Vote Labour and Co-operative on May 3rd

I am please to announce that I will be standing for election to Wokingham Borough Council on May 3rd as the Labour and Co-operative candidate for Finchampstead North.

Some people may be unfamiliar with the term 'Labour and Co-operative'. The Labour Party formed in 1900, and the Co-operative Party in 1917. By 1927 it was clear that they had more in common than they had differences, and they agreed to work together. Since the 1930s, all Co-operative candidates have stood as "Labour and Co-operative", and are endorsed by both parties.

So, what do we believe in?

• We believe that people achieve more by working together than they can by working alone.
• We support the efforts of those who seek success through that co-operative endeavour.
• We believe that the only way to create a just and fair society is through power being spread evenly throughout society, and not arbitrarily based on wealth, class, gender or race.
• We work to promote co-operatives and all forms of mutual organisation.

Labour has always stood up for normal people in the work place. The Co-operative party look to organisations such as John Lewis, Building Societies and of course, the Co-operatives, and asked if there are not many more companies that would benefit from a mutual model.

The Co-operative movement has been at the forefront of bringing Fairtrade to the high street. We believe that workers should receive a fair standard of living regardless of the country they are in. We can no longer feed our children cheap chocolate and turn a blind eye to the children working in slavery that produce it.

Since the early days of the Co-operative movement, Co-operators such as Robert Owen have been involved in education. Since Ed Balls, himself a Labour and Co-operative MP, introduced co-operative trust schools, more than 100 such schools have been set up and are serving their communities. But our current government has opened the flood-gates to big business running our schools, and soon we will see more schools run by multi-nationals than are run by Co-operatives. It's time we took a stand and insisted that the government listened to the electorate. The vast majority of people do not want the changes to education and the health service that this government have introduced. The most effective way we have of expressing our displeasure is through the ballot box; and that is why I am asking you to vote Labour and Co-operative on May 3rd.