Election Addresses: West

Index
Phil Starr ................................................. pages 2-3 Alan Debenham ...................................... pages 4-5 Phil Davis ............................................... pages 6-7 Mary Southcott ...................................... pages 8-9 No elections address was submitted by Ray Khan. Note: candidates names have been randomised on the ballot paper and in this booklet to minimise any unintentional bias.

Phil Starr is currently Vice Chair of Council with re-

sponsibility for Rodell (which controls our property portfolio). He was Chair of Charter 88 at the time of the formation of UD and was jointly responsible for bringing NPN and Charter together to form UD. I hope you will support me by electing me onto Council. Once again I am standing so that I can complete the reorganisation of Rodell properties which I have been heavily involved in for the past four years. Rodell is vital to UD as it controls our property assets and so generates a substantial part of our income. Extra income from Rodell simply means more political activity for UD. Rodell has come a long way in the last few years. It is now fully integrated with UD, both financially and organisationally. It has a democratically chosen board which meets regularly and is increasingly effective. Property decisions are made by the Rodell Directors who are developing expertise but there are proper processes for feeding back decisions to Council and to take councils views into account. Partly as a result of this, and because we have improved the staffing situation, we now have better maintained buildings and improved cash flow. We are now in a good position to considerably increase our income in the next couple of years. I now want to take steps to increase our asset values for the first time in the organisations history, which will secure a more financially stable future for UD along with increased income.

This is probably an unusual appeal for votes in a political organisation but sound finances are vital to fund our campaigning and Im happy to do the boring bits. Politically my priorities are those activities that reach out to the wider public. Quiet, methodical lobbying is essential but people listen harder to us when we have public support or if decision makes feel we are in a position to affect public opinion. I will be a big supporter of any activities that enable us to reach out to the public. However I see my main role as ensuring we have the best possible resources to campaign whatever direction we decide upon. I am married with two children and live in Somerset. In a varied career I have worked in the electronics industry, became a science teacher and then a property developer. Politically I have been involved many single issue campaigns, mainly about youth issues and the health service before becoming a councillor in Reading, eventually chairing the Community Development Committee and briefly Social Services For Reading Borough Council. I have been actively campaigning on Democratic issues since 1990 and as the then Chair of Charter88 took a major role in setting up Unlock Democracy as a stable campaigning organisation, probably one of the best things I have done. Please feel free to contact me phil.starr@tesco.net 01460 221594 (evenings are best)

Alan Debenham
49 Clifford Avenue, Taunton, Somerset TA2 6DL Tel: 01823 321304 E-mail: alandebenham@hotmail.com I have been a member of the Unlock Democracy Council and its antecedents continuously for over 15 years now and my meetings' attendance record is probably second to none. I originate from Bungay Suffolk,15 miles south of Norwich, but have been living for the past 45 years in Taunton Somerset, where I have spent 6 years on the Taunton Deane District Council from 1973 as a Labour Councillor, followed by 12 years from 1991 as a Green Socialist and latterly Green Party Councillor ( dumped by Labour because of my leading massive local protests against Thatcher's iniquitous Poll Tax ). I am currently a board member of Rodell Properties and now know well its importance and vital contribution to UD's well-being from the inside, also being able to contribute from my long experience of District Council housing and planning and property redevelopment. On the theme of 'real democracy starts at street/parish level' I have spent some 30 years as a Councillor on various local parish councils and various schools' governing bodies. The really sad thing in my area is that for the whole of Taunton Deane there are some 50 parish councils and yet very rarely are there more than ten or a dozen contests for seats at four-yearly election times. I have been a candidate in nearly all local elections for the past 40 years. Equally I have been - since leaving university in 1963 - and still am, active in politics at local, regional and national levels, currently with the Green Party since 1998 and currently fighting hard, from street stalls upwards, to win our first South West MEP in the European elections on May 22nd, where wonderful proportionality rules that we need around 10% of the total vote and where we've been within a whisker of getting there in previous years.

