Link to this page: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/990/27176
From The Socialist newspaper, 11 April 2018
Save our NHS candidate contesting South Yorkshire mayor election
Alistair Tice, Yorkshire Socialist Party secretary
Pointless. The election of a South Yorkshire metro mayor in May, at the cost of £1 million, is set to be one of the most pointless polls ever. The Tory government has insisted on it going ahead as part of ex-chancellor George Osborne's so-called Northern Powerhouse devolution deal, but Labour council leaders have been fighting like rats in a sack about it.
The Sheffield City region originally incorporated nine local authorities, but five in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire opted out and then Barnsley and Doncaster voted against inclusion favouring an all-Yorkshire deal instead. In 2012 Sheffield voted by 65% against a directly elected mayor.
And because no deal has been agreed yet, the mayor to be elected on 3 May will have no powers and no funding! Even if a deal is struck later, it will only bring £30 million a year to the whole region over the next 30 years, when Sheffield council alone has been cutting £50 million a year since 2010.
To make matters worse, it's almost certain that the new mayor will be Dan Jarvis, the Barnsley Labour MP who is a Blairite opponent of Jeremy Corbyn.
Jarvis won the Labour nomination with 2,584 votes in a poll of South Yorkshire members against Ben Curran, a Sheffield council cabinet member who got 1,903 votes. Jarvis' selection was backed by the old right-wing Labour machine in South Yorkshire.
Curran was backed by the left, trade unions and Momentum in the absence of their own nomination. But as a member of a council cabinet that has passed on over £400 million of Tory cuts in Sheffield, he was hardly an inspiring opponent to Jarvis, reflected in only 37% of party members voting.
However, the inclusion on the mayoral ballot paper of Naveen Judah as candidate for the newly registered 'South Yorkshire Save Our NHS' finally gives a point to this election. NHS campaigners have achieved wonders in raising the £5,000 deposit plus the £3,000 necessary for inclusion in the mayoral booklet. Apart from a £3,000 donation from the National Health Action Party, of which Naveen is a national officer, all the rest has been raised through small donations in a Crowdfunding appeal.
Naveen is standing to "fightback against the rationing, privatisation and service closures being rolled out across South Yorkshire", which includes £571 million cuts in NHS funding. He is campaigning against the 'shadow accountable care system', which will lead to more NHS privatisation, that hasn't been opposed by any of the four South Yorkshire Labour councils so far.
He says: "I will work with campaigning groups and organisations to stop and reverse cuts and privatisation" and as such Socialist Party members are recommending a vote for Naveen.
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In The Socialist 11 April 2018:
What we think
Alienation and austerity behind London deaths - fight for socialism
Socialist Party news and analysis
Gender pay gap figures show need for trade union action
Child poverty to hit 5m by 2021 - strikes can stop the cuts
Socialist Party comments and reviews
Striking analysis in heat of 1917 will deepen any reader's understanding
Moving look at school students' many perspectives on sexism
Socialist Party workplace news
NEU conference: Teachers vote to strike over pay and workload
PCS elections: Vote for Democracy Alliance candidates!
Surrey Unison takes the anti-austerity message to the chancellor's back yard
McStrike: ballot for strike action at six McDonald's stores
FCC Wilmington refuse workers' strike in hull stands firm
Aberdeen workers step up strike action against profiteering First Bus
Customs union
A socialist approach to Corbyn and a customs union
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
Save our NHS candidate contesting South Yorkshire mayor election
South West Socialist Party conference
Socialist Party meeting to discuss fightback against cuts to women's services
To produce the Socialist we need a building - help us keep ours!
Hull City supporters fight to reclaim their club and the game
Local elections 2018
May elections: a chance to fight attacks on health and social care
International socialist news and analysis
Defend socialist councillor Kshama Sawant against lawsuits
Poland: huge demos against right wing government's abortion ban
Workers' protests against state repression in China and Hong Kong
Ireland: March against misogyny and injustice
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