An Election Statement

VOTE THE SOCIALIST PARTY

An election statement from the prospective socialist candidate for the constituency of Brighton Pavilion:

Voters of Brighton, you are needed like never before. Unlike other candidates I am asking you to do more than just put an X on a piece of paper: I am also asking you to think. Additionally I am hoping you will act. Most of what you have been and will be told about this election is spin and nonsense: you are being given various cocktails of deceit to numb you and keep things pretty much as they are. PR + politics = lying on an industrial scale. The truth is that the present is bleak, and the future more so... except for a lucky few.

My first ask of you is to give 5 minutes to the question as to why most of us have got worse off during the past 6 years whereas the top 1% have become wealthier. Look at the situation around you: A & E crises; unaffordable rents; zero hours contracts; student debt; little or nothing in the way of pay rises for ages...Looks bleak to me. And most of the politicians are offering more tough medicine to come. This sits alongside companies that pay little or no tax on increasing earnings; rich individuals who pay little or no tax on huge incomes; and fat cats getting huge bonuses and large pay rises. Ever thought things were unbalanced?

Look at the horizon: on the economy yet more austerity – some say the worst of the cuts are yet to come, yet more pain to the vast majority. On the environment impending disaster. We have had 20+ years of global discussions and it has got us nowhere nearer doing anything substantial in protecting the environment. In fact in some respects we have gone backwards: as the consensus amongst those who know (the climate scientists) has consolidated that we have caused climate change and it is getting worse, so fewer of the public believe it or even seem to care. My second ask is to get you to think why the experts – and they ARE experts – and the public are so far apart on this one.

So that’s a glimpse of the context of the forthcoming election. And so why am I standing in the election? What do I offer that’s so different? Firstly there is nothing in this for me beyond what is in it for you. Let’s face it: I know I will not be elected – I realise I am too far from most people – but I do hope to sow seeds. The most important seed is THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE. Secondly, most of the electoral offer, and certainly all the main parties, will offer to work within the set up as it is: they accept the dominance of the market system. Some will claim their brand of regulation will curtail any excess, and they will make the markets work for you. Few – I might well be alone here – want to abolish this system altogether. What does this tell us about the election? It means most of the people you can vote for want power to stay pretty much where it is.

I, however, want it transferred to you. I think the current capitalist system is criminal, but somehow we have all got used to it and have become blind to its cockeyed nature. To an outside observer it would appear bizarre. Imagine a friendly visitor from another planet came here. They note how resourceful how planet is – how there is plenty – and ask how we organise things. The reply is that the best arrangement we can think of is to take half of what we have and give it to 1% of the population, at the same time as letting millions starve. We do this because we believe these very rich people need much much more than everyone else, because they alone are the wealth creators: we are useless without them. We would not be lying to say this.

I for one cannot accept this is the best way to run things: I do not believe this self-serving rubbish for an instant. I cannot accept there is no alternative to a system that runs most things to the benefit of vested interests. I think we probably do not need these fat cats at all. Most people I meet are talented and more importantly it is the workers who create the wealth, so it should be ours to share. This is why I am a socialist. This is why I stand on a platform calling for the abolition of capitalism. So what I am asking you to do is to really think about whether you believe this world is the best that we can offer our fellow humans and our children; whether you really believe this is as good as it gets.

I want you to look again at what you are being told in this election and ask who it really serves: who really stands to benefit from what is on offer? As this dying ConDem government tears up the remnants of the welfare state and sticks up two fingers to the environment, your reflection is needed like never before. If you vote for me you are signalling that you too wish things to change: it is a vote which says you want your share of power, and you want the same for everyone.

You CAN vote Howard Pilott, Socialist Party of Great Britain on May 7.