Cllr Simon Williams, Brighton Kemp Town, Green Party

Link / contact details for potential supporters

www.simonwilliamsforwestminster.com

i.
what do you think is the most important issue in this election?

Tony Blair, his monopoly on power and lack of trust and accountability - alongside climate change and poor investment in public services.

ii. why did you make the decision to stand in this constituency and for this  party (as an independent)?

I want to offer Brighton voters a progressive radical agenda to voters who are tired of the old 'Hobson's choice' of the three Westminster parties.

iii. what kind of vote are you expecting on May 5th?

In size? Greens beat Labour across the whole city of Brighton and Hove last year in the Euro election and we won outright the next-door Brighton
Pavilion seat so the election is anyone's guess.  I'm stealing voters of all the Westminster parties and building up a big vote in inner Brighton.
No predictions, though, on the result.

iv.
aside from the vote what are you hoping to get out of this campaign?

I'm a 'Red-Green': I want to reach out to people who have not traditionally felt close to the Green and environmental agenda via social justice issues.

I want to fly the flag of social justice: equal rights for all - especially Brighton's diverse communities  - including the large lesbian and gay community in Kemp Town.

Labour has put the lesbian and gay community at the back of the 'equality queue' - their own Equality Bill does not even mention this community.
This piecemeal approach to equalities breaches human rights.

v. in your view what is the greatest threat to our civil liberties at the moment?

There are several ID Card Bill.  This will return to Parliament if either of two big parties win power.   In a sense the problem is not the ID card
system itself but our poor safeguards for its operation.  We have no entrenched Bill of Rights in this country unlike most of the European
States who have ID cards now.

Most worryingly, it will provide an 'operating platform' for a more reactionary Government at a future date to further erode our civil liberties.  It is really bad news whatever the complacent Daily Mail-reading classes might think.


vi. Blair has taken us to war three times since coming to power (not including the occasional ad hoc bombing raid) in the Balkans, Afghanistan
and Iraq. Can war ever be justified?

It would be dishonest for me to say I would never support military action in any situation because there could be situations when self-defence would be the only option such as an attack on the UK by an invading power.

But that is quite different from the scenarios Blair has faced.  He has proactively and unquestioningly led our country into conflicts to defend
American interests and international big business which we need not have become involved in.

vii.
There is very little left to privatise in this country, if you had your say  what would be brought into public hands?

At minimum, I want the renationalisation of the train operating companies to sit alongside Network Rail; I would also press for the
renationalisation of the utility companies - especially the water industry and the national grid.  These are too important to be in then hands of
private (and often overseas) shareholders.


I want a genuine 'fourth option' for council housing (not housing association, arms-length management or PFI!) so that council  tenants can
live in high investmenent, public and democratically-controlled housing - not big social housing associations who are remote from tenants' needs.

I also want an end to all Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contracts were public property is funded through mortgaging to private financiers at
unfavourable interest and with restrictions on how the services operate. e.g. PFI libraries and schools

viii.
Some environmental campaigners have started talking about nuclear power as a  way to bring down CO2 emissions - what do you think of this?

A non-starter: nuclear power is not a Green option as far as I am concerned. Let's reduce our energy needs first. Have these people ever
seen a nuclear power station?  They're not nice things.

ix.
Asylum and immigration will be central issues in this election. What action on this issue would you like to see the next government push
through?

A fair immigration system alongside an non-discriminatory and efficient asylum-seeker application system.  I'm not dwelling on this as this
question follows the Tory and Daily Mail agenda.

x.
What question do you wish was on this list but doesn't appear?

Why are progressive left people still in the Labour Party?  

They've no hope of overturning the pro-Bush capitalists controlling their party.  They should follow the lead of former Labour party member Peter Tatchell and join us.

Greens offer social justice and environmental balance with growing electoral success.  (I should know as I’m a city councillor with a big
1,000 vote majority).

 

2005