May will soon be coming around again, and I cannot wait! Not because my birthday is in May, but because it will give me the chance to stand as a Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) candidate again in the local council elections on an anti-austerity programme.
I am standing in Fulwood ward in Sheffield again. Last year, I was fortunate to attend a hustings with the other candidates.
Well, that was the plan. The sitting Liberal Democrat candidate did not attend, and neither did the Conservative. I like to think it was the thought of facing a TUSC candidate, but probably down to how they view the electorate.
Sheffield council is run by a coalition between Labour, Greens, and the Liberal Democrats.
The Green candidate said that, through collaborative working, they had managed to agree a budget well before the deadline. I reminded them that there was nothing to celebrate about a budget that cut millions from the social services!
The Labour candidate’s main attack on me was that what I was proposing in fighting the cuts was illegal – which it is not. But this gave me the opportunity to state that it should be illegal for politicians to allow people to be cold, hungry and homeless!
In Sheffield, we are standing a candidate in every ward in the city, and plan to stand at least one candidate in the general election too. So if you are considering standing, but are not sure, take it from me – there is nothing more fulfilling than to be able to stand up, showing that there is an alternative to cuts and austerity. Be part of the fightback against this rotten political system.
John Bunn, Sheffield South East Socialist Party
