2021 Archive

November 2021 Canterbury council by-election:

Colin Gardner – Workers Party candidate for Gorrell

“I have lived in Canterbury since 1970, when we moved here from Yorkshire. My father was a head chef in the prison service and my mother a  housewife and telephonist. 

I have worked in Canterbury and its surrounding areas most of my life as a glazier, painter and decorator, in shops and warehouses and any other job I could find! After attending various night school classes I took an A-level and went on to university. I worked in education for many years before being made redundant. I now work in our family business and we have three grown-up children. 

The working class – the group of workers who must sell their labour to survive – is the largest class. I joined The Workers Party of Britain because it represents the worker and rejects false notions about class designed only to divide and rule. Our goal as workers is a common one: peace and prosperity for all; a good life for all is within our grasp. 

Locally, I’m fighting for: free public  transport for children all year round; free school meals using locally sourced produce; provision of free childcare and youth recreational facilities; development of sustainable industries to provide a range of skilled jobs to meet the needs of workers and communities rather than profiteers; truly affordable housing that is architecturally significant, modern, light and airy, sustainable and in developments on a human scale; protection for our built heritage and the natural environment.”

May 2021 council election candidates:

Our six-point national platform

All Workers Party candidates stand for the principals enshrined in our ten-point programme. In the local elections in England and Wales, our candidates are also standing on the following programme, confirming the definite steps we will take to alleviate the distress of the British working class.

If elected to office, our members will struggle in their communities for:

1. Local opportunities to rebuild British industry and infrastructure and protect local businesses, jobs, services and our natural environment.
2. No increase in council tax until local authorities have lobbied and won from national government a policy of a Corona Tax of 5% on the wealth of those individuals with fortunes in excess of £10 million.
   Such a tax on the richest members of our society has the potential to generate more than £17bn in tax revenue from just 4,500 multimillionaires – more than enough revenue to protect jobs and services.
3. Decent, affordable, secure housing for all, the protection of social housing stock and the rights of tenants and small landlords in the face of aggressive monopolistic groupings.
4. Free school meals for all children at local authority schools and academies, paid for from the cash reserves built up since 2010 by local authorities, which now sit on billions of pounds’ worth of ringfenced reserves.
5. Protection of local healthcare services, including the provision of all necessary support services for the disabled and the elderly, with full support to enable families to look after their elderly, including nursing homes and sheltered accommodation for those in need of them, so that all workers are able to live full, dignified and meaningful lives.
6. Free travel for children on buses throughout Britain. Whilst children in London have benefitted from such a scheme for many years, the bus companies in most cities and towns, as well as in rural areas, hold a virtual monopoly on public transport.
   Free travel on buses will provide children with access to education, work, cultural and social opportunities, as well as alleviating some of the excessive burden upon parents’ incomes. Additionally, such a measure will help to reduce the emissions from cars on the roads. Many concessionary schemes are already part funded through taxpayers’ money, and full funding of such schemes will benefit local economies rather than hindering them. Rather than allowing the scheme in London to be abolished, we want to see it in place across Britain.

Stand

Interested in standing as a Workers Party of Britain candidate? Read our guide to becoming a local election candidate.

Press

All enquiries can be made to info@workerspartybritain.org or by telephone to our national officer Edward: 07756766215 or in writing to 274 Moseley Road, B12 0BS.