Hello Elspeth and Kizzy,
We hope you don't mind our replying together - Simon, my husband, is standing for the Green Party in Priory Vale, and I am standing again where we live, here in Wroughton (Wroughton & Wichelstowe Ward). I think your system must have scrambled my name somewhat - I'm Talis Kimberley-Fairbourn, not Kimberley Fairbourn-Talis! :-) It happens.
I stood for the Greens in the General Election last year as well, and anyone who heard me at a hustings event will, I hope, realise that I am as angry and outraged as anyone by the growing inequality in our society. Simon stood in the local election last year for Haydon Wick.
As Green Party members, we are glad to support a great many of the Party's national policies whose intent is to reduce this inequality, including the repeal of the 'Bedroom Tax', the cessation of the appalling 'sanctions' which leave so many of our most vulnerable destitute and homeless, the Citizens' Income, which is now being taken seriously as a concept by other progressive parties, and so on.
On a personal basis, I have been heard to say 'I joined the Greens for the environmentalism and stayed for the social justice'. Environmentalism is very much connected to equality, as access to clean water, nutritious food, breathable air, habitable housing (We rent out a property as landlords, and would be *ashamed* to rent anything that was not fit for people to live in!) and so on are increasingly difficult for the poorest and most vulnerable in our society.
The closure of Childrens' Centres, libraries and other beneficial facilities, the privatisation of the NHS and the fire sale of other national institutions, which enrich all our lives and are a lifeline to those with fewest resources, is another indictment on the current set of decision-makers. We must suppose that the Government wants a world where the super-rich pay no tax, and employ the poor at subsistence levels, and there are no social programmes, no commonly-held facilities at all. That seems to be their goal, and we oppose it with every bone that's in us. We have to be better than that, for the old, the sick, the homeless, the disabled, and for those who will follow and judge us.
Warmest wishes
Talis Kimberley-Fairbourn
Swindon Area Green Party candidate (Wroughton & Wichelstowe)
&
Simon Fairbourn
Swindon Area Green Party candidate (Priory Vale)