BRADFORD WEST: Candidates' statements

I am the Parliamentary Candidate for the UK Independence Party in the Bradford West constituency.

I was educated in Bradford and originally came here with my father in 1967 as an 11-year-old.

Having completed my secondary education I went on to join the Royal Navy in 1973, where my shipmates decided to call me by the name ‘Harry’ early on in my training. 

I have been known as ‘Harry Boota’ by everyone for over four decades. 

I retired from the Royal Navy as a Chief Petty Officer in 1996.

I have returned to Bradford for this General Election, however, I am not sure whether it is me that is choosing Bradford or that Bradford is choosing me! 

Whichever way, I am delighted to be here and looking forward to representing Bradford West in Parliament if successful.

What is it that I can bring to the people of Bradford? Well I am a bit of a visionary, who believes that the only way forward is for all communities to come together and work for the betterment of Bradford. 

The recent economic decline of this city can only be halted with the influx of fresh business investment - we need to help Bradford return to the greatness it once enjoyed.

I hope the people of Bradford West will put their trust in me to prove myself to them.

There's a great line attributed to Groucho Marx, which could almost sum up politicians and what people think about them. “These are my principles... if you don’t like them I have others.” 

I don’t think even my enemies could accuse me of altering my beliefs to catch the prevailing wind. I say what I mean and mean what I say. 

I believe in the welfare state and what it gave me and so many others, not just of my generation but up to the present day. 

Now that is in clear and present danger.

We want to bequeath a better world to our children, for them to be healthier than us, better educated, better off than we were. 

Can anyone really say that’s the likely future for the kids born and growing up today? 

The NHS is under threat of increasing privatisation, privatisation started by New Labour, tuition fees are hobbling those who want to go to university – introduced by Labour and tripled by the Tories – and education fulfilment in Bradford is at an all-time low. 

Our school results are second worst in the country. 

Unemployment here is almost twice the national average. 

Then there is austerity. 

Working people have suffered for the crimes of the bankers while the rich have got richer and the number of billionaires has doubled in five years.

I believe I have been a big voice for Bradford and for the principles that most of us share. 

If elected I will be once more.

THE central priority for any good MP in Bradford has to be economic growth and individual empower-ment. 

These are the foundations on which so much else that we value in our society is built. 

It is not the Government that pays for our hospitals, schools, police and social services, it is individual taxpayers. A weak economy and high unemployment is not just bad for individuals, it is bad for our country because it makes it so much more difficult to pay for the services on which we all, at some point, depend. 

If elected your MP in May, I will make economic growth and job-creation the centre-point of my focus. I want to start by campaigning for an expansion in the size and scope of the Bradford City Centre Growth Zone, a joint Government-Council initiative which to date has helped bring hundreds of new jobs and dozens of new businesses to our city, including the long-awaited Westfield shopping centre. 

I also want to focus on how we deliver our public services in Bradford. Integrating healthcare services to ensure patients are properly supported both in and out of hospital is a welcome reform that must be supported to continue.

I’m also encouraged by improvements to education in Bradford, especially at the secondary level, though there is clearly a great deal further to go. 

Whatever your personal circumstances might be, I want you to know I will do my very best to represent you, and this city, as your MP.

I came to Bradford in 1984 to take up my post as a GP in Little Horton, and have lived and worked in Bradford West for nearly all of the subsequent 30 years. 

I am passionately committed to the NHS, and through its many reorganisations I have worked with the local NHS management to make sure it continues to provide the quality service Bradford’s citizens need and deserve. 

The Liberal Democrats were the first party to commit to the £8 billion identified by Sir Simon Stevens as needed and are still the only party to identify where that essential funding will come from. Under Liberal Democrats in Government unemployment in Bradford has fallen and much needed investment has been brought into Bradford’s economy. 

We have delivered an £825 tax cut to hundreds of thousands of people in Bradford, taking thousands of workers out of tax completely. 

We have made sure pensioners have got, and will continue to get, record increases.

Liberal Democrats have ensured that the Government has funded free child care for many parents of pre-school children, and will extend this. 

We have delivered the ‘Pupil Premium’ bringing additional funding into schools to support the most disadvantaged and provided a free hot school meal for thousands of children. 

We have delivered many more apprenticeships and more young people from Bradford, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds, are going to university.

I AM contesting the Bradford West seat as a Green Party candidate because I want to address the dreadful rise in poverty in our district which has been unequally hit by the draconian austerity measures of the Coalition government. 

