many of the poorest areas of Leicester.
One demonstrator, Charles Holland, said: “I’m here protesting on behalf of Braunstone Adventure Playground, and all the other playgrounds in Leicester, because the council wants to cut us all.
“Adventure playgrounds are free. Children can come and go as they please.
“We do activities with them, we keep them safe, we keep them off the streets.
“We try to teach them things individually. We’ve been going about 60 years in Braunstone.
“The council have just said ‘that’s it’, and washed their hands of us. This will have a massive impact on the communities, not just on ours, but on all the others.
“If this goes, what have the kids got left? Nothing!”
It says something that the Labour council does not even expect the new Labour government to provide the funding it needs, and isn’t even prepared to delay the cut one more year.
No to cuts in vital services. We need a new party that fights for working-class people.
Tories and Labour ‘empty chaired’ at hustings
Saada Mohamed, Leicester Socialist Party
There were noticeable absences from both the Tory and Labour candidates at the hustings hosted by a local newspaper – The Great Central Gazette. To emphasise their absences, their chairs were left empty. Labour’s candidate is Liz Kendall, the right-wing shadow work and pensions secretary.
In the hustings, there was emphasis on local people. But the other candidates focused on toeing their party lines when answering questions. They were just parroting the importance of local people.
Steve Score, the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) candidate for Leicester West, was different. He was able to answer questions in his own words, and answer questions directly.
Unlike the other candidates, Steve was not trying to buy people’s votes, but pointed to the big picture of what we can build, and what we stand for. Steve talked about building a mass workers’ party to achieve the goals of socialism.
There were questions about housing, questions about higher education. This allowed us to see if the candidates stood for anything.