Yet another damn good reason why adoption of PR for general elections and for local government is something which must remain high-up on our UD agenda despite the set-back of the AV referendum three years ago. We must try our hardest to get a fresh commitment from Labour in its coming manifesto for the 2015 showdown to add to what should be certain support from the LibDems and the Greens. I strongly support UD's current strategy and programme, certainly believing the Lobbying Bill was well worth the fight to win a few important battles, despite ending-up losing the war. Our battle for much fairer and more balanced party funding with heavy restrictions on individuals' and companies' donations is something close to my heart ( plus, in my opinion, significant state support ), as is getting at least an 80% elected House of Lords and the achievement of a written constitution. I have been a humanist and a 'co-operator' all of my life, very much supporting the 'third way' of co-operatives and mutual societies. In fact I much support democracy spreading its wings well outside of government into industry, businesses, schools, hospitals, family life, etc.,etc. This is why I have been for many years, and still am, the Honorary Secretary of the Building Societies Members Association, currently fighting a campaign to 'Democratise Nationwide Building Society' with myself trying to stand again as a candidate for the coming board of directors annual elections and trying to get a package of democratising resolutions voted on for the July AGM see www.building-societies-members.org.uk and also currently a board member of the Somerset Co-operative Community Land Trust redeveloping an empty shop in Taunton to provide flats for the needy and shop and office space for co-op enterprises e.g. my local credit union.. I am a long-standing supporter of Red Pepper, CND**, Stop the War, FoE, Oxfam, Water Aid, Soil Association**, Somerset Wildlife, and Uniting for Peace ( ** previous National Council member ). PLEASE VOTE FOR ME AS A VOTE FOR 'GREENERY', LOYALTY AND CONTINUITY .!

PHIL DAVIS

successfully moved the resolution on English devolution at the 2012 AGM. He is a Birmingham councillor and has been active on constitutional and localism issues for over 30 years at community, regional and national level. He has held senior political roles, including Leader of Telford Council, chair of the West Midlands Regional Assembly and chair of Birmingham Community Health NHS Trust. Nationally he sat on the Commission for Integrated Transport, the Local Government Association and the board of Passenger Focus. He chairs West Midlands Voice and the Campaign for the English Regions and was a Charter 88 supporter. He sits on the national executive of the Association of Labour Councillors, but believes strongly in cross-party working on constitutional issues. Unlock Democracy has done an excellent job across a range of campaigning issues, from the need for genuine community localism to Lords reform. With the general election due next year UD should press all political parties for manifesto commitments to constitutional change guaranteeing real devolution to England via its regions and localities.

England is the most centralised democratic country in Europe, with, scandalously, only London granted genuine elected regional government able to tackle the big policy challenges around jobs, transport and strategic planning. With new calls from the North and metropolitan areas for elected regional government, UD is well placed to strengthen its decentralisation message around this democratic deficit. Living in Birmingham, PHIL DAVIS can bring perspectives from the second largest urban area in the country to UD Council, plus extensive political and practical experience of the real issues affecting service delivery to local communities large and small. He can also bring board level public and voluntary sector experience to the management of UDs organisation.

Mary Southcott 077125 11931 (texts) marysouthcott@hotmail.com

I have enjoyed being part of the work of Unlock Democracy in the last two years and believe that its work is vital as we move into the 2015 General Election and beyond. It is for that reason I would like to be involved for this next term only. We need better politics which addresses decentralisation, pluralism, working to ensure that decision-making is more accountable and that assemblies are more representative of the people they are said to represent. I have learned the significance of regulating lobbying, the implications of individual electoral registration and boundary changes, as well as the vital issues of electoral and Lords reform. I like the way that Unlock Democracy goes on being a voice for change, informing its members and encouraging participation. The joint UD/ERS activists day in Birmingham led to the resuscitation of Bristol 4 Democracy which was planned after the failure of the AV Referendum. One of the good things about that referendum was the links with the south west region as a whole, somewhere I learned much about while convenor of the South West Constitutional Convention. Cornwall is lobbying for their unitary authority to be renamed an assembly. We have much to learn too from Wales where people are calling for a written constitution and like England there is a great case for following Scotland down the path to Single Transferable Vote in local government. Working with West Midland members of the Campaign for English Regions, I have supported the work Unlock Democracy is doing on devolution, culminating in a pamphlet.

I feel strongly that votes at 16, which is being tried out in the Referendum on Scottish Independence, is an important part of learning to be a citizen and that school students could be registered at school so no one is lost from the system. Working in inner city Bristol, during the Mayoral and the local elections, I realised how important it is to challenge the drift to non participation in elections but more that the vital act of registration, as encouraged by Bite the Ballot, needs to be explained in Citizenship education in schools or easily accessible to adults. The Labour decision to encourage individual affiliation to the party by trade unionists ought to be the prelude to dealing with political finance and capping the amount that can be spent nationally as well as locally. I continue to work with the Labour Campaign for Electoral Reform for constitutional reform, specifically moving away from first past the post, but also with Labour 4 Democracy for a change of political culture which makes it possible to work with parties and people from different traditions on individual projects aimed at solving problems which can often only be achieved working together. I am supporting submissions to the Better Politics Labour policy document so that Labours manifesto enables legislation on the uncompleted demands of Charter 88 and worked with others to evolve specific policies Labour should be discussing especially to work with and inform Stephen Twigg in his pivotal role in the lead up to and in the aftermath of the general election. In trying to discover the electoral reformers in the Class of 15 Labour candidates, we add to the chances of forming a Labour or Labour-led government committed to improving our Democracy.