In some wards of our fine city half of all children are growing up in absolute poverty; a fact that is plain wrong in 21st century Britain, the world’s sixth richest nation.

This deprivation impacts upon a child’s life chances and educational attainment which is another area that needs attention in Bradford. 

Our old housing stock leaks heat and fuel poverty is a big problem for Bradfordians. The Green Party will spend £9billion on insulation and renewable energy programmes that will help keep fuel bills down and help those in most need keep warm and fed. Our transport systems are outdated, polluting and inefficient. 

We need to invest in sustainable transport solutions whose profits go to improving services not to line the pockets of wealthy shareholders. Our NHS needs additional investment to maintain and improve services; it is not broken and does not need the ‘help’ of the private sector. 

Our universities are the envy of the world and we need to invest in the leaders of the future, not stifle them with massive debt; we will restore maintenance grants and remove tuition fees for students. 

As a nation we need to consider climate change in everything we do; it will not go away if we just ignore it. Vote Green.

WHY the English Democrats? 

We believe in putting the people of England first, and so differ from Ukip, and all the other parties. 
The English Democrats call for an independent England, separate from the United Kingdom, and a withdrawal from the European Union. 

This will create jobs – not cost jobs – as this will enable us to trade with countries whose economies are expanding while trade within the EU is decreasing. 

This would save the English a staggering £58 billion-plus, and more every year.

The Conservatives plan to cut welfare by a further £12 billion; this will hit the most vulnerable in society, more so in Bradford, which has some of the poorest levels of social deprivation in the UK, with unemployment in parts of the district at 25 per cent.

Due to the Barnett formula about £12 billion of extra public expenditure goes to Scotland each year. 

This has meant free tuition fees, smaller class sizes, higher pay for teachers, and free prescription drugs. 
A new fairer system is needed to improve our public services – not cut public services - in England. 

We believe in cultural diversity but not at the expense of creating parallel societies, which do not share our traditions and our values and who want to change our culture.

With our population set to rise to 70 million we are committed to reducing net migration and creating a fairer, points-based system, as in Australia and Canada.

I HAVE been a cleaner, a university lecturer, a school-teacher, a factory worker, an academic, a carer for the mentally ill, a doorman, and a martial arts teacher, and the list does not stop there. 

Right now I am a full-time house dad and an ardent political activist. 

I want to help build a genuine participatory democratic society that can meet the huge challenges we face with respects to climate change, while also engaging with all those issues we experience locally. 

I advocate a practical politics where specific issues and projects to solve them takes precedence over meaningless Westminster policy debates. 

If elected I would:

One, implement a ‘liquid democracy’ and other participatory systems so that you can direct me on how you wish me to vote in parliament. 

Two, I would establish a community fund and use such democratic participatory systems to help us all decide how to spend it. 

Three, I would fight for the establishment of a ‘community farms for schools project’, with a view to expanding it so that Bradford and indeed the rest of Yorkshire can feed itself. 
Four, I would fight for a ‘park and ride’ public transport service in Bradford so that we can deal with the traffic pollution harming and killing us and our children. 
Five, I would deal with this perception of political protection for powerful criminal interests and support the WYPCC in advocating that proceeds of crime stay local.

I’M proud to be standing to represent the great city of Bradford. 

I was born here, I live here, I work here and it’s where I’ve raised my children, who go to school here. 
It’s a great privilege to call this city my home. 

I’m not standing in this election as a career politician - I’m standing as a grassroots community campaigner who knows how to get things done and who will always fight for local families. 

Bradford West needs an MP who will be a strong voice. 

If I’m elected I’ll open a fully staffed office in Bradford West with weekly advice surgeries. 

I’ll be a strong presence across the whole constituency and I’ll stick up for all of our communities, instead of trying to divide them. 

We’re a young city with so much talent. 

Labour has a better plan for Bradford that will give our young people the best start, help working families, get tough on crime and protect our NHS. 

The next Labour government will guarantee a job or training for young people, paid for by taxing bankers’ bonuses. 

We’ll help working families by freezing energy bills and raising the minimum wage to more than £8, and we’ll protect our NHS with 20,000 more nurses and 8,000 more doctors - paid for with a mansion tax.

Bradford deserves a strong local voice fighting for families here and a Labour government which puts working people first. 

I will always stand up for Bradford